SAN DIEGO — Three years ago, a quirky right-hander little known outside the Orient flew into San Diego, pitched Japan to the World Baseball Classic title and became the biggest import from Asia since Sony.
But if you think Daisuke Matsuzaka was special, wait until you see the upgrade.
Yu Darvish is younger, taller, throws harder, locates better and has seven devastating pitches that would instantly make him a top-of-the-rotation major league starter.
"I could write my scouting report in one word," said a scout from a National League team who didn't want other organizations to know he was scouting the pitcher. "Stud."
Problem is, Darvish, who will start for Japan against rival South Korea tonight in a second-round game of the WBC in San Diego, says he has no intention of playing in the United States any time soon. And that has U.S. baseball people frustrated.
"He's outstanding," Florida Marlins scout Orrin Freeman said. "He's got velocity. He's got pinpoint control. Very good motion. Looks like he'll be able to eat up innings.
"He's close to a finished product at 22."
You'll get no argument from Japan, where Darvish is 48-19 with a 2.33 earned-run average in four seasons with the Nippon Ham Fighters of Sapporo. Last summer, in a season interrupted by the Olympics, he was 16-4 with a 1.88 ERA and 208 strikeouts in 200 2/3 innings.
And if that's not enough, he has thrown complete games in nearly a third of his starts and won two consecutive gold gloves.
"I think he can be the best in the world," his former manager, Trey Hillman, told an Asian newspaper. And Hillman, who now manages the Kansas City Royals, hasn't even seen Darvish in more than a year.
Darvish would be a compelling figure even if he wasn't 6 feet 5 and able to throw a baseball more than 95 mph.
His Japanese mother met his Iranian businessman father at Eckerd College in Florida, where the father played soccer. Darvish is known in his father's homeland by the Arabic name Farid, which means unique.
He fits the bill. Several major league teams, including the Dodgers and Angels, started watching him even before he entered high school. By the time he was a senior at Tohoku High, the same school that produced former Dodgers All-Star Takashi Saito, he was on every team's radar.
