NEWSLETTER
Like we discussed before yesterday’s game, Javier Assad wasn’t really even necessarily supposed to BE in the Cubs rotation to start the year.
Did we expect him to get plenty of chances before the end of the season, swinging in and out of the bullpen along the way? Yeah, absolutely. In that respect, he’s kind of an ideal 6th starter/swing-man. But as of today — with injuries to both Jameson Taillon and Justin Steele — Assad is actually in the fourth slot of the Cubs rotation. Lucky for us, for at least one more start, Assad carried over the success he had at the end of last season.
It was just the Rockies, who look as bad as any team out there so far, but Javier Assad was fantastic last night, earning his first quality start of the year: 6.0 IP, 4H, 0ER, 1BB, 5K.
And as Chris Kamka pointed out on Twitter, Assad’s performance helped the Cubs make a little bit of funky history last night:
It’s happened only twice in the last 124 years … and it’s each of the last two years.
Assad’s relatively lengthy performance also came at a perfect time for the Cubs, considering that tonight’s finale will be a bullpen game for Chicago started by reliever Luke Little. Between Assad’s six innings on Tuesday, Shota Imanaga’s six innings on Monday, and the off-day tomorrow, the Cubs pitching staff is not actually in an awful position ahead of a tough three-game series against the Dodgers this weekend. That was far from a guarantee just a few nights ago.
In case you missed his actual outing, here’s a quick visual on Javier Assad’s performance against the Colorado Rockies on a cold and windy night at Wrigley Field:
And he even got the PitchingNinja treatment:
All together, Assad tossed 89 pitches last night, with almost an even split of four-seamers (24) and sinkers (25), both of which he amped up over 95 MPH(!) at various points, though the average velo on those pitches was closer to 92 MPH. He didn’t overpower the Rockies, he didn’t generate a ton of whiffs, and there weren’t a ton of groundballs. But at a certain point we need to respect the results he’s getting based on his wide arsenal and easily apparent pitchability.
Assad may not have the stuff to be a top of the rotation pitcher, or even a consistent mid-rotation guy, but when you can mix in six different pitches and stay smart and calm throughout the game, you absolutely can have the sort of success he’s enjoyed pretty much throughout his entire Cubs career.
“That’s where the poise and he feels older than he is, feels more experienced than he is,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said, via Marquee. “The pitch-maker in him comes out and he has a lot of confidence in that. He delivered with that and it was kind of a prime example.”
In his young career as a starter for the Cubs, Javier Assad has posted a 2.80 ERA over 96.1 IP. He may never put up the sort of strikeout numbers he’d need to earn the respect he probably already deserves — and quality starts against bottom-feeders like the Rockies just won’t grab national headlines — but Javier Assad has been a really valuable piece of the Cubs pitching staff. And that’s especially true right now, while the Cubs are rolling without two of their top-4 starters. Good stuff, my guy. Keep it up.
