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Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Preview, Wedesday 8/1, 1:20 CT

By Al Yellon
Write your own caption. What is Casey thinking? Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Casey Coleman reacts to giving up a grand slam home run to the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field. Credit: Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE
Write your own caption. What is Casey thinking? Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Casey Coleman reacts to giving up a grand slam home run to the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field. Credit: Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

The Cubs move on today, a new month dawning, and 60 games left to play in the 2013 season, whether we want them or not. Many of you will be focused on the prospects the Cubs acquired over the last two days, and others currently playing in the minor-league system. Some of those players will be with the Cubs in the major leagues soon; others are two, three, maybe even four years away. (I read this analysis today and while I agree with a lot of it, I can't see any way that a 19-year-old Javier Baez is in the major leagues as soon as next year.)

Here are your roster moves for today:

Apparently, Volstad and Cabrera will both pitch out of the bullpen, which means the Cubs need a starter for Sunday in Los Angeles.

It's not clear at this time whether he'll be starting, or relieving. The Cubs have an off day tomorrow, so they can push some of the remaining starters back.

Apologies for the lack of a first-pitch thread Tuesday night; I think you can understand how that got lost in all the other things I was trying to get together pregame. There will be one today.

Darwin Barney is out of the lineup this afternoon, following the HBP to his head Tuesday night. He apparently wanted to stay in the game last night, but was removed as a precaution. With a day game after a night game today, and then no game till Friday night, this is probably just precautionary.

Cubs lineup:

DeJesus CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, LaHair RF, Baker 2B, Castillo C, Valbuena 3B, Wood P

Pirates lineup was not available at the time I wrote this post. Check the BCB Twitter feed for the Pirates lineup.

Today's Starting Pitchers
Travis Wood
Travis Wood
Cubs		 vs. Jeff Karstens
Jeff Karstens
Pirates
4-6 W-L 3-2
4.98 ERA 3.88
54 SO 38
30 BB 12
17 HR 3
vs. Pit -- vs. Cubs
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Travis Wood 4-6 13 13 0 0 0 0 77.2 70 45 43 17 30 54 4.98 1.29
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Jeff Karstens 3-2 9 9 0 0 0 0 51.0 51 23 22 3 12 38 3.88 1.24

Travis Wood last started against the Pirates September 24, 2011. He didn't do very well. Current Pirates are 11-for-43 (.256) against him with no home runs. Wood, after a good run in June, was awful in July. Now it's August; maybe the change of month will make a change in him. Or not! He'll need to be good, because guess what? He's the Cubs' No. 2 starter, as of now.

Jeff Karstens spent quite a bit of time on the DL this year with a sore shoulder and hip flexor issue. Since his return he's posted a 3.69 ERA in six starts, none of which have been against the Cubs. He last faced the Cubs May 29, 2011; half the Cubs in that game aren't on the team any more. Alfonso Soriano has hit him well: 7-for-16, two home runs. What's going to happen today? Who knows?

Today's game is on WGN.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout.

Today's first pitch thread will post at 1:20 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 2:20, 3:20 and 4:05 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

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