Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres preview, Monday 9/9, 9:10 CT

Today’s roster move: Here

Also, here's a summary of today's other news:

And now for something completely different.

From 1982-2004, Major League Baseball’s schedule was created by two college professors, a married couple, Henry and Holly Stephenson. They used to lay it out on their kitchen table.

In 2005, MLB chose to computerize this task and the Stephensons were out of a gig.

The schedules haven’t been the same since. In today’s Cubs game notes, they paid tribute to the Hendersons and I present that tribute to you here in its entirety, given the Cubs having to travel from Milwaukee to San Diego to Chicago in the space of five days.

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, HENRY AND HOLLY STEPHENSON?: The Cubs this week make their fourth and final trip to the West Coast this season, but the second time a California city has been paired up with a trip to Milwaukee … earlier this season, the Cubs began a road trip with three games in San Francisco only to continue it in Milwaukee the very next series.

In 2019, the Cubs right now see their San Diego trip paired with Milwaukee while in 2018, their trip to Los Angeles was paired with Cincinnati … next year, Chicago’s trip to San Diego is paired with Pittsburgh … alas, a nation turns its travel weary eyes to you, Henry and Holly Stephenson.

Here’s more on Henry and Holly Stephenson. From that article:

To make the process increasingly complicated, the league also allowed special requests from individual teams. “New York always had a long list,” Holly laments.

Despite the many challenges the dynamic duo would thrive, holding the position of MLB schedulers for 25 years before the MLB opted for randomization software—a decision that Holly still can’t get behind. “I did kind of resent computers coming in because they’re not artwork. But,” she says with a laugh, “I have no idea how you use advanced combinatorial optimization software to create a schedule.”

To be fair, it is very difficult to schedule 15-team leagues and have everything come out fair for everyone, and that won’t change until expansion comes and we have 16-team leagues. That could be a decade away.

Having said that, the schedules weren’t great from 2005-12, when there was a 16-team A.L. and 14-team N.L. The Stephensons would probably do a better job than the computers are doing now.

If you’re interested in the video that’s blacked out on the link above due to a copyright claim, you can watch it here.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Padres lineup:

Martini... Martini... that name sounds familiar... [VIDEO]

Yep. Same guy. Nick Martini, Crystal Lake native, family full of Cubs fans, claimed two weeks ago on waivers from the A’s by the Padres.

Also of interest tonight:

That means C.B. Bucknor behind the plate tomorrow for Jose Quintana’s start. Beware.

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Cal Quantrill, RHP

Kyle Hendricks was scratched from his start Sunday and pushed back to today, in order for Jon Lester to throw against the Brewers.

Welp. That didn’t work out. Perhaps this will.

Hendricks has not pitched well on the road. You know that, I don’t need to belabor it. He did throw well against the Padres July 21 at Wrigley Field — seven innings, four hits, two runs, five strikeouts. A repeat of that tonight would be helpful. (The Cubs lost that July 21 game, but it wasn’t Hendricks’ fault — bullpen failure.)

Cal Quantrill threw 5x innings in “relief” in that July 21 game, as the Padres used an opener before they got to Quantrill in the third inning. He gave the Cubs just two hits and struck out six.

Since that game, Quantrill has been in the Padres’ rotation, making seven starts. It has not gone well: 5.68 ERA, 1.289 WHIP in 30 innings. Overall this year he has served up 12 home runs in 90⅔ innings, and he got torched for eight runs in each of his last two starts. He has been worse at home (5.05 ERA) than on the road (4.17 ERA).

More of that, please.

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 Padres site Gaslamp Ball. If you do go there to interact with Padres fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2019 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used in previous years. 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.

Discuss amongst yourselves.