Bryce Elder will take the mound for Atlanta at the storied Wrigley Field and will face off against another relatively soft-throwing high-contact pitcher in Javier Assad, who is the nominal starter for Chicago’s bullpen today.
Assad has been the Cubs’ long reliever this season and has been essentially replacement level, which is about what his career would suggest. He has started one other game this season in his 19 appearances, so he certainly isn’t a traditional starter, but he does have two appearances of at least 5.0 innings for Chicago this season. So far in his major league career he has struck out a little over seven batters per nine innings and has walked a little over four batters per nine innings, which is.