Pittsburgh vs. Chicago: Mlodzinski vs. Assad Pitching Duel

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00:00Pittsburgh and Chicago. Majinski on the mound, the right-handed pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates

00:04going up against Assad for the Chicago Cubs. If you look at the line, it was a heavy favorite

00:09overnight already, Tom. Minus 165 price points, they're gone. Minus 185s, minus 190s at most

00:15outlets right now. Here's how you know. An eight and a half overnight on the total,

00:20it sits at seven across the board. It's Assad and it's Majinski. It's not Cy Young versus

00:26Max Scherzer in his prime. You know why that number is dropping here because the wind is

00:30blowing in at double digits at Wrigley Field. Not to say they can't score runs at this point,

00:34but also Pittsburgh's offense, not great. And Chicago has done the greatest disappearing act

00:39on offense. I've seen this Major League Baseball season. I don't know where it's been, but the

00:43odds makers are telling you, don't expect it to come out and play today either, Tom.

00:47You really can't buy into the Pirates at any point. And again, the weather will impact that game. It's

00:54not like this one game, but it's really just been a trend overall for the Pirates. This pitching

00:59matchup is extremely difficult to break down, in my opinion, because Javier Assad has been with

01:03the Cubs for a couple of years. He's only has one game this season, four innings pitch. Dating back

01:08to last year, middle of the road pitcher, 370 ERA, 4.61 XFIP. He's not a big strikeout pitcher,

01:14only 19.4%. Last year, Majinski for the Pirates, he was a starter earlier in the year. They move him to

01:21the bullpen. He's been making a few short appearances here or there. His XFIP is at

01:253-9-3, which, Donnie, that's not too bad when it's all said and done. The Cubs haven't been

01:30hitting on offense. Majinski, I think, is slightly better than people realize. He doesn't give up

01:34home runs. So, you know, call me crazy, but just give me the under in this game and kind of move on.

01:39I think the Cubs win, of course, but I don't like it at minus 190.

01:43I mean, tell you, look at the Cubs lineup here. Let's just go back a month against right-handed

01:47pitching, which you're going to get a lot of at-bats. You have a pretty good track record

01:50on if these guys are performing. Michael Bush has a good ISO power, number 246,

01:54no doubt about it. Low-weighted on base percentage, ridiculously high K rate.

01:57But then we just get down the order, which we saw in the beginning of the season, Tom.

02:00It was like one, two, three, four, five punch combinations coming out right at you.

02:06Kyle Tucker, horrendous for his right-handed pitching over the past month.

02:09Seiya Suzuki, horrendous against right-handed pitching over the past month.

02:13Pete Crow Armstrong, who's in the MVP race because you thought there was a chance

02:16that he might hit 45 bombs this year? You know, how about an ISO of 161 over the past

02:2060 at-bats and a 306 weighted on base percentage? And Kang at 27% of the time.

02:25Carson Kelly, terrible. Casey, terrible. Nico Horner, terrible.

02:30Dansby Swanson, terrible. Matt Schultz, like the best hitter in the lineup,

02:33and he's due to about nine today. What happened to that? That roster was like,

02:37I got to be in on them every single day in some sort of way.

02:39Like, remember, Tom, the HRR market, the hit market, the RBI market?

02:43Like, Pete Crow Armstrong carried that for like 45 days.

02:47It really, like the Cubs were a print factory to start the beginning portion of the season.

02:51Like, every day, every other day, you're getting not just a hit or an RBI,

02:55but you're getting multiple out of multiple players in the lineup,

02:58and that all came crashing down.

03:00They didn't make any moves at the deadline, really, to bolster things,

03:03and maybe they were overperforming when it's all said and done,

03:07but it has gone sour quickly for the Cubs.

03:09And by the way, if you're looking from excitement for the Pittsburgh Pirates,

03:13you're going against Javier Assad.

03:14He's not a great pitcher.

03:15Doesn't have a lot of innings here, obviously, over the past 30 days,

03:18but Simon, Horowitz, Gonzalez, Triolo, Henry Davis, Isaiah Kainer-Falefa,

03:26just horrendous.

03:28Like, again, we don't have great pitchers on the mound, and you have a seven.

03:30Yes, the wind is blowing in at Wrigley, and by the way,

03:32it's been a long time since we had the Wrigley wind blowing out.

03:35Seems like every game they play, there is in,

03:36but not a lot of love in that game.

03:38There's no doubt about that.

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