Cubs Lineup Game 10 of 162: Cubs v Pirates WRIGLEY HOME OPENER!!!

Ah, there’s absolutely nothing like the sights, smells, and sounds of Wrigley Field on opening day. The buzz in the air, the excitement brewing, the bars brushing off the sandwich signs, every radio station hosting remotes, and an occasional drunk fan peeing in a front lawn. With the Cubs starting off with an unsuccessful nine game road trip, they get to reset it all today.

Wrigley Opener

The Cubs are going with a similar lineup to yesterday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, where they fell 4-2. But, when facing a right-handed pitcher that relies heavily on a hard slider (averaging 90 MPH), it is rather obvious that Albert Almora would sit and Jason Heyward would shift to center.

Today Jon Lester is on the bump against Pittsburgh Pirates starter, Jameson Taillon. The Cubs hitters have a .965 OPS against Taillon, while the Pirates have a .675 OPS. So on paper, this should go the Cubs way, right?

Pirates Lineup

Here is the Pirates lineup for today.

1. Adam Frazier – .500(2 ABs) career vs Lester
2. Starling Marte – .211 career vs Lester
3. Francisco Cervelli – .263 career vs Lester
4. Josh Bell – .278 1 HR career vs Lester
5. Jung Ho Kang – .300 career vs Lester
6. Melky Cabrera – .275 career vs Lester
7. Pablo Reyes – .333 (3 AB) career vs Lester
8.  Kevin Newman – Never faced Lester
9. Jameson Taillon – .000 (2 AB) career vs Lester

 MLB Power Rankings

The Chicago Cubs not only have fallen out of favor for a lot of fans, but they have fallen out of favor with MLB as well. Well, at least in terms of Power Rankings.

It is hard to say any other team is stronger than the LA Dodgers at this point. They’re scoring runs at an insane pace. Hitting homers at an even more insane rate, and appear to be the clear cut best team in baseball right now. But, for all the woes the Cubs had in the early going, up to last week MLB still thought the Cubs were the 6th best team in baseball. Fast-forward to this week and the luster is gone.

Here is how the top 20 stack:

1. Dodgers
2. Phillies
3. Astros
4. Brewers
5. Rays
6. Yankees
7. Red Sox
8. Mets
9. Cardinals
10. Nationals
11. A’s
12. Twins
13. Cubs
14. Indians
15. Braves
16. Mariners
17. Rockies
18. Padres
19. Rangers
20. Pirates

While the Cubs are sitting at 2-7, they have scored 10 or more runs in four games, more than 5 runs in five, and at least four runs in all but two. Offensively this team is fine. It’s the question of defense and pitching that is surprising.

Momentum

Even though the Cubs lost in the series finale against the Brewers, the Cubs bullpen was much improved. The trio of Tyler Chatwood, Kyle Ryan, and Allen Webster pitched a total of four innings of scoreless ball, and only two hits.

The Cubs should certainly look at yesterday as a, “normal game” which it was just a loss. The Brewers scored more runs in an otherwise uneventful afternoon.

There are some whispers of the same jinx against this team as there had been in the past three or four seasons. The idea is that the Cubs can’t post back-to-back games scoring a ton of runs. While it kind of held true yesterday, the Cubs have scored plenty of runs in plenty of games:

1. Game 1 – 12 runs
2. Game 2 – 6 runs
3. Game 3 – 10 runs
4. Game 7 – 10 runs
5. Game 8 – 14 runs

There is little example of them not being able to back up a high scoring game with another good offensive output. Its also WAAAAYYYY too early to really build trends on a team. Well… except one…

Kris Bryant has been bad since the opening series. The reason – he can’t hit an outside pitch.

Bryant hit a homer on a ball up and away in Texas, but since then pitchers have pounded him low and away and he hasn’t gotten a bat within three inches of a ball (not literally). There is no reason for a pitcher to show him anything other than a pitch outside right now. On Saturday night, Alex Wilson even hung a slider up in the zone, away, and Bryant watched as he struck out looking.

Maybe it is time to sit him down for a game to get his head right. I never advocate sitting a potential superstar, and it pains me to say this, but Bryant doesn’t look like a superstar right now. He doesn’t even look like a viable offensive threat today. Hopefully some home cooking gets him going.

Good momentum

Willson Contreras is tearing the cover off the ball right now. After his home run in Sunday’s loss, Contreras is now hitting .364/.517/.864 with 3 HR, 7 R and 7 RBI. He also has a robust 233 wRC+!!!

This is the type of production fans and baseball peeps thought he was going to produce in 2018. While we know he had some training issues, and maybe believed the hype too much, he has certainly responded. Look for him to entertain 41,000 today in the Wrigley opener.

Jamie Baker

Hi, I’m Jamie and I run this site. I’ve published work on multiple other sites and through that experience I decided to create CHICAGO style SPORTS. We truly aim to speak for the Chicago fan. Additionally, as a member of the IBWAA (Internet Baseball Writers Association of America) you can be assured that all content you read will be written with incredible integrity.

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