Maybe I just haven’t read enough reactions yet, but I was surprised how much I loved the Field of Dreams game last night and I’ve yet to hear from someone who didn’t love it. I got emotional at times, and it was striking how much the scenes brought me back to the farm my great-great-granddad homesteaded—the one out by Sioux Falls and Sioux City, where my dad grew up (there was no major league stadium there, but you know what I mean). I guess I, like so many, cannot not be romantic about baseball. And I’d add Iowa to that list. Credit to Major League Baseball. Credit to FOX. Credit to the game of baseball, and to the great state of Iowa. That was awesome, I hope they do it every year, I also know it won’t be the same as it was this time. I’m really impressed.
David Ross let slip the other day that the Cubs would be playing in the 2022 game, though it sounded like there was at least a little uncertainty there. If the Cubs are playing in it, here are the potential series I can see the game coming from:
August 2nd-4th: @ St. Louis
The Cardinals giving up a home game to play in Dyersville would make as much sense as the Cubs giving one up geographically (the Twins and Brewers have similar distances from the field, and the Royals are decently close as well), and this falls right in the calendar window from this year. As others have mentioned, the Cardinals were supposed to play in the game last year before the pandemic messed things up (what a mild way to put that).
August 8th-10th: vs. Washington
The Nationals could don some generic-enough-to-not-violate-trademarks Senators throwbacks and make this work.
August 12th-14th: @ Cincinnati
It’s not inconceivable that the Reds could give up a home game, and they have the history to make it appealing. This would line up with the dates from this year (they’d move the Friday game to Thursday, the 11th, presumably).
August 22nd-25th: vs. St. Louis
Later in August, should they choose to go that route, but not yet to football season.
July 25th-26th: vs. Pittsburgh
If they go a few weeks earlier, we could see the Cubs play the Pirates, another old-time team.
Others??
The Cubs visit St. Louis in June, host St. Louis and Cincinnati in June, host Milwaukee in August, host Baltimore in July, and there are of course other games on the schedule that could be used. I’m doubtful MLB will use a non-original 16 (or adjacent, in the case of the Nationals) team, which makes me think the Brewers won’t be involved, and makes me lean against the Orioles, who were the St. Louis Browns for a long time. The Red Sox have been thrown out as a possible opponent but that series runs the weekend prior to the 4th of July, which feels like a bad bet for ratings. I’m also doubtful MLB will want to play the game in June, because of the difficulty of competing with the NBA playoffs. There are other possibilities as well.
The best bet is probably that series the first week of August, and while it might be a sad time, right after the trade deadline, the Cubs having just traded Willson Contreras and Kyle Hendricks (which is the worst-case scenario, right?) doesn’t seem bad enough to hold the game back emotionally. I would not have minded seeing the Cubs lose 17-4 in Dyersville yesterday. That would not have lessened the experience.
For reference, the “original 16 teams” (from the start of the World Series era through until the 60’s) were, in the NL, the New York Giants, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Phillies, the Reds, the Pirates, the Cubs, the Cardinals, and the Boston Braves. In the AL, it was the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Washington Senators (who’d become the Twins), the St. Louis Browns (now the Orioles), the Tigers, the Indians, the White Sox, and the Philadelphia A’s.
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Not a lot to say about yesterday’s game. The Romine/Romine thing was fun. Hendricks had a really bad start, his xERA’s at 4.79 while his FIP’s at 4.73, and he just hasn’t been himself on the whole aside from that seven-start stretch across June and July in which he posted a 2.83 FIP, allowing just one home run. Hopefully he bounces back next year. Patrick Wisdom demolished his homer, continuing to make it easy for the Cubs to pencil him in as one of the thirteen position players on next year’s Opening Day roster (you’d assume, as of right now, that Wisdom joins Contreras, David Bote, Nico Hoerner, Nick Madrigal, Jason Heyward, and Ian Happ, leaving six spots open, one of which could go to Rafael Ortega and another of which will go to a backup catcher). Frank Schwindel had a bit of luck, but a big day nonetheless. He’s up to a 123 wRC+ but his xwOBA’s only .275.
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The Diaspora:
Kyle Schwarber could be back this weekend?? Guess the groin thing got overblown in the game of telephone. Craig Kimbrel threw a pretty clean eighth inning and then cursed the mound so Liam Hendriks would falter and calls would increase for the White Sox to make him the closer. Yu Darvish had a bad day in Arizona, leaving in the third with lower back tightness. Tommy La Stella and Kris Bryant batted second and third in the Giants’ order. Trevor Williams pitched for the Mets and pitched well and I TOLD YOU GUYS THE CUBS COULD HAVE GOTTEN MORE FOR HIM. I would love to see Andrew Chafin in Philadelphia Athletics throwbacks playing amidst the corn.
The Draft Race:
Why not. We’ll keep an eye on this.
I’ll have to dedicate a post to where the value really turns the corner in the draft (my impression is that it happens right around the top ten, which is good for the Cubs), but for whatever it’s worth, the Cubs are currently percentage points behind the Rockies for the ninth pick (ahead of them, technically, but the gist is that at the moment the Cubs have the tenth pick). They’re a game away from the Nationals, Twins, and Royals, and—relevantly this weekend—three games away from the Marlins. The fifth overall pick is probably still the draft ceiling (hard to catch the Orioles, Rangers, Diamondbacks, and Pirates), but it’s becoming more and more believable the more we see this team with our own eyes.
Around the Division:
Josh Hader was activated, as we saw. Dylan Carlson and Wade LeBlanc left yesterday’s game, but Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, and even Dakota Hudson are reportedly on their way back (Hudson’s a ways away). Carlson will get an MRI on his wrist, LeBlanc will get testing on his elbow.
The Cardinals won despite the injuries, but they’re still eleven back of the Brewers, three back of the Reds (who won), and six and a half back of the Padres, with two NL East non-leaders between them and that wild card spot in addition to the Reds.
So don’t get too jealous.
Up Next:
The Marlins!
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Whom:
Cubs vs. Miami
When:
6:10 PM Chicago Time
Where:
Marlins Park, but can it be called that without the sculpture?
Weather:
It appears the roof will be closed, as Fred the topical depression sounds like he’s going to peak at 25-mph winds or so in Miami? That’s just what I’m seeing on the hourly, which has the pinnacle at about noon tomorrow.
Starting Pitchers:
Adbert Alzolay vs. Jesús Luzardo
The Opponent:
It’s hard to remember now, but the Cubs failing to win a June weekend series against the Marlins was the first thing that took them off track from what we were thinking would be a very different-looking season at this point.
Luzardo debuted in 2019 in the bullpen and has his final prospect ranking listed in FanGraphs as fifth overall. He was solid last year for the A’s, but he’s struggled this season, even at AAA, where he was spending time before being the key piece of the Starling Marte trade. He’s got a 5.05 xERA and a 5.99 FIP over 47.2 innings, and his AAA FIP is 5.54. Over his career, he has a 4.76 FIP over 118.2 innings. So, below replacement-level this year, solid overall.
This will be his third start for the Marlins. In the first two, he allowed a combined ten runs in just under ten innings, striking out seven and walking seven while allowing one home run. That’s a better FIP than ERA, but still not good.
We’ll see. He may still pan out, but at the moment the Cubs are catching him at a good time.
The Numbers:
The Cubs are +105 underdogs, with Miami at -115. That’s an implied win probability of about 46%. The over/under’s at 7½ and favors the under.
Cubs News:
A no-hitter was thrown in South Bend last night, with 21-year-old Joe Nahas (unranked in the Cubs system on FanGraphs, has a 3.63 ERA over 39.2 high-A innings but a 6.10 FIP) doing the bulk of the work. Alexander Vizcaíno, one of the pieces in the Rizzo trade, threw the first two innings as he continues to work his arm back up. Vizcaíno, like fellow acquisitions Alexander Canario and Anderson Espinoza and preexisting farmhands Miguel Amaya and Christopher Morel, is on the 40-man roster already, and will presumably be staying there through the offseason but we’ll see. Anyway, keep him in mind as a potential part of the bullpen next year or perhaps even sometime in September.
Cubs Thoughts:
Kind of a no-lose weekend. You get swept, you’re tied with the Marlins in the draft race. You win the series, it feels good to win a series and you probably got some production. Would be nice to see another good outing from Alzolay. Every positive step he can take is huge, and continued production past 100 innings would be awesome. The promising future guys are pitchers, and Alzolay is arguably the biggest piece.
