We are rolling into the weekend with a 14 game Friday Main slate today, which excludes just one game and no it’s not the Cubs at home in Wrigley (it’s Mets at Marlins, you can sleep easy knowing you missed out on this one even though the Mets are gonna whoop the Marlins). [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER No rain issues and lots of heat. Roof status in Arizona is TBD [spacer height=”20px”] So when I first glanced at the names going tonight I said wow that’s a ton of good names out there. Verlander, Severino, Nola, Gore, Manoah, Kopech, Anderson, Urias. Plenty of guys we are generally considering. And then I looked closer. And I kept looking… And … Yeah, I don’t like the majority of them. [spacer height=”20px”] MERRILL KELLY Beyond fears of the roof being open I cannot find anything wrong with Kelly tonight. To the point where I am fine with justifying him as an SP1 today as well. Detroit has a couple young kids in Greene and Torkelson who we think at some point could get going together but neither has shown anything yet to warrant that and Grossman + Miggy both look horrible vs Kelly in this match-up. Plus if you think Javy Baez is hot because he tore up the Red Sox and think he’ll fly across the country into Arizona and wasn’t up all night partying with the locals out there in Phoenix on his way to 0-4 with 3 strikeouts then I don’t know what to tell you. All signs a go for Kelly so long as he can get past Victor Reyes tonight. AARON NOLA Nola in a road day game is trouble, but Nola in PETCO at night is just fine. Okay class, what have I said over and over this season about the Padres?? Anyone? Yes, you in the back with the beer in your hand. Yes, that is correct, they don’t hit the ball down in the zone. And what do we have here with Aaron Nola? Someone who lives down in the zone. MACKENZIE GORE So I think we have established who Gore is going to struggle with in his career and it would be the Colorado Rockies of all teams. They saw him his last two starts and managed to get to the rookie SP – which we kind of expected would happen at some point. But…...
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