Series Preview: Miami Marlins (57-48) at Chicago Cubs (63-41)

In Series Previews by berselius76 Comments

The bafflingly good-again Marlins took three of four from the Cubs back in late June, smack in the middle of their ice cold streak. It’s even stranger to see them succeeding despite a bad year for Giancarlo Stanton in every category other than HR.

Team Leaders

Marlins

Cubs

Pitching Matchups

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

Monday: Adam Conley, LHP (8.59, 3.61, 3.38, 3.79, 3.94) vs Kyle Hendricks, RHP (7.95, 2.47, 2.39, 3.35, 3.60), 7:05 PM CT

Hendricks has been the most reliable member of the Cubs staff this year, but they’re going to need him to break one of those reliable things and have him pitch more than his usual 5-6 innings in this game after gassing the pen last night. From the looks of it, Conley has a similar issue as Hendricks. He’s only pitched past the sixth inning five times this year. He was the guy the Cubs missed during their four game set in Miami earlier this year,

Tuesday: Jose Fernandez, RHP (13.18, 2.65, 2.79, 2.22, 2.66) vs Jason Hammel, RHP (7.64, 2.76, 3.23, 4.33, 4.12), 7:05 PM CT

Hammel’s 82% strand rate has managed to mask a lot of his other peripherals, which are not so great. He has looked decent in his past few starts since potato chip gate, and hopefully he holds off the hordes of Second Half Hammel criers as the season rolls forward.

This Fernandez guy might have a future in this league. Too bad those rumors last year that the Cubs were interested in trading for him were probably just wishcasting.

Wednesday: Tom Koehler, RHP (7.03, 4.26, 4.18, 4.27, 4.20) vs John Lackey, RHP (9.02, 2.70, 3.69, 3.80, 3.47), 1:20 PM CT

Lackey finally picked up his first win in a long time last week and thus managed to not point any fingers for once. The Cubs roughed up Koehler in their last matchup for four runs in six innings. It was the only game they won in the series. Since then Koehler has been leaking runs like a sieve, though he did managed to shut down the Phillies offense in his last start.

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Comments

  1. Smokestack Lightning

    JonKneeV:
    I was crossing my fingers for Archer.

    My guess is you’ll be able to recross them for Archer come the offseason. Cubs will be looking to bring in a cost-controlled replacement for Arrieta.

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  2. Author
    berselius

    I’m guessing this Joe Smith deal means the Cubs are meh on Nathan. I’d rather they just give that slot to Spencer Patton anyway

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  3. Myles

    I really like the trade for Joe Smith because a) we gave up a lottery ticket for him and b) he’s so fungible that he’ll only play a role in our bullpen if he’s good, so if he doesn’t pan out we can very easily cut bait. Sometimes you get 2015 Tommy Hunter and it doesn’t work, and sometimes you get 2015 Trevor Cahill and you look like a genius. It probably means that Joe Nathan’s days as a Cub are numbered, but I also don’t think Justin Grimm is some huge loss for the 2016 Cubs if he spends the rest of the year in Iowa.

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  4. Edwin

    Myles,

    I liked that lottery ticket because he was a pitcher in the minors who was actually striking hitters out, but they traded him for a lottery ticket with a sooner chance for a payout.

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  5. Myles

    Edwin:
    Myles,

    I liked that lottery ticket because he was a pitcher in the minors who was actually striking hitters out, but they traded him for a lottery ticket with a sooner chance for a payout.

    Pretty much exactly what I’m thinking. We should be in the business of gambling 2020 away for 2016 if the stakes are this low.

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  6. Myles

    Myles: Pretty much exactly what I’m thinking. We should be in the business of gambling 2020 away for 2016 if the stakes are this low.

    Apologies: I meant this low THEN AND THIS HIGH NOW. No supper for me.

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  7. cerulean

    Edwin:
    Myles,

    I liked that lottery ticket because he was a pitcher in the minors who was actually striking hitters out, but they traded him for a lottery ticket with a sooner chance for a payout.

    I want Tony Campana back. The Cubs will never win anything trading away grinders like him.

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  8. cerulean

    But seriously, it’s a depth move I don’t have issue with. Let him be the sixth starter and shuttle some bullpen arms up and down until rosters expand. Keeping all five starters fresh is an interesting strategy when the team has no injuries to their rotation all year. In fact, every team should have their starters never get injured. It’s so obvious that it’s crazy it’s taken Theo and Maddon to point it out.

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  9. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    Fowler
    Bryant
    Rizzo
    Baez (2b)
    Russell
    Heyward
    Contreras
    Szczur
    Hendricks

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  10. WaLi

    So I just moved (back) to Florida so I’m stuck watching the Marlins broadcast. They had a highlight video commercial for the Marlins, and one of the highlights was an outfielder diving for a ball to make a catch. It looked funny though so I stopped and rewatched it, and lo and behold it was a highlight of a fielder trapping a ball lmao

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  11. Rizzo the Rat

    Conley was so wild, even Baez managed to work a deep count against him (before swinging through what should have been ball four).

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  12. Rizzo the Rat

    I’m surprised Szczur isn’t swinging at any of those intentional balls. Some of them look tempting!

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  13. Rizzo the Rat

    That IBB to Szczur was a gift. The Cubs get to lead off the next inning with Fowler instead of Hendricks.

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  14. Perkins

    It’d be nice to see Joe give Hendricks a chance at the shutout, especially since there’s an extray day off before his next start.

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