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Cubs’ Jeremiah Estrada shows off his tantalizing potential in MLB debut

2 years agoTony Andracki

Tuesday night was a big time win for the Cubs player development system.

With the major league debuts of Brendon Little and Jeremiah Estrada, that means the Cubs’ top 7 picks from the 2017 draft have all reached “The Show.” Both pitchers are in Toronto as replacement players with Justin Steele and Adrian Sampson unable to travel to Canada due to vaccination requirements.

Little had a tough-luck debut, taking the loss in the Cubs’ 5-3 defeat. He appeared in the 6th inning in relief of Marcus Stroman and promptly hit the leadoff batter and allowed an infield single on the very next pitch when he slipped on the grass trying to field the ball.

On the next pitch Little threw, Blue Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernández sent a deep fly ball to right field for a 3-run shot.

But while Little’s debut didn’t go as planned, fellow rookie Jeremiah Estrada displayed his tantalizing potential.

Estrada struck out 2 in a scoreless 8th inning, allowing a walk. He threw 11 of his 17 pitches for strikes and consistently sat at 97-98 mph on the radar gun. He also induced 5 swings and misses.

“Jeremiah did a nice job coming in, doing what he does,” David Ross told media in Toronto. “He’s got a really good fastball, threw the ball extremely well. Got some swing-and-miss in there. His fastball really plays.

Check out each of Estrada’s pitches from the evening:

The 23-year-old right-hander came in at No. 24 on Lance Brozdowski’s midseason top prospect rankings update. In 34 minor league games this season, Estrada had a 1.30 ERA and 1.06 WHIP, striking out 78 batters in 48.1 innings (14.5 K/9).

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