Rangers Happy With Yu's Development

Yu Darvish ran into a little bit of trouble in his fourth start of the spring, but neither Darvish nor his coaches have been discouraged by what they’ve seen as Darvish settles in with his new team. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"I think he has improved each time out,” pitching coach Mike Maddux said recently, per the Dallas Morning News. “We tried to do some things (against a Rangers minor league on Sunday) and they jumped on it. We're working on the sinker sequencing. We wanted to see if it a part of his game. We've still got some work to do. But I was really pleased with him."

All told, Darvish threw 85 pitches on Sunday, striking out 11 and surrendering four runs, all of which came in the fourth inning of the intrasquad match-up. Afterward, Darvish said that he was working on spotting up with his fastball and his sinker, the latter of which is reportedly pretty nasty when Darvish is on.

"I was not unhappy with how I pitched," Darvish said. "I was trying to work on the sinker. That's a pitch that we've all said I'll really need. I'm not worried that much about the movement, but more about throwing it for strikes. I'm still progressing. I'm still polishing my delivery."