While nothing rookie Javier Assad did screamed "superstar ability" he did show flashes of real upside in his Major League debut against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Assad showed off a go-to secondary pitch with his cutter right from the start. When you look at some of the other arms in the Chicago Cubs rotation there is a consistent theme of two or three-pitch type guys.
Drew Smyly is mostly a four-seam and curveball pitcher with a sprinkle of cutters. Justin Steele is mostly a fastball-slider pitcher. Not everyone can be Marcus Stroman and have four or five pitches they can throw. Having one go-to is a good sign especially when Assad has shown more of his full arsenal in the minors.
Assad threw his cutter 30 times on Tuesday, the most of any pitch including both his sinker and four-seam fastball. He showed a willingness to throw it in any situation. To start an at-bat, getting ahead, or even behind in the count.
A pitch that should easily play off of his cutter is his sinker. Assad showed signs of a sinker with excellent movement including a strikeout looking to Albert Pujols (and a generous call).
This combination should primarily favor him against lefties since it's much harder to pick up an in-breaking cutter and an out-breaking sinker. He should be able to generate some easy ground ball outs from this combination.
Another interesting pitch combination is his four-seam fastball and curveball. While Assad only threw his curveball eight times he showed off a classic 12-6 dropdown beauty against Lars Nootbaar.
With his four-seam fastball, there's decent spin at around 2200 revolutions per minute (rpm) and the movement to throw an effective fastball up in the zone despite the drop in velocity.
A good example from a different Cubs pitcher is Keegan Thompson, he can throw his four-seam high in the zone to play off his tight curveball down to create vertical deception. Smyly also does this too with his fastball and curveball combination.
While there are some definite criticisms of his performance like his four walks in four inning, it is still good to see flashes of real Major League stuff. There is still a lot of time for the young right-hander learn, but it is something he will need to do if he hopes to stick in the majors.
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