Tatsuya Imai’s latest spring training start shows Astros' gamble was wise

Tatsuya Imai has some big shoes to fill with the Houston Astros. The Japanese phenom will be trying to fill the shoes of one of MLB's best and most consistent starting pitchers in Framber Valdez. With contract projections between $150-$190 million, his settling for a deal that can pay him a max of $63 million instantly raised some concerns.

What was it about Imai that caused the entire league to back off? It would be hard enough for him to adapt to a new culture, a new league, and the subtle differences in the way the game is played stateside versus Japan, and now doubt about his overall ability entered the picture. When camp opened, he started to alleviate those concerns. Imai's splitter dazzled his teammates during his first bullpen sessions. It was the kind of stuff that could make you salivate. The stuff could be elite.

The Astros have been cautious with him so far in spring training. In his debut, he was pulled after just one inning and 10 pitches. It wasn't ineffectiveness that forced the quick hook. Apparently, the plan was to get him out quickly all along. That led to a question as to whether or not he'd be able to be built up in time to handle a regular workload by Opening Day.

We now have another Imai start in the books, and things are starting to come into focus. The Astros might have hit on something big with this dice roll.

Tatsuya Imai's latest impressive spring outing is proving that the Astros knew what they were doing

This time, Imai went two innings against the Marlins, giving up a hit and a walk while striking out three batters. He'd throw just 30 pitches. In the performance, he'd generate seven whiffs on 14 swings, good for a dominant 50% whiff rate. His fastball averaged 94.9 miles per hour. His slider, which, contrary to the rave reviews his splitter has generated, is widely regarded as his best pitch and accounted for six of the seven whiffs. It was virtually unhittable.

Most importantly, it sounds like Imai knows what he's doing out there. While the 27-year-old is more experienced than most rookies, thanks to his extensive NPB experience, it's still a very different animal.

"That's something I've been doing from Japan, just reading swings is really important. Being able to understand what each hitter's strengths and weaknesses are, and if I think this hitter is going to ambush my fastball, I'm going to put some velo on my fastball. If I think that he's not going to take a swing at it, I'll try to focus more on throwing it in the zone. It's their first time facing me as well, so they're trying to figure out what kind of pitcher I am. It is as tough of a time for them as it is for me," Imai said via his interpreter regarding his start against Miami.

Reading swings, catching hitters off guard, and building around his fastball are all things you'd expect from a seasoned vet, and Imai having that understanding already is very encouraging.

It's only been three scoreless innings, so you don't want to overreact to a small sample, but the stuff looks good, the mentality is on point, and if he can prove to be able to replicate it all over a larger workload, Houston will be in incredible shape.