We Finally Have A Crosstown Classic Worth Talking About
This is exactly why I got into the Chicago baseball podcast scene back in 2016. If you listen to Red Line Radio you've heard me and WSD talk about this moment for far too long. A time when both teams would compete on a level playing field of being legitimate World Series Champion contenders. And while there's still a lot of baseball to be played, no doubt the Cubs and White Sox are finally at the point of being very fucking good clubs at the same time. For those keeping track at home it's been about 12 years since this point so if I seem excited, that's why. You grow up in this city hoping to authentically hate your buddies' guts on the field of battle and well this is it. Maybe years before it didn't make sense for one side or the other to be overly invested but that shit's over. We're all in this together, even the puss-bags that don't care about baseball in this city. Everyone's dialed in.
Feels good to change the pace. Also feels good to be in 1st place with momentum, depth and veteran leadership clicking on all cylinders. Even if tonight's lineup is a little/extremely shoddy without KB:
Not to beat a dead horse (or 4th outfielder) but Albert Almora isn't very good and I'm dying to be proven wrong. Fortunately, Ian Happ is running away with the opportunity to be The Guy as he leads the Cubs in nearly every offensive category.
Another name you'll be surprised to see is Hernan Perez. Simply put he's not very good but the same goes for Nico Hoerner so when getting a right handed bat in the lineup in place of Bryant, the Cubs are going with the new guy in his first start. Hoerner has been very bad and Keuchel would likely eat his lunch. I don't love it but I'm aware of our alternatives so we're just going to let it ride.
What else:
- Keuchel is notably better against lefties (.600 OPS vs .715 OPS against) so that's why you get all the righties. Fortunately the Cubs lefty bats are plate-discipline heavy that should be able to handle Keuchel's hard, sinking stuff. Look at Bote if you think the Cubs score a bunch of runs tonight.
- Baez could get going finally and I wouldn't hate it.
- Jon Lester has a huge opportunity here to pitch his balls off. I love that so much because we're talking about a guy who lives to pitch his balls off. So naturally it's a very good combination that the stakes are through the roof. Yes the White Sox murder left handed pitching but yes Jon Lester is a generational left handed pitcher. So if you're putting a gun to my head (please dont) and asking me to ride with Jon or not, I'm getting in the front seat. That's becauseI love this man. Even under the worse matchup circumstances I will find a reason to back Jon Lester.
- White Sox are currently in 3rd place in AL Central but playing extremely well. The Tigers suck but they still won all those games and now they have momentum that makes them forget Ricky Renteria sucks at managing. Surprisingly, Moncada won't be playing tonight which is actually a huge advantage because the difference between him and the next guy is fucking STAGGERING. Do you even know Ryan Goins?Yikes.
- That sentence about Ryan Goins probably won't come back to haunt me. At all.
- BETS = we got Bets on the line here between me and WSD and it feels good to finally have some action. Tonight is mild with us trading one hot dog and one beer for each run scored by the opposing team. We're streaming that shit here so follow along to justify my sodium overdose. Tomorrow the loser has to run an amount of miles that equals the run differential. So if the Cubs lose 8-1, I have to run 7 miles directly after tomorrow night's game. I have a bad MCL that can't get looked at under COVID restrictions so this one's actually pretty fucked up.
- Then finally the season series loser between me and WSD can't cut their hair until at least Opening Day. We're both balding. We're both crazy people about our baseball teams. I think there's some scheduling confusion about the next time these two tweams play in 2021 so we're ironing out details on duration of the mane. I hate the fact I'm typing this out but it's what this job is all about. Fuck White Sox Dave and his stupid hair.
- Go Cubs
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