Colorado Rockies: 4 things to look for in series against the Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are coming into Denver as the Colorado Rockies will return home to face them in a three game weekend series as a part of a six game homestand.

The Chicago Cubs come to Denver to start a three game series so here are four things to look for in the series.

The return of Arenado

Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado will return from his five-game suspension that he served for two games against the Washington Nationals and the three game series in Pittsburgh. The Rockies went 3-2 without Arenado and averaged 3.6 runs a game without him.

The Cubs pitching

The Cubs starting pitching has been shaky. In the series, they will have Kyle Hendricks, Yu Darvish, and Jose Quintana on the mound. Hendricks has a 3.71 ERA but he hasn’t been as good as that. His FIP is 6.05 and he has a WHIP that is nearly 1.5. Also, he has been prone to the long ball as he has allowed 2.1 per nine innings this year.

Darvish has an ERA of 6.00 with a FIP that isn’t much better (5.24). He has also allowed nearly two homers per nine innings as well. However, he is averaging more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings this year.

Quintana has been really bad this year as his ERA is 8.16. His FIP is much better than his ERA (4.86) but still not good. His problem this year has been control and allowing hits. He is walking more than six per nine innings and allowing more than a hit per inning so his WHIP is at 1.814. Obviously, more baserunners means more guys who can score.

The Cubs bullpen has been much better, however. Old friend Eddie Butler had a hiccup yesterday against the Cardinals as he gave up four runs (three earned) in 2/3 of an inning but, otherwise, they have been pretty good. They have four relievers with an ERA of 1.00 or less (Carl Edwards Jr., Brandon Morrow, Steve Cishek, and Brian Duensing) and none of them have worked less than six innings.

Feast or famine

The Cubs offense has been very inconsistent to start the season. Entering Friday, they have scored 83 runs in 16 games, which is a little bit more than five per game. However, they have scored eight or more runs in six games, including yesterday against the Cardinals when they won 8-5. They also have scored three or less runs in seven games, including three shutouts against the Reds, Marlins, and Braves (not the three best pitching team that eyes have ever been laid on).

The Rockies will have Jon Gray, Tyler Anderson, and German Marquez to face the Cubs at 6:40 today, 6:10 on Tuesday, and 1:10 PM Wednesday. However…

The weather will probably impact the series

As our very own Greg Moore discussed in this article yesterday, weather will probably be a factor today and Saturday. In the event that one (or both) of the games gets rained out, a double header will probably be played on Sunday. If both Friday and Saturday get rained out, it would be the sixth and seventh times that a Cubs game would be postponed due to weather already this season.

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We will have coverage live from Coors Field today so stay tuned here as well as our Twitter page, @RoxPileFS.