You know how catchers paint their fingernails so their signs are more visible and how they run out to the mound to clear up any mixed signals? Yeah, that’s when the pitcher in question can throw three or four pitches. Maybe five. Yu Darvish has more than twice that, according to Chris Gimenez.
“Six of the 11 are different fastballs that he throws,” Gimenez told Gordon Wittenmyer (lots of solid info there, so check it out). “When I first started catching him, his interpreter at the time came up to me and said, `This is what he throws: this, this, this, this and this.