Johnny Cueto Makes His Major League Debut, Everyone Notices + Scouting Reports
Posted by Alan Hull on April 4th, 2008
Cincinnati Reds RHP Johnny Cueto made his major league debut on Thursday and everyone around the majors took note. In his stellar debut, the 5′10″ 22 year-old pitched seven innings, allowing only one hit, a home run to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Justin Upton in the 6th inning. He had been pitching a perfect game until that point. By the end of the seventh, Cueto had struck out 10 batters, walked none and Upton’s homerun was the only hit allowed.
This is obviously a great start to Johnny Cueto’s career. Here is what one scout said about the performance:
“His arm action is as clean and loose as you can get. When you see this guy, you think he can be a guy who goes deep into a game or [can] be a closer. He has a better arm than Homer Bailey, who was a No. 1 pick. He’s legit. He’s where he should be. A lot of scouts will say he’s a little on the small side. But that arm is big. He has an explosiveness to his fastball that’s a treat to watch.”
Here is a more general scouting report on Johnny Cueto:
The strength of Cueto’s arsenal is his ability to generate movement and locate his pitches. He throws fairly hard and with relative ease. Cueto attacks and challenges hitters from a three-quarters arm slot. He commands his pitches well on both halves of the plate and works well throughout the zone. Cueto’s best pitch is his slider. With sharp break and quick action, Cueto has one of the best sliders in the minor leagues. His fastball sits in the low 90s but he can reach the mid 90s from time to time. With decent movement, this pitch seems nearly un-hittable when the slider is working for him. He added a changeup to his arsenal prior to the 2006 season which really transformed him into the pitcher he is today.
One final scouting report on Cueto:
“Has a lot of the classical things you look for in a pitching prospect with the fearless attitude, fastball command, above-average changeup, workhorse mentality, comfort pitching to contact, and clean arm action. The size will probably always worry some, but I’m not worried—there’s no history to suggest he’s as fragile as anyone else his size—he’s an exception in many ways.”
I’m excited to see how Johnny Cueto pitches for the remainder of the season, but also worried as Dusty Baker will be in charge of the young right handers pitch counts.
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