Series Preview: New York Mets (35-39) at Chicago Cubs (40-33)

In Series Previews by berselius33 Comments

I would have sworn that the Cubs have already played the Mets this year, but it looks like that is not the case. Much like another NY team who shares 75% of the letters in the team name, I don’t think there’s any moment in which their manager is not on the hot seat. Rumors of Mickey Callaway’s demise seem to have subsided for the time as the Mets have played .500-ish ball for the past few weeks, but from past experience you can believe pretty much anything of the Mets.

Team Leaders

Meats

  • OBP: Jeff McNeil (.406)
  • ISO: Pete Alonso (.346) (!!!!)
  • HR: Alonso (24)
  • R+RBI: Alonso (103)
  • wRC+: Alonso (153)
  • BSR: Brandon Nimmo (1.3)
  • Defense: Noah Syndergaard (?!) (4.5)
  • SP K/9: deGrom (11.08)
  • SP BB/9: deGrom (1.98)
  • SP FIP: deGrom (3.21)
  • RP K/9: Edwin Diaz (14.13)
  • RP BB/9: Seth Lugo (2.36)
  • RP FIP: Lugo (2.67)
  • WAR: Alonso (2.7)

Cubs

  • OBP: Bryant (.395)
  • ISO: Rizzo (.272)
  • HR: Rizzo (19)
  • R+RBI: Rizzo/Bryant (96)
  • wRC+: Contreras (146)
  • BSR: Bryant (2.5)
  • Defense: Baez (8.6)
  • SP K/9: Darvish (10.32)
  • SP BB/9: Cyle (1.63)
  • SP FIP: Cyle (3.32)
  • RP K/9: Edwards (10.20)
  • RP BB/9: Kintzler (2.25)
  • RP FIP: Cishek (3.14)
  • WAR: Bryant (2.8)

Injuries, transactions, blood feuds, etc.

Nothing has really changed on the Cubs front that I know of so I’m basically recopying this from the series two days ago. The Cubs have had a couple of pitchers go down lately, including Cyle (shoulder inflammation) and Edwards (thoracic strain). The Cubs will certainly feel the Cyle loss but it sounds like at least we might see a spot start from Alzolay. If you read BN you would think that Edwards has been lighting the world on fire lately, but that hasn’t certainly seemed the case to me. It is nice for relief pitchers that their baseline numbers don’t get dinged for letting inherited runners score. Craig Kimbrel has been officially added to the I-Cubs roster and has pitched, and could be up as soon as next week. Brandon Morrow is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

On the Mets side, the most recent biggest name injury is that Noah Syndergaard is out with a hamstring strain. He hasn’t quite been capital-T Thor this year, but the Cubs won’t be sorry to miss him. Yoenis Cespedes is out for the season following surgeries on both of his feet for unrelated injuries. Brandon Nimmo is shut down for a month with a bulging disc in his neck that, shockingly, the Mets underplayed when it was first reported. Jeurys Familia and Justin Wilson are also on the IL with what may or may not be minor injuries.

Pitching Matchups

K/9, BB/9, ERA, projected ERA listed for all pitchers. Projections only for guys making their debut.

Thursday: Walter Lockett, RHP (6.70, 2.70, 4.63) vs Tyler Chatwood, RHP (7.46, 5.40, 3.60, 5.21) / Adbert Alzolay, RHP (8.42, 3.38, 4.65), 7:05 PM CT

Lockett is making his Mets debut – he started three games for the Padres last year.

Friday: Jason Vargas, LHP (7.16, 3.90, 3.74, 4.96) vs Yu Darvish, RHP (10.32, 5.11, 4.65, 4.23), 1:20 PM CT

Vargas is day to day after suffering calf muscle cramps in his last start.

Saturday: Zack Wheeler, RHP (9.79, 2.66, 4.94, 3.74) vs Jose Quintana, LHP (7.75, 2.90, 3.87, 3.79), 1:20 PM CT

Sunday: Jacob deGrom, RHP (11.08, 1.98, 3.26, 2.91) vs Cole Hamels, LHP (8.93, 3.14, 2.85, 3.57), 1:20 PM CT

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Comments

  1. WaLi

    In 6 starts (32 IP) this year for the Iowa Cubs, Alzolay has 46 K’s to 6 BB’s. I’m not sure he’ll fit in with this team.

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  2. andcounting

    There was an mlb.com story about every team’s regrets from this past offseason. For the Cubs, it was not signing Kimbrel sooner. For the Mets, their biggest regret was everything.

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  3. dmick89

    andcounting: For the Cubs, it was not signing Kimbrel sooner.

    Considering the Cubs have been in or around first place this entire time, I’m not sure I buy that. As much as I’d have liked to have Kimbrel and the Cubs probably have a 2-4 game lead with him if they did have him, I think I’d rather be in this position with a first round pick next year than 2-4 up and no first round pick. So I think the Cubs made the right decision. It was a gamble, but it’s paid off so far.

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  5. Smokestack Lightning

    dmick89,

    I’m still waiting on my “Obstructed View: Amusing but Wrong since 2011” coffee mug. Get on it, fellas.

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  29. BVS

    Check out how St Louis lost tonight.

    (dying laughing) (dying laughing)(dying laughing)(dying laughing)(dying laughing)

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  31. WaLi

    BVS,

    (dying laughing) what was Flaherty doing

    Also I guess the best fans in baseball don’t like extra inning games. I thought they were playing in Miami based on the crowd

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