NEWSLETTER
Well, here we are: the week from baseball heaven and hell.
On the one hand, I am legitimately stoked to watch so much Cubs baseball over the next three days. How often do you get to watch this much Cubs baseball in such a short period of time? On the other hand, the Cubs are coming off a three-game losing streak to the Brewers, are heading into the gauntlet without Tyler Chatwood or Jose Quintana, and are about to face some weird 7.0-inning contests that will definitely be very unusual and probably be very frustrating.
I know this can be a very good week for the Cubs if things break their way before the off-day on Thursday, but it could also be all the way stressful. I guess that’s the nature of the beast. Into the abyss we go!
We’re Going Streaking
The Chicago Cubs (13-6) are still seven games over .500, but that sure was one bad weekend. The Cubs spoiled a chance to really knock the Brewers down, and now have a very tough week ahead of them against another division rival. They’re riding a three-game losing streak, while missing two of their starting pitchers. None of this is ideal.
The St. Louis Cardinals (4-4) kicked their season back into gear with two wins on Saturday (thanks for nothing, White Sox), before losing the series finale on Sunday. With just eight games under their belt it’s tough to say where exactly they are in the standings, but a bunch of losses against the Cubs this week sure wouldn’t help.
Game Times and Broadcasts Info
• Monday, August 17th at 4:15 CT on MARQ, 670 The Score
• Monday, August 17th at TBD on MARQ, 670 The Score
• Tuesday, August 18th at 7:15 CT on MARQ, FS1, 670 The Score
• Wednesday, August 19th at 1:20 on MARQ, 670 The Score
• Wednesday, August 19th at TBD on MARQ, 670 The Score
Pitching Matchups
Game 1 (Monday): Kyle Hendricks (R) v. Kwang Hyun Kim (L)
Game 2 (Monday): TBD v. TBD
Game 3 (Tuesday): Yu Darvish (R) v. Daniel Ponce De Leon (R)
Game 4 (Wednesday): Alec Mills (R) v. Jack Flaherty (R)
Game 5 (Wednesday): TBD v. TBD
Cubs TBD Options: Adbert Alzolay, Tyson Miller, Justin Steele, Colin Rea? (Neither Jose Quintana nor Tyler Chatwood are going to be available).
Chicago Cubs
• C – Willson Contreras
• 1B – Anthony Rizzo
• 2B – Jason Kipnis/Nico Hoerner
• 3B – Kris Bryant
• SS – Javy Baez
• LF – Kyle Schwarber
• CF – Ian Happ
• RF – Jason Heyward?
• DH – Victor Caratini
Unavailable: Jose Quintana, Brad Wieck, James Norwood, Daniel Descalso, Tyler Chatwood,
St. Louis Cardinals
• C – Matt Wieters
• 1B – Paul Goldschmidt
• 2B – Kolten Wong
• 3B – Matt Carpenter
• SS – Tommy Edman
• LF – Tyler O’Neil
• CF – Harrison Bader
• RF – Dexter Fowler
• DH – Not clear with only 8 games and about 300 people missing.
Unavailable: Austin Dean, Lane Thomas, Ryan Helsley, Junior Fernadez, Rangel Ravelo, Yadier Molina, Edmundo Sosa, Paul DeJong, Kodi Whitley, Miles Mikolas
Keep An Eye Out For …
Cubs Pitcher: Kyle Hendricks can do the Cubs a HUGE favor by going all seven innings in today’s opener, sparing the bullpen from throwing a single pitch. He’s gone at least that much in 2 of his 4 starts this season and is average about 6 and half innings for the year. The good news is that Hendricks is much better at Wrigley Field and has kept the Cardinals to a .248/.295/.395 slash line overall for his career (2.93 ERA). Again, with any luck, he’ll be the only pitcher we see in Game 1 today.
Cubs Player: Kris Bryant has been riding the struggle bus, man. Overall, he’s slashing .182/.286/.345 with a 9.5% walk rate (career low) and 28.6% strikeout rate (by FAR the highest since his rookie season). In yesterday’s game, he went 0-4 with 2Ks and two weak infield pop outs. And since the postponed Cardinals series, he’s gone 3-13 with three strikeouts. Statcast has his average exit velocity down, his barrel rate down, and his hard hit rate down. I really hope he snaps out of it soon, because, unfortunately, he’s not the only Cubs star struggling offensively.
Cardinals Pitcher: The Cubs were not lucky enough to miss Jack Flaherty, whose only start this season (back before their hiatus) was a pretty darn good one: 7.0 IP, 6H, 2ER, 0BB, 6Ks. Flaherty has also been pretty split neutral for his career and has generally been pretty good against the Cubs. With that said, I did notice this fairly extreme oddity:
Jack Flaherty has thrown 50 innings v. the #Cubs in his career, 25.0 IP at Wrigley Field, 25.0 IP at Busch Stadium.
Wrigley: 4.68 ERA, .198/.324/.407 (.314 wOBA)
Busch: 0.73 ERA, .110/.189/.183 (.173 wOBA)How weird is this?
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) August 17, 2020
Small samples? Shrug. In any case, Flaherty hasn’t pitched competitively since July 24th. You have to imagine the Cubs hitters should have the advantage … right?
Cardinals Player: I like to check in on our old friend Dexter Fowler every now and then, and as of his small 6 game sample, so far so good: .318/.348/.455 (123 wRC+). It’s really too early to look into any of these hitters. Let’s just hope they’re even more behind than the pitchers.
