Thanks to a stress reaction -- a precursor to a fracture -- in his elbow, Cubs starter Yu Darvish is done for the season. It was a bad first year of Darvish's six-year deal with the Cubs. He was mostly ineffective when he wasn't hurt. 

Due to only initially being diagnosed with a triceps injury, and people not understanding that pitchers aren't good when hurt, some questioned Darvish's toughness as he attempted to work back from the injury. It's completely unfair, but, hey, life ain't fair, or so the saying goes. 

Earlier this week, Darvish revealed his side of the story in a blog post. It's in Japanese, but a fine fellow on the Internet has translated it: 

Please read the full text there if interested. You can click through for enlarged versions and there are four pages. The basic takeaways: 

  • Darvish has pitched through pain in the past, but this time the pain was far greater than he's used to.
  • He knew all along there was something worse than simply a triceps issue, but his MRI when he initially went on the DL didn't show anything (we've heard in recent days stress reactions are hard to find). 
  • The day after his five-inning rehab start in June, the pain was so big that he couldn't even soft toss. 
  • People questioning his toughness bothered him. 
  • During his most recent rehab appearance, the significant pain from his first one returned and that's why he requested another MRI. That's when the stress reaction was found. 
  • He regrets not asking for an MRI after his first rehab start.
  • He says he's going to come back stronger than ever. 

Unfortunately, a decent segment of baseball fandom and some media will continue to question Darvish's toughness until he comes back and pitches well. That's just the way it goes with some people. 

For me, the bottom line is I'm not going to judge a player who is injured. The game is hard enough to play when healthy. Hopefully Darvish comes back strong next season and shuts the naysayers up. 

Hat-tip: Bleacher Nation