I'll pass, there's nothing on the videos that I've seen that makes him any better than Dice-K and we all saw how Dice-K's breaking pitches took a step back here with the different baseball and all that, and Yu's best pitch is his curveball. Besides there's really no indication that he'll be posted at all other than the author on this article speculating, he's probably a few years away.

I'm sorry, but that guy looks incredible. He's 21, remember that, he's already hitting the mid 90's and his FB has some very good movement (especially up in the zone... filthy up in the zone) and command. That Curve is also better than I've ever seen Matsuzaka's as well and the changeup looks excellent with great deception and movement low in the zone (can't tell the mph difference yet). He's got great fluid mechanics with an incredible frame to dream on. You're not comparing Darvish to Matsuzaka when both were 21 is my guess, Darvish still has some growing to do, but the stuff combined with the polish at that age with even more projection is a very rare thing. To me you're looking at a Prior-esque talent here (As in Prior was considered one of the best pitching talents to be drafted). Sure he might take another 4 years to be posted, but the bottom line is that guy is definately a #1 pitching possiblity in the bigs right now, and the second he becomes available its going to be a huge chase for his services.

Also, just because Dice has had issues with his breaking pitches doesn't mean this is some huge Japanese pitcher coming to the MLB pandemic. Darvish's size, 6'5 (and reportedly his hand size), adds to the likelihood that the breaking pitch issue is not too likely to effect him vs. Matsu who is 5'11-6'0. Bottom line,

His game speeds are typically 90-93 (with the 2 seamer being the lower values) but its widely known that he can touch mid 90's, that's something you might not see in the videos all the time. As for control numbers, yes Japanese pitchers seem to be consistently worse with their command in coming over. One thing you'll notice with those videos is that Japanese hitters are much, MUCH more aggressive and undisciplined. It's like watching a bunch of Vlad Guerrero's without the great hitting, they flail at stuff a good foot outside. But that's not the important thing, what's important is that his mechanics and stuff are very good and that he's hitting those spots, even though they are off the plate. It's probably really hard for a pitcher to pitch off the plate so much and then come over and throw in the zone as much as typical American pitchers. However its not to say that just because Matsuzaka hasn't made the transition yet, that A) He won't, or B) That Darvish wont. Especially since Darvish repeats his mechanics much better than Matsuzaka and despite all the video I've watched I've never seen the guy open up early like Matsu does at least one inning every game. You have to account for comparables of course, but you can't be led by them over what kind of stuff a guy has, especially this early in his career.

Of course no one knows when he'll come over, it might be 4 years, but then again how is that so different then following high school kids here? They might go to college, they'll take awhile through the minors, isnt it 4-5 years until they come to the bigs too? Like I said before, that guy is very reminiscent of prior coming out of USC at the same age.