The largest constructive of this irritating Chicago Cubs season has been the emergence of Shota Imanaga as a frontline starter. As you most likely bear in mind, Imanaga was launched to the broader American baseball-watching public when he began the gold medal recreation of the 2023 World Baseball Basic for Crew Japan.
Effectively, he’s not the one Cubs starter who had a breakout efficiency in opposition to Crew USA on the 2023 WBC. Throughout pool play, Javier Assad got here out of the bullpen at Chase Subject and mowed down three innings’ value of American hitters. With solely 9 appearances’ value of main league expertise, Assad was a relative unknown on the time. Since then, he’s claimed a daily spot in an excellent Chicago rotation, and pitched very effectively.
He’s one among simply 91 pitchers who’s thrown 200 or extra innings over the previous two seasons. Of these, he’s eighth in ERA, with a mark of three.13. The factor is, I’m not likely certain how he’s doing it. FIP takes an especially dim view of the right-hander, who turned 27 on Tuesday. Assad’s FIP is 4.59 this 12 months, and over the previous two seasons mixed, it’s 4.43, which is 68th out of these 91 pitchers over the previous two seasons.
And it’s straightforward to see why. Assad, regardless of being within the backside half of that checklist of starters in strikeout fee, has the fifth-highest stroll fee:
Javier Assad Defies the Odds
| Stat | ERA | FIP | Okay% | BB% | HR/FB% | GB% | HardHit% | BABIP | LOB% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worth | 3.13 | 4.43 | 21.0 | 9.7 | 12.1 | 44.7 | 39.9 | .272 | 83.8 |
| Rank | eighth | sixth | 62nd | 87th | forty sixth | twenty ninth | 53rd | sixteenth | 1st |
*Out of 91 pitchers with not less than 200 IP since 2023
With the instruments accessible a decade in the past, we’d simply take a look at that and dismiss Assad as a fluke. Clearly that BABIP and that strand fee are going to regress, and his ERA might be again within the fours very quickly.
Even with fashionable instruments, I’m at one thing of a loss relating to explaining Assad’s success. His Stuff+ doesn’t pop off scale. His high quality of contact numbers are higher than his bat-missing numbers, however they’re not any higher than common. He’s proper in the course of the Baseball Savant leaderboard for EV50 and xwOBA. The one space wherein Assad is close to the highest is opponent contact fee on pitches exterior the zone; Assad’s opponents are making contact on 69.8% of swings exterior the zone, which is the fifth-highest mark within the league. Assad additionally has the fifth-smallest hole between his in-zone and out-of-zone contact fee.
If an irregular proportion of Assad’s contact is coming exterior the zone, that would enable him to get by together with his low-strikeout/high-walk peripherals. However he’s simply giving up a variety of contact in all places. This season, 238 pitchers have allowed 25 or extra balls in play on pitches exterior the zone. Of these, Assad has the 57th-lowest opponent wOBA on these balls (.232), however 20.6% of his opponent contact comes on balls exterior the strike zone, which is a hundred and tenth.
One factor Assad has is a extremely diverse repertoire. This season, 502 pitchers have thrown 250 or extra pitches, however solely 45 of these pitchers have thrown 5 or extra completely different pitch varieties not less than 10% of the time. Assad is a kind of, and he has a sixth pitch, a changeup, that he’s thrown 3.6% of the time.
These six pitches cowl a spread of greater than 20 miles per hour, and when you take a look at the clock chart for the motion profiles of these choices, it appears like a illustration of the time a university junior spends at Jungle Jim’s on Thirsty Thursday: It goes from 7 o’clock all the best way to 2:45 or so. Expressed on a graph, it appears like this:
Fairly, isn’t it? Kermit the Frog checked out that graphic and instantly reached for his banjo.
I feel it’s honest to say that Assad has an overfull toolkit of pitches, which forces opponents to cowl an unlimited vary of velocity and motion profiles. Assad segregates a few of his pitches by opponent handedness (curveballs and changeups to lefties, sliders to righties), however he throws his fastballs to opponents on both aspect of the plate. It’s rather a lot for a hitter to maintain observe of, however the advantages of such an eclectic pitch combine appear to be intangible.
However right here’s the factor about ready for Assad to regress. Since 2010, there have been roughly 1,900 particular person pitcher seasons of 100 innings or extra. On solely 79 events has a pitcher of that prime quantity outperformed his FIP by greater than a run. Solely six pitchers have carried out it twice, and solely three of these have carried out it in consecutive years:
Recidivist FIP-Beaters of the 2010s and Past
| Season | Identify | Crew | IP | Okay% | BB% | Okay-BB% | ERA | FIP | E-F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Blake Snell | TBR | 180.2 | 31.6% | 9.1% | 22.4% | 1.89 | 2.94 | -1.05 |
| 2023 | Blake Snell | SDP | 180 | 31.5% | 13.3% | 18.2% | 2.25 | 3.44 | -1.19 |
| 2014 | Chris Younger | SEA | 165 | 15.7% | 8.7% | 7.0% | 3.65 | 5.02 | -1.36 |
| 2015 | Chris Younger | KCR | 123.1 | 16.6% | 8.6% | 8.0% | 3.06 | 4.52 | -1.46 |
| 2011 | Jeremy Hellickson | TBR | 189 | 15.1% | 9.3% | 5.8% | 2.95 | 4.44 | -1.49 |
| 2012 | Jeremy Hellickson | TBR | 177 | 16.7% | 8.0% | 8.8% | 3.10 | 4.60 | -1.50 |
| 2011 | Johnny Cueto | CIN | 156 | 16.5% | 7.4% | 9.0% | 2.31 | 3.45 | -1.15 |
| 2014 | Johnny Cueto | CIN | 243.2 | 25.2% | 6.8% | 18.4% | 2.25 | 3.30 | -1.05 |
| 2012 | Miguel González | BAL | 105.1 | 17.7% | 8.1% | 9.7% | 3.25 | 4.38 | -1.13 |
| 2014 | Miguel González | BAL | 159 | 16.5% | 7.6% | 8.9% | 3.23 | 4.89 | -1.67 |
| 2018 | Mike Fiers | DET/OAK | 172 | 19.5% | 5.2% | 14.3% | 3.56 | 4.75 | -1.19 |
| 2019 | Mike Fiers | OAK | 184.2 | 16.7% | 7.0% | 9.7% | 3.90 | 4.97 | -1.07 |
Assad is at the moment at 94 2/3 innings, which signifies that both in his begin on Friday or the one after, he’s going to make it seven. See, once I mentioned his ERA would go “again” to the 4.00s earlier, I meant that figuratively, as a result of Assad has by no means posted an ERA within the 4.00s over a season. Not solely that, he’s by no means not outperformed his FIP by greater than a run:
Javier Assad Defies the Odds, Half 2
| Season | IP | Okay% | BB% | ERA | FIP | E-F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 37.2 | 18.1% | 12.0% | 3.11 | 4.49 | -1.39 |
| 2023 | 109.1 | 20.9% | 9.1% | 3.05 | 4.29 | -1.24 |
| 2024 | 94.2 | 21.0% | 10.2% | 3.23 | 4.59 | -1.36 |
The gathering of pitchers on the checklist above, apart from Cueto, have all been oddballs. Snell wrecked his FIP in each of his (contentious) Cy Younger seasons, however by no means on some other event. Fiers and Younger had been each excessive fly ball pitchers, whereas González and Hellickson had been each 6-foot-1 righties with kitchen sink-y, pitch-to-contact repertoires. Identical to Assad.
Can Assad preserve doing this? Defying the percentages to outperform his peripherals? I suppose. He’s by no means carried out anything.
