Series Preview: Chicago White Sox (34-36) at Chicago Cubs (39-32)

I had to double check the White Sox record, as I thought they were something like 25-45. But when you play most of your games in the AL central I guess that helps a bit. After flirting with .500 for most of the last month they finally sealed the deal last Friday to move to 34-34, but lost their last two games to the Yankees.

Team Leaders

White Sox

OBP: James McCann (.374)
ISO: Jose Abreu (.253)
HR: Abreu (17)
R+RBI: Abreu (90)
wRC+: McCann (137)
BSR: Charlie Tilson (2.5)
Defense: Leury Garcia (2.7)
SP K/9: Carlos Rodon (11.94)
SP BB/9: Ivan Nova (2.44)
SP FIP: Lucas Giolito (2.71)
RP K/9: Jace Fry (10.41)
RP BB/9: Evan Marshall (1.65)
RP FIP: Marshall (2.38)
WAR: Giolito (3.0)

Cubs

OBP: Bryant (.393)
ISO: Rizzo (.279)
HR: Rizzo (19)
R+RBI: Rizzo (96)
wRC+: Rizzo (146)
BSR: Bryant (2.5)
Defense: Baez (8.5)
SP K/9: Darvish (10.32)
SP BB/9: Cyle (1.63)
SP FIP: Hamels (3.46)
RP K/9: Kyle Ryan (10.22)
RP BB/9: Kintzler (2.32)
RP FIP: Cishek (3.18)
WAR: Baez/Bryant (2.7)

Man, the Royals and Tigers are terrible. Aside from Giolito, who the Cubs have the misfortune of drawing on Wednesday, no one is really impressing on the Sox.

Injuries, transactions, blood feuds, etc.

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 could get into a game as soon as today. Brandon Morrow is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

On the Sox side, they have a number of big names on the injury list. Yoan Moncada, who leads their position players in WAR, has been dealing with back tightness and is day to day. The same goes for former Cub Beef Castle. Former Cub Jon Jay suffered a severe hip strain back in spring training and has been on the shelf all year, but is currently on a rehab assignment and could be back soonish. SP Carlos Rodon is done for the year after going under the knife for TJS back in May.

Pitching Matchups

K/9, BB/9, ERA, Projected ERA listed for all pitchers

Tuesday: Ivan Nova, RHP (5.94, 2.44, 6.28, 4.81) vs Cole Hamels, LHP (8.82, 3.19, 2.98, 3.62), 7:05 PM CT

Nova is being hit a liiiiiiiitle hard this year….

Wednesday: Lucas Giolito, RHP (10.56, 2.89, 2.22, 4.49) vs Jon Lester, LHP (8.79, 2.17, 4.08, 4.05), 7:05 PM CT

Lester has been a bit of a Schrodinger’s Pumpkin this year, somehow living halfway between looking utterly cooked and utterly dominant on an inning by inning basis. Maybe he’s pulling off some sort of The Prestige situation and replacing himself with a secret twin brother from time to time.

I’m in Germany this week and all the games are at like 2 am local time, so I’m looking forward to the highlights I guess. Looking at the time zone adjusted local calendar in the MLB app is confusing af, since it lists some days as ‘two games’ when one is at 1 am and the other is at ~10 pm. I don’t know how SK does it.