- The last weekend before the All-Star break begins with a Friday afternoon tilt in Wrigley Field with the Chicago Cubsentertaining the New York Mets. When to trust a starting pitcher recently activated from the IL is tricky. The Cubs Marcus Stroman pitched for the first time in over a month last Saturday, working four scoreless innings against the Dodgers. The Mets offense isn't daunting, but they don't fan much, and Stroman doesn't miss many bats, so it's best to keep Stroman on the bench if ratios are a concern.
- Speaking of returns, Nathan Eovaldi is slated to come off the IL and face the Yankees. Despite some recent success against the AL East leaders, Eovaldi only threw three innings in his only rehab start, so it's best to wait until after the break to activate Eovaldi.
- Friday's slate isn't the best for streaming pitchers, but there are some viable options. Tyler Wells (40%) is coming off a rare rough outing against the Angels while the Rays are heading into their weekend set on a high note after winning their early week series against the Red Sox. Even so, Wells in in play against a lineup with the sixth lowest wOBA and sixth highest strikeout rate facing righthanders. The next best candidates square off in Busch Stadium with Andre Pallante and the St. Louis Cardinals hosting Hunter Greene (30%) and the Cincinnati Reds. Greene is listed slightly higher on the rankings. He's the better pitcher, but Pallante faces a weaker offense and has home field advantage.
- With the caveat there is a lot of noise in team splits facing lefthanded pitching, the Chicago White Sox are surprisingly the most productive lineup with a southpaw on the bump. On Friday night, they'll face Twins lefty Devin Smeltzer who has surrendered three homers in each of his previous two outings. There are plenty of batters to deploy, including Andrew Vaughn (58%), Yoan Moncada (49%), AJ Pollock (19%), Josh Harrison (4%), Leury Garcia (1%), Seby Zavala (1%).
- One of the perils of final weekend of the first half is some clubs will opt to shut down injured hitters, so they get extra time to heal. There are a handful of top batters leaving games early over the past few days, thus are worth tracking. The most important players are Mike Trout, Eloy Jimenez, Garrett Cooper, Jon Berti and Bryan Reynolds.
- Fortunately, there are several solid examples of batters enjoying the platoon edge while facing vulnerable pitchers to use as replacements. The best options are Eugenio Suarez (57%), Oneil Cruz (47%), Randal Grichuk (45%), Luke Voit (31%), Adam Duvall (24%), Cal Raleigh (3%) and Jake Meyers (3%).
What you need to know for Friday's MLB Games
- Thread starter biggins
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