San Francisco Giants: What to Expect From Johnny Cueto’s Team Debut
Johnny Cueto takes the mound in the San Francisco Giants’ second game of the year, and here’s a glimpse of what to expect.
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On day two of the 2016 season, the San Francisco Giants will send their biggest free agency catch from the past offseason, right-handed pitcher Johnny Cueto, to the mound to make his debut in the orange and black. With a perfect 1-0 record under their belt, the Giants will be looking for Cueto to show what made him a highly-sought after free agent in start number one. If you haven’t watched Cueto, or weren’t paying attention in Spring Training, here’s what to expect from Cueto.
Make sure you’re paying attention when Cueto is toeing the rubber, because he is not going to dillydally around on the mound. He has no qualms about setting his pace early in the game, and keeping it going throughout his time on the mound. As Giants’ broadcaster and former big league pitcher Mike Krukow would say, Cueto is a “catch, rock, fire” pitcher. He catches the return throw from his catcher, rocks into his pitching motion, and fires to the plate without hesitation.
In evidence of Cueto’s pace, he has thrown 12 complete games throughout his career, which have lasted an average of two hours and 36 minutes. None of those games have gone past two hours and 48 minutes.
Another thing to expect from the Dominican pitcher is the unexpected. There isn’t a pitcher in the major leagues right now that employs as many variants of his delivery as Cueto. From the shimmy to the turnaround, Cueto’s delivery is almost never the same on consecutive pitches. And while a lot of pitchers employ the quick pitch while working out of the stretch, Cueto utilizes it while in the windup, abbreviating his leg kick to nothing more than a simple lift and drive forward. That deception, throwing off the hitter’s timing with all these wacky movements, is as much a weapon for Cueto as his pitches are.
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When Cueto is on his game, he’s a very easy pitcher to catch. He has very good command, spotting all of his pitches to basically wherever his catcher puts the glove. For his career, Cueto walks about two-and-a-half batters per nine innings, including matching his career-low with two per nine innings last season.
This isn’t something to expect from Cueto per se, but more from his teammates. Expect Cueto to get backed up quite a bit in his Giants’ debut. On Opening Day, the San Francisco offense wasted no time showing that they are an incredibly explosive bunch. They erupted for 15 hits and 12 runs, including hits from 10 different players, and also showed a surprising amount of power. They bashed four home runs, including back-to-back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning from Denard Span, Joe Panik, and Buster Posey, becoming the first team since the San Diego Padres in 1997 to club home runs in three successive at-bats.
Cueto is plenty familiar with the Brewers from his days with the Cincinnati Reds, facing them 18 times in his career, including seven times in Milwaukee’s Miller Park. But because of an extremely high turnover rate on the Brewers’ roster, Cueto is not all that familiar with the Milwaukee lineup. Ryan Braun and Jonathan Lucroy, two long-tenured Brewers, have matched up with Cueto 44 times and 23 times, respectively, with Cueto holding them to a combined .209 average. Aaron Hill, the former Arizona Diamondback, is the only other hitter from Milwaukee’s opening day lineup to have faced Cueto at least 10 times, picking up two hits (including a home run) in 10 at-bats. The other six hitters from Milwaukee’s April 4th lineup have combined for nine at-bats against Cueto.
Next: Giants' Opening Day Roster Facts and Tidbits
A flu-addled Madison Bumgarner was able to fight through five innings to earn a win for the Giants on opening day, but the Giants should see more length from Cueto in his team debut. And if nothing else, he’s sure to entertain the masses.