Back to Wrigley: What to watch with the Chicago Cubs this weekend

Which Chicago Cubs will we see this weekend?

As I said before, the Cubs are a rotating cast of guys looking to prove themselves, with a couple of familiar and regular faces. But let’s break this down for what we will see,

The Cubs show projected starters as Zach Davies on Friday and Alec Mills on Sunday, leaving Saturday as TBD. There is much speculation that Keegan Thompson is going to get the call and return to the big league club after a stint with Triple-A Iowa. You may remember him from earlier in the season, as he started a game against the Dodgers in May and came out of the bullpen for awhile.

He was sent down to stretch out his arm to be a big league starter. In four starts with Iowa, Thompson went 14 2/3 innings, gave up zero runs on five hits, five walks, striking out 16. I’d say he’s good to go.

The problem with the Cubs pitching staff, however, is when the starters hand the game over to the bullpen. Since trading away Andrew Chafin, Ryan Tapera, and Craig Kimbrel, it has been an absolute horror show. From August 1 through August 17, the only pitcher that has an ERA south of 5.00 is the newly-acquired Heuer, with an ERA of 2.00. And unfortunately, he can’t pitch every night.

Shifting our focus over to the position player side of things

Believe it or not, there are a plethora of Cubs that are kind of hot with the bat right now. In the moth of August, the Cubs have five position players batting north of .250, which is great for them. Rafael Ortega, Frank Schwindel and Matt Duffy are all north of .350, carrying the squad offensively. Hopefully we can see more of the same continue on warm afternoons at Wrigley with the wind blowing out.

A new face to watch this weekend is newly called up Michael Hermosillo. In just his second game with the Cubs on Wednesday, he went 1-for-4 with a home run. Hermosillo, an Illinois native, grew up a Cubs fan, and will get his first start (I assume) wearing the home uniform at Wrigley this weekend.

Offense and defense, put it together and you’ve got yourself a baseball game. But will anyone be there to watch?