Series Preview: Cubs at Guardians

The Cubs and Guardians will play a (hopefully) three-game series at Progressive Field this weekend.

So far in this young season, the Cubs are 3-3, 14th in wRC+ at 100, fifth in baserunning runs at 1.1, 11th in Defense at 0.1, ninth in ERA at 3.50, and 7th in SIERA at 3.17. The Cubs have played the Nationals and Angels.

The Guardians are 4-3, 26th in wRC+ at 79, 25th in baserunning runs at -0.6, 16th in Defense at -0.7, 15th in ERA at 3.98 and 9th in SIERA at 3.38. The Guardians have played the Mariners and the Dodgers.

Matchups:

Game One, Friday, 4:10PM ET: Probably Cade Horton, RHP vs. Joey Cantillo, LHP

Game Two, Saturday, 7:15PM ET: Probably Shota Imanaga, LHP vs. Slade Cecconi, RHP

Game Three, Sunday, 1:40PM ET: Probably Edward Cabrera, RHP vs. Parker Messick, LHP

The big question for this series will be if the teams can dodge enough rain to get all three games in. Otherwise, Guardians fans hope Chase DeLauter is back, Bo Naylor and Kyle Manzardo show up for this series and Jose Ramirez builds off of his homer in the Dodgers’ series’ finale.

I will also be monitoring if Cade Smith can locate one secondary pitch and get back to his usual dominance. Let’s go, Guardians!

Glossary:

wRC+ – Weighted Runs Created Plus – A measure of determining a player’s run production value while controlling for park effects. 100 is league average.

Baserunning Runs Above Average – A metric including stolen base value, double-play avoidance, and taking extra bases to determine how many runs above average a team is on the basepaths

Defense – This stat gives you how many runs above average a team’s defenders save their team, adjusted for positional value (i.e. a catcher has far more defensive value for a team than a first baseman).

SIERA – A metric to determine a pitcher’s true ERA based on strikeout rate, walk rate, and quality of batted-balls given up. This number is similar to ERA (3 and under is excellent) in determining player performance.