Differing circumstances for pitching pair not toiling on opposite sides of Chi

Yu Darvish is the Japanese/Iranian star ballplayer whom the Chicago Cubs picked up for this season – expecting him to be a star pitcher who helps the North Side ballclub get back to a second World Series in three years.

One-time Japanese star; now just a Cub

Instead, he’s become the 2018 baseball bust for Chicago – no wins and three losses in six games he’s pitched, with an awful earned run average of 6.00 thus far.

ADMITTEDLY, IT’S STILL early in the 2018 season (not quite one quarter of the way through a 162-game schedule), but now he’s on the disabled list. And for something that is bound to make him the subject of mockery from many a true baseball fan.

Yu has the flu.

Yes, Darvish missed his Tuesday start against the Miami Marlins after being diagnosed by a doctor with the parainfluenza virus. Which is the way the Cubs made sure to word it on their official statement confirming that Darvish is now on the 10-day disabled list – retroactive to Monday.

We won’t see Darvish pitch again this week or early next. We definitely won’t see him pitch when the Chicago White Sox make their annual trip Friday through Sunday to the North Side ballpark for an interleague series.

OF COURSE, WE’RE not going to see Danny Farquhar pitch either. In fact, we won’t see him pitch again at all during 2018.

But unlike Darvish who has the flu and (admittedly) probably feels a little bit drowsy and has nausea, Farquhar has a much more serious condition to cope with.

Farquhar is the ballplayer last month who was pitching for the White Sox and collapsed in the team dugout.

Could he be back for 2019?

Rushed to the Rush University Medical Center (located not far from the site of the original West Side Grounds where the Cubs used to play ball more than a century ago), he was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured brain aneurysm.

BUT WE LEARNED this week that Farquhar was released from the hospital and is now resting at home with family.

The bad news is that his neurosurgeon says he has therapy to undergo in coming months, and that he’s through playing baseball for 2018.

But the statement the White Sox issued also made sure to say that the neurosurgeon believes there’s a good chance that Farquhar someday will take to a pitcher’s mound and play baseball again.

As in he could be back for Spring Training of 2019 in Glendale Heights, Ariz. He could be back with the White Sox at some point when all the supposedly star prospects will have developed and could be a part of a contending Chicago White Sox ball club.

THE POSITIVE SPIN for Danny is that he may miss out on a 2018 season that, in all likelihood, is going to be one of drudgery on the Sout’ Side of Chicago – a .281 winning percent and fewer than 10 victories during the season as of Tuesday.

If (and when) that day comes when Farquhar is called upon by the White Sox to pitch, I’m sure it will be a moment of a great emotional joy for fans everywhere (except, of course, for those deluded enough to root, root, root for the Cubbies).

Perhaps it is one of the reasons why I’m finding the White Sox more appealing, even in this particular era when the Cubs are deluding themselves into thinking they’re a ball club of historic significance like the New York Yankees and some fans are buying into the hype that it will be interesting to see how the Farquhar saga plays out.

Won't see either Danny or Yu this weekend at Wrigley

As opposed to the Cubs, whose “big money” pitcher is missing some ballgames because he has a headache and “the sniffles.”

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