NEWSLETTER
Last night’s loss – seriously, they LOST that game?! – was brutally bad for all the obvious reasons. But it was also very, very bad for its relationship to tonight’s game, and probably the rest of this western trip.
The Cubs have announced that Ben Brown will start tonight’s game, which will now have to look much more like a traditional start than any kind of bulk outing behind an opener would have (like last time against the Rockies). Even if Brown gives five solid innings – which I would ABSOLUTELY take – that’s going to leave a lot of outs left to get.
Last night should have been a blowout win where Craig Counsell could’ve used only his lowest leverage arms for multiple innings, and heck, maybe even a position player late if things got really silly. Instead, the game wound up featuring high-leverage appearances by Luke Little, Hector Neris, and Adbert Alzolay. That may not make them entirely unavailable tonight, but you’d probably prefer not to have to use them again, given the schedule ahead and the loss of Julian Merryweather.
The off-day on Thursday is very helpful, but after that, the Cubs are playing 10 straight days. Down two starting pitchers, they cannot afford to have a gassed bullpen the entire time.
I wonder, then, if the Cubs will be bringing up a fresh arm tonight. Drew Smyly is definitely fresh and could probably go multiple innings if needed. Mark Leiter Jr. is probably good to go. But Daniel Palencia ate those three innings on Sunday, so he’s probably down. Yency Almonte, if he pitched tonight, would be throwing three out of four days. Same with Luke Little. We know Jose Cuas probably isn’t getting the call. Neris and Alzolay could go on back-to-back days if necessary. It can work, but with Brown starting, you’d probably like to have more flexibility.
On the 40-man, you have Hayden Wesneski, who last threw three days ago (but it was 3+ innings). The other 40-man option is Keegan Thompson, who is fresh and has pitched well the last couple times at Iowa. In non-40-man options (the Cubs could open a spot by putting Julian Merryweather on the 60-day IL), there are actually a ton of guys who could get a look at some point: Carl Edwards Jr., Cam Sanders, Sam McWilliams, Riley Thompson, Chris Clarke, Brad Wieck, Richard Lovelady, Colten Brewer, and more.
In what may or may not be a coincidence of timing, there’s a Twitter report out there (not confirmed!) that pitching prospect Kohl Franklin is getting the extremely early bump from Double-A Tennessee to Triple-A Iowa. That would make some sense if a spot was about to open up.
