Nolan Ryan's A Fan Of Darvish's Slider

In our recap of Yu Darvish’s Rangers’ debut in Peoria, Az. yesterday,  we made mention of Darvish’s slider which, once he got command of it, looked pretty nasty. And it turns out, we weren’t the only ones impressed by the pitch.

Rangers president and general manager Nolan Ryan said after the performance, which saw Darvish strike out three and surrender two hits over two innings, that he had been impressed--particularly by the slider.

"My impressions were that he threw the ball well," Ryan said, per the Dallas Morning News. "The slider was a very good pitch. For the first time out, I was very pleased"

The Morning News’ Evan Grant writes today that Darvish threw the slider ten times against the Padres’, eight times for a strike. The only two instances where he missed with it came against leadoff man Cameron Maybin in the first inning, after which he settled in.