Not the greatest mix of Baseball today as there are six games early and then five games later on the main slate tonight. This is covering the Early slate obviously and six games might sound like a really nice way to spend your Thursday afternoon but there’s a lot of noise out there right now that we have to monitor.
There’s the obvious trade deadline looming with players being scratched and traded left and right and one of the scheduled pitchers for today is Max Scherzer, who if he actually takes the field today would be nothing short of a miracle or stupid negligence on the part of the Nationals. All indications are he is going to be traded as early as today, so lets assume he doesn’t pitch at all or if he does it’s a short start.
Then on top of that, we have COVID back! That’s right, vaxed or unvaxed, players are getting covid and the whole contact tracing mechanism is in full force pulling players from games as they are rounding second and heading straight for the hospital apparently….
Chaos. But controlled chaos??
WEATHER
Well, at least this isn’t a problem (ha, ha, ha, famous last words here…)
Zack Wheeler
We don’t know (A) if this game will play, (B) who the heck the Nationals are going to have available and (C) if they give a damn. But we do know now that Wheeler is going to pitch game one of what is now a double-header and with it being only 7 innings we have a high chance he gets a nice little 7 inning no-no.
Luis Castillo
Embrace the chaos I say. The Cubbies have two star players in Bryant and Rizzo who I could very well see being pulled while in the field in the 3rd or 4th inning today to give them a standing ovation from the crowd right before they are both traded away. Castillo has been pitching really well after a horrific start and hopefully the hyeena doesn’t rip our balls out from us this afternoon. Wind is blowing in, so that has to help.
White Sox vs Royals
Anderson, Abreu, Vaughn … Merrifield, Soler, Santana
Today’s version of Tigers/Twins is White Sox-Royals. Hot as hell out in Kauffman Stadium and this is the spot the White Sox offense will explode in but I wouldn’t overlook Kansas City who has been hitting well at home and should do much better against Rodon than they did vs Giolito last night.
Giants
Slater, Posey, Ruf, Flores
After getting shut down by Walker Buehler last night the Giants are probably very low owned and have a ton of upside vs LHP David Price. We know they hit lefties well and we know Price can be hit even in a short start. With all the chaos around who is pitching for the Nationals and that being a 7 inning game, I would much rather take low owned Giants over the Phillies as my third option today.
CATCHER
- James McCann
- Salvy
FIRST BASE
- Joey Votto … The heater of all heaters, and a really great matchup against Alec Mills
- Pete Alonso
- Gavin Sheets
SECOND BASE
- Whit Merrifield … I do not see him being traded
- Max Muncy
- Donovan Solano
THIRD BASE
- Wilmer Flores
- Yoan Moncada
- JD Davis
SHORTSTOP
- Tim Anderson
OUTFIELD
- Dominic Smith
- Jorge Soler
- Andrew Vaughn
- Austin Slater
The Dongers Club
- Joey Votto – 1B – Cincinnati – Chairman of the Dongers Club
- Wilmer Flores – 3B – San Francisco
- Brian Goodwin – OF – White Sox
- Whit Merrifield – 2B – Kansas City
- Tim Anderson – SS – White Sox
The Chalkiest Stacks
White Sox
Good Teams Getting Overlooked
Giants
Best Leverage Play against Chalk
Royals
Favorite DK Pitching Combinations
Wheeler and Castillo
FAVORITE HITTERS
Brian Goodwin
Wilmer Flores
Whit Merrifield