Chicago Cubs Lineup (7/19/24): Hoerner Leads Off, Morel DH, Steele Starting
Looks like it was a very good decision to fly home yesterday instead of waiting for American’s IT outage to ground all their flights. And here I thought flying into and out of DFW was enough of a pain with minor weather delays. Anywho, this is going to be a very quick breakdown because time is something I have precious little of this morning.
The Cubs finished the first half on a high note but are still in last place heading into Friday’s action against the Diamondbacks. Last year’s surprise World Series contenders are a game over .500 and could make noise again with a strong offense. The task of keeping them quiet falls to Justin Steele, who has not faced this lineup in 2024. He’s been nails over the last several weeks and should give his team a chance this afternoon.
The lineup is more or less what we saw prior to the break, with Nico Hoerner leading off at second base and Michael Busch manning the two-hole and first base. Seiya Suzuki is in right, Ian Happ is in left, Christopher Morel is the DH, Dansby Swanson is at short, and Miles Mastrobuoni is at third. Tomas Nido will do the catching and Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center.
Now that it appears as though the Cubs have abandoned the idea of Morel at the hot corner, I feel even more strongly about seeing what Matt Shaw can do this season. Maybe that’s after the trade deadline if they clear 40-man spots by selling, maybe it’s in September when personnel moves don’t carry as much weight.
This series itself won’t decide what the Cubs do, but getting over on Ryne Nelson will push the needle closer to at least standing pat at the end of the month. The Henderson, NV native attended Basic High School, the alma mater of the Cubs’ fourth selection in the recent draft, Ty Southisene. That’s a slightly more esoteric connection than the obvious one involving the pitcher’s name.
Nelson has faced the Cubs twice before and this will be his second trip to Wrigley Field as a starter, the first of which saw him allow just one run on two hits over 5.2 innings. The 26-year-old righty is a strike-thrower who doesn’t miss many bats, making him an almost ideal opponent for the Cubs. Well, except that we’ve seen these guys get absolutely carved by pitchers who had no business doing so.
Despite a 95 mph fastball that plays up due to his 83rd-percentile extension, Nelson’s results have been subpar because he just fills up the zone. Almost the entire strike zone is bright red on his location heat map, and it doesn’t help that his cutter is also very hittable because it so often winds up right in the middle third to the glove side. That helps him stifle left-handed batters to an extent, but righties have a field day with his stuff.
To wit, like-handed hitters come into this one with an absurd .341/.374/.523 slash that works out to a .382 wOBA. Lefties have hit seven of the 10 homers Nelson has allowed, though, and six of those have come on the road. He’s been very inconsistent this season, swinging from very good outings to terrible ones, so let’s hope he’s due for a stumble after consecutive strong efforts against the Padres and Blue Jays.
First pitch is at 1:20pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.
?️ Second half starts today
Tune in: https://t.co/Gs2hZXyTjH pic.twitter.com/tJyCklawkO
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 19, 2024