Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (5-9) at Miami Marlins (4-12)

In Series Previews by berselius29 Comments

Well, at least Chatwood didn’t start after all. The Cubs take a brief break from their homestand for a three game series with the Marlins, who seem to be on track to be a new calibration point for the concept of replacement level. Still, it always seems like weird things happen in Miami, even when you leave their home run sculpture out of it. One of the broadcasts I was listening to today likened it to playing in a giant AAA stadium. Hopefully the Cubs don’t get burned for the 214th time by a bunch of Rando Calrissians having the best games of their career.

Team Leaders

I’ll use the teams’ 2018 numbers here (excluding injured/departed players), since looking at a bunch of zeros is boring. This is going to be even tougher than usual for the Marlins, because I don’t think anyone knows who is actually on the current roster, including the FO.

*remembers Starlin Castro is on the team*

*has a sad*

Cubs

  • OBP: Ben Zobrist (.378)
  • ISO: El Mago (.264)
  • HR: Baez (34)
  • R+RBI: Baez (212)
  • wRC+: Baez (131)
  • BSR: Jason Heyward (4.3)
  • DRS: Albert Almora (9)
  • SP K/9: Yu Darvish (11.03)
  • SP BB/9: Kyle Hendricks (1.99)
  • SP FIP: Cole Hamels (3.42)
  • RP FIP: Carl Edwards Jr (11.60)
  • RP BB/9: Pedro Strop (3.17)
  • RP FIP: Edwards (2.93)
  • WAR: Baez (5.3)

Fish

  • OBP: Brian Anderson (.357)
  • ISO: J.T. Riddle (.146)
  • HR: Starlin Castro (12)
  • R+RBI: Anderson (152)
  • wRC+: Anderson (113)
  • BSR: Lewis Brinson (1.1)
  • DRS: Miguel Rojas (10)
  • SP K/9: Caleb Smith (10.24)
  • SP BB/9: Jose Urena (2.64)
  • SP FIP: Smith (3.96)
  • RP K/9: Tayron Guererro (10.55)
  • RP BB/9: Adam Conley (3.20)
  • RP FIP: Conley (3.60)
  • WAR: Anderson (3.4)

Offseason moves, injuries, vengeance pacts, etc.

As usual, the Marlins sold off everything that wasn’t nailed down this offseason, shipping off JT Realmuto, Kyle Bear Claw, and Justin Bour. I guess they really need to get more prospects to surround the bags of balls that they received when they shipped off their all-star OF two years ago. As the Cubs and Astros demonstrated, selling off assets to rebuild can work as a strategy but when you do it every year it might not work so well. Now all the cash the owners are raking in is going to the bankers instead of Jeffrey Loria, so I guess it’s a wash.

They signed Sergio Romo and Neil Walker in the offseason and that’s about it.

On the Cubs side, Lester is injured but all the signals say he should be back when he’s eligible. Monty can come off the IL today but it sounds like he won’t be back right away. Brandon Morrow has/will soon be throwing live BP, and could be back in a week or two.

Pitching Matchups

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

Monday: Yu Darvish, RHP (10.30, 3.61, 4.10) vs Trevor Richards, RHP (8.41, 3.45, 4.30), 6:10 PM CT

Well, Darvish didn’t walk anyone in his last start at least. With the wind blowing in and lousy weather in general, the game plan just seemed to be to throw a ton of strikes. The hits still found the holes or the other side of the fence, but it was merely a bad start instead of a disaster start. Progress!

Richards has gone six innings in all of his starts and hasn’t been blown up yet, which is more than the Cubs staff can say. He did walk five against the shambling Reds offense, but managed to keep them off the scoreboard.

Tuesday: Jose Quintana, LHP (8.74, 2.98, 3.79) vs Pablo Lopez, RHP (6.99, 2.37, 4.04), 6:10 PM CT

In his last outing, Q put together his best start since his debut as a Cub, striking out eleven over seven strikeout innings. If he could just put together 30-35 more of those this year that would be great.

Lopez is a heavy sinker guy, and he’s been knocked around somewhat in the early going. He pitched adequately (for Miami) for ten starts last year before being shut down in late August.

Wednesday: Colbert Hamels, LHP (8.05, 3.01, 3.80) vs Sandy Alcantara, RHP (6.58, 4.56, 4.58), 6:10 PM CT

Not to be outdone by Q, Hamels had an excellent eight inning start in the Cubs win over the Trouts on Friday. Aside from one weird inning where things got away from him in Texas, he’s been solid so far this year.

Alcantara was one of the guys who came over from the Cardinals in the Ozuna trade. He had a great start to the year, going eight scoreless with no walks against the Braves, but since then he’s either issued a lot of walks or given up double digit hits. Of course the main thing everyone is going to think of is the previous pitcher named Alcantara who pitched for the Marlins, and also had a Cubs connection. I bet Pat Hughes mentions this at least 20 times in the broacasts this week.

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Comments

  1. andcounting

    We probably use the cast iron skillet every other day. My rule is no soap ever, but I do wash it with a brush, put it over a medium-low burner, then rub in a light coat of canola oil on the inside and outer rim after the water evaporates and let that cook in for a few minutes. It makes cleaning super easy.

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  5. Perkins

    Having neither the patience nor the aptitude for maintaining cast iron cookware, I’ve opted for Le Creuset, since that stuff is really easy to clean.

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  7. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    2B Zobrist
    LF Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    SS Baez
    RF Heyward
    C Contreras
    3B Bote
    CF Almora
    P Darvish

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  8. Perkins

    berselius,

    Oh, absolutely. The enamel finish just makes them super easy to maintain.

    We actually used to have a Staub with the cast iron interior, but it regrettably died because I made the mistake of using soap and water to clean it over a few years. Had I read every word here, I probably would have taken proper care of it. (dying laughing)

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  28. WaLi

    Game started off a bit sloppy with the pitching and some defense but luckily we were playing the Marlins. I’ll be there tomorrow night hoping for another win.

    We won a game today. If we win one tomorrow that’s two in a row. If we win one the day after that’s called a winning streak. It hasn’t happened before.

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