Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (2-3) at Milwaukee Brewers (4-2)

In Series Previews by berselius24 Comments

The Cubs early season road trip continues, this time with another four game set on the road. Strange schedules are strange.

Team Leaders

Now that the Cubs are facing another team that did not trade 95% of its roster in the offseason, I'll use the teams' 2017 numbers here instead.

Cubs

  • OBP: Kris Bryant (.409)
  • ISO: Ian Happ (.261)
  • HR: Anthony Rizzo (32)
  • R+RBI: Rizzo (208)
  • wRC+: Bryant (146)
  • BSR: Bryant (4.8)
  • Defense: Willson Contereras (12.8)
  • SP K/9: Jose Quintana (10.46)
  • SP BB/9: Quintana (2.24)
  • SP FIP: Quintana (3.25)
  • RP FIP: Carl Edwards Jr (12.75)
  • RP BB/9: Brandon Morrow (1.85)
  • RP FIP: Morrow (1.55)
  • WAR: Bryant (6.7)

Beers

  • OBP: Eric Sogard (.393)
  • ISO: Eric Thames (.271)
  • HR: Thames / Travis Shaw (31)
  • R+RBI: Shaw (185)
  • wRC+: Domingo Santana (126)
  • BSR: Lorenzo Cain (3.5)
  • Defense: Manny Pina (12.5)
  • SP K/9: Chase Anderson (8.47)
  • SP BB/9: Brent Suter (2.05)
  • SP FIP: Anderson (3.58)
  • RP K/9: Corey Knebel (14.92)
  • RP BB/9: Oliver Drake (3.76)
  • RP FIP: Knebel (2.53)
  • WAR: Christian Yelich (4.5)

Injuries, transactions, vengenace pacts, etc.

See the Brewers NL Central whiparound for more details, or don't. I can't tell you what to do. The Brewers biggest injury is Jimmy Nelson, who injured his shoulder diving into a base last September and is still working his way back. He might throw off a mound soon, but won't be back until June at the absolute earliest. Catcher Stephen Vogt is on the DL with a shoulder strain, and LOOGY Boone Logan is dealing with an arm strain. Their big offseason acquisitiosn were Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain, which are good additions but don't fill the holes they have in their rotation.

There's nothing new injury-wise on the Cubs side, and the chance that some reliever might came down with an injury of convenience is much lower now that the Cubs have had two days off.

Pitching Probables

Projected K/9, BB/9, ERA listed for each pitcher.

Thor's Day: Jon Lester, LHP (8.50, 2.85, 3.95) vs Brent Suter, LHP (7.27, 2.58, 4.52), 7:10 PM CT

Lester was shaky in his first start, and didn't seem to have great feel for his finishing pitches. He faces Brent Suter, and it's too bad that there was a rainout in Cincy to prevent a Hendricks-Suter matchup. I don't think we would have seen a single pitch above 88 before the seventh inning. Suter gave up three runs in five innings to the Padres in his first outing of the year, striking out four and allowing four baserunners.

Freya's Day: Kyle Hendricks, RHP (7.93, 2.34, 3.54) vs Brandon Woodruff, RHP (8.20, 3.14, 4.28), 7:10 PM CT

Hendricks had by far the best start of anyone in the Cubs rotation over the first five games, so of course it was a game that the Cubs lost in 17 innings. Eddie Butler had an arguably even better 'start' pitching seven innings in relief during that slog of a game.

Brandon Woodruff lives in the shadow of his much more famous cousin, Rob Minocqua.

Saturn's Day: Yu Darvish, RHP (10.93, 2.93, 3.40) vs Zach Davies, RHP (6.88, 2.57, 4.12), 3:05 PM CT

Darvish's Cubs debut was not great, though you could at least chalk some of it up to some dehydration cramping. Davies has been quietly competent for the past two seasons with the Brewers. He hardly strikes anyone out, but gets a ton of ground balls, so the Cubs are going to get worm-killing in this one.

Sun's Day: Jose Quintana, LHP (9.00, 2.56, 3.31) vs Chase Anderson, RHP (8.07, 2.93, 4.49), 1:10 PM CT

Q started out reasonably well in his start with the Marlins then fell apart in the fifth after getting somewhat sqeueezed by the shitpile umpire crew. Of course, he could have been the second coming of 1997 Greg Maddux and the Cubs bats would never have won this one.

Anderson is the Brewers de facto ace until Nelson gets back up to speed. He had an awful first year with the Brewers in 2016, posting a 5+ FIP. However he cut his HR rate nearly in half in 2017 on the way to a 2.47 ERA. The projections think he's closer to his 2016 self, so let's hope so. He shut down the Padres in his first start but was tagged for four runs on three homers in four innings by the Cardinals in his second outing.

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Comments

  1. Tyrone

    My top 5 favorite hats in MLB (excluding alternate, throwback etc.):

    5.

    I always thought the Giants’ uniforms looked cool.

    4.

    Iconic hat from my youth and probably the best uniform change in my lifetime.

    3.

    Must be a nostalgia thing.

    2.

    Simplicity, plus I like the ligature of the logo.

    1.

    By far the coolest looking hat in MLB, for me.

    What are yours?

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  3. Tyrone

    And since this is a football site, here are the top 5 helmets in the NFL:

    5.

    4.

    3.

    2.

    So sharp, but not quite tops…

    1.

    The whole uniform is the GOAT.

    Helmets that can GTFO:

    2.

    What, you couldn’t put your logo on both sides of the helmet?

    1.

    If you had stuck with black, your helmet might be the coolest. What is this two-tone shit?

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  4. Mucker

    Tyrone,

    Baseball hats for me:

    5. Dodgers
    4. Reds
    3. Giants
    2. Pirates
    1. White Sox

    Remember the minor league hats from the early to mid 90s? I used to love them. Do they still sell minor league hats?

    Football helmets

    5. Falcons
    4. Bengals
    3. Chargers
    2. Bears
    1. Raiders

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  5. Berselius is too lazy to log in on his phone

    I only rank hats based on their records in games I have attended.

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  6. Tyrone

    Mucker,

    There used to be a place online that sold them all, but they seem to be closed now. Probably have to go to each team’s site now.

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  9. Perkins

    I think the Brewers alternate hat with the “mb” hidden in the glove/ball logo is the best hat in baseball. Especially the one with the navy ground color instead of the lighter blue.

    I generally like the Cubs’ uniforms, but I wish they’d at least do an alternate/throwback in navy.

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  12. Perkins

    Tyrone,

    I can’t argue with you today. That navy cap looks great.

    Also, really not a fan of the New Era logo on the hats now. Looks tacky as hell.

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  13. Edwin

    I like Cleveland’s hats with the “C” logo. I also like Baltimore’s hats, although probably just because it makes me think of The Wire.

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  14. Edwin

    Friday is named after Lord Frydor Fryington III, of Frytopia, inventor of Frying. At least according to the most votes on Yahoo Answers.

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  18. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    LF Happ
    RF Zobrist
    3B Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    C Contreras
    CF Almora
    SS Russell
    2B Baez
    P Lester

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  19. Perkins

    dmick89:
    I like the Cubs hat the way it is. There are only a few hats that I think are comparable: Dodgers, Yankees and Giants.

    I love the Dodgers and Yankees uniforms. I’d probably rank the Cardinals ahead of the Giants, since the orange alternates the Giants sometimes wear brings their overall ranking down a bit. The Cardinals’ off-white home alternates are really sharp.

    I like the Cubs’ uniforms as they are now, and I think they’re definitely in the top tier. But other than maybe their core logo, I think just about everything in their color scheme would look even better with navy in lieu of royal blue.

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  21. Berselius is too lazy to log in on his phone

    Perkins,

    I ride or die with the Cubbie blue jerseys that everyone seems to think look like pajamas.

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