SURPRISE, Ariz. — Texas right-hander Yu Darvish is starting to find his footing with the Rangers.
The $60-million man spent Monday bobbing his head to reggae music in the clubhouse, speaking in Spanish with teammate Elvis Andrus and having his best throwing session yet.
He even joked with the media that he was throwing at 120 percent in practice.
Maybe the key to all of that was getting used to the L-screen the Rangers use when they throw batting practice to hitters. It's not something Darvish did in Japan, but it's something the Rangers do.
He wasn't comfortable with it in his first two throwing sessions but an adjustment he made in the placement of the screen Monday made a difference. He was sharp in his 34-pitch session against five Texas minor leaguers.
"It (the ball) felt good coming out of my hand, the way my body worked it was very good," Darvish said. "The first two times having that L-screen was a little uncomfortable. Today I kind of made an adjustment so the window was a little bit wider. I got a better view and felt very good throwing today."
Next week Darvish won't be using the screen at all as the club announced its rotation for spring training. Darvish will make his first spring start March 7 against San Diego in Peoria. He's scheduled to throw two innings. The Rangers have added that game to their webcast schedule, and the start will also be shown live on television in Japan.
If he looks anything like he did Monday, it will make for must-see TV.
"Quality," Rangers manager Ron Washington said in his assessment. "He had good run on the fastball, a tight slider and nice breaking ball. He had to throw a few splits before he got the feel for it, but once he got the feel for it, it was nice also."
Darvish, who addressed the media for the second time in spring training, said he wasn't trying to focus on a particular pitch in the session. He said he felt like he had better command Monday because he felt more comfortable with the screen in front of him.
"I was more concerned how my body worked and how I felt and taking that from last time," Darvish said. "I was very satisfied with how it worked today."
While the Japanese media contingent following Darvish in Surprise has shrunk, he did have another set of eyes watching him throw Monday. Masataka Nashida, who managed Darvish in Japan for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, watched Darvish throw in the bullpen and batting practice.
"The bullpen session was not as good as I thought," Nashida said. "As for live BP facing the batters, it seems like he had more stuff than in the bullpen session. He doesn't like to pitch with the net (L-screen) in front of him. He's not used to that. He's never used that in Japan."
L-screen or not, the hitters Darvish faced had nothing but praise for his performance. Darvish still hasn't thrown to any of the Texas regulars as pitching coach Mike Maddux determines who he faces.
Both Mike Bianucci and Vincent DiFazio came away impressed.
"Every pitch that he throws has pretty good movement," said DiFazio, who didn't face anyone of Darvish's caliber in 2011 at Class A Myrtle Beach. "Everything's late. Very impressive."
Bianucci, who hit 30 homers for Frisco last year, would have liked to have been the first batter to hit a BP homer off Darvish.
"It would have been great to do it but with a guy with movement like that you're just trying to put a good swing on it," he said. "Especially with him, he's not going to make too many mistakes where you can hit a ball out of the ballpark."
What impressed both hitters the most was Darvish's ability to mix pitches. Bianucci got a slider-breaking ball combo that fooled him. It was a sinker-splitter combo for DiFazio.
Even though Darvish hasn't thrown more than 100 pitches combined in his three batting practice sessions, he feels like he's on target for March 7.
"To me, I have no problems," Darvish said. "Even from the start I'm not the type to make a lot of quantity number of pitches. That type of practice method fits my needs."
