Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers Preview, Friday 5/19, 1:20 CT

You will need this today:

Even by Chicago standards, the change in weather from Thursday to Friday is pretty extreme -- from upper 70s and unlimited sunshine to 40s and chances of showers and storms with a strong breeze off Lake Michigan. Here is the detailed forecast.

As you'll see at that link, Saturday's forecast isn't much better (though somewhat warmer).

This is already the second visit by the Brewers to Wrigley Field and they don't come back until September. So... I'd say the Cubs will do their best to get this one in.

Presuming they do so, here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Schwarber LF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Happ CF, Zobrist 2B, Contreras C, Baez SS, Butler P, Jay RF

Brewers lineup:

Sogard LF, Thames 1B, Villar 2B, Shaw 3B, Santana RF, Bandy C, Broxton CF, Arcia SS, Espino P

Eddie Butler vs. Paolo Espino

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports

Eddie Butler is coming off a successful debut for the Cubs a week ago in St. Louis. He has no track record to speak of vs. the Brewers, his last appearance against them was a relief outing last October 1 which tells us little.

All I can really say is that he appeared to have good velocity last Friday, mixed up his pitches well and had good command. Keep that up and he'll be an excellent addition to the rotation.

Paolo Espino is an interesting story. He's been in the minor leagues for 10 years for three organizations (Nationals, Indians, Brewers), thrown over 1,400 professional innings and this is his first callup at age 30. Here's more about him.

Sometimes Cubs teams have trouble against guys like this. This is when you need good scouting reports. Hope the Cubs have one on Espino.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago. Jim Deshaies is away for his daughter's college graduation, so Kerry Wood will join Len Kasper in the CSN broadcast booth. The game is also on MLB Network (outside the Chicago and Milwaukee markets).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

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The 2017 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used during 2016. Here's how it works.

You'll find the game preview posted separately on the front page, two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page. The First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads will be published in that stream, as well as the recap. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post, and at the time I write the recap I will rename the stream "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread, all the overflow threads and recap in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in the game's StoryStream as noted above.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at one hour, two hours and 2:45 after the scheduled game time.

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Discuss amongst yourselves.