Miami @ Chicago picks

Taillon has five or fewer strikeouts in five of eight starts this season, and his 6.89 K/9 and 18.7 K% since the beginning of 2024 are nothing to write home about. Additionally, the veteran righty has seen both his hard-hit percentage and barrel percentage climb to start the year. The Marlins are strikeout happy against righties, but this total is still too high.

According to the leading projection system (THE BAT X), Kyle Tucker ranks as the 10th-best batter in the league.. Kyle Tucker is projected to hit 2nd in the batting order in today's game.. Wrigley Field sits at the 10th-highest altitude in the league. High elevation tends to lead to better offense.. The Miami Marlins have just 1 same-handed RP in their bullpen, so Kyle Tucker has a strong chance of holding the advantage against every reliever all game.. Extreme groundball hitters like Kyle Tucker tend to be more successful against extreme flyball pitchers like Ryan Weathers.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Seiya Suzuki in the 96th percentile as it relates to his overall offensive ability.. Seiya Suzuki is penciled in 3rd in the batting order in this matchup.. Wrigley Field has the 5th-shallowest LF fences among all parks.. Seiya Suzuki will receive the benefit of the platoon advantage against Ryan Weathers today.. Out of all the teams on the slate today, the worst infield defense is that of the Miami Marlins.

Derek Hill's BABIP skill is projected in the 94th percentile by the leading projection system (THE BAT X).. Wrigley Field has the 5th-shallowest LF fences among all parks.. Extreme groundball batters like Derek Hill usually hit better against extreme flyball pitchers like Jameson Taillon.. Derek Hill's maximum exit velocity (an advanced stat to assess power) has been 112.3 mph since the start of last season, ranking in the 82nd percentile.. Launch angles in the range of -4° to 26° tend to become base hits at a high rate; Derek Hill and his 47.7% since the start of last season rank in the 87th percentile by this measure.

According to the leading projection system (THE BAT X), Kyle Tucker ranks as the 10th-best batter in the league.. Kyle Tucker is projected to hit 2nd in the batting order in today's game.. Wrigley Field sits at the 10th-highest altitude in the league. High elevation tends to lead to better offense.. The Miami Marlins have just 1 same-handed RP in their bullpen, so Kyle Tucker has a strong chance of holding the advantage against every reliever all game.. Extreme groundball hitters like Kyle Tucker tend to be more successful against extreme flyball pitchers like Ryan Weathers.

Wrigley Field sits at the 10th-highest altitude in the league. High elevation tends to lead to better offense.. Nick Fortes pulls a lot of his flyballs (34.2% — 83rd percentile) and will have a big advantage hitting them towards MLB's 6th-shallowest LF fences today.. Nick Fortes has seen a big increase in his exit velocity this season; just compare his 89-mph average to last season's 84.1-mph figure.. Nick Fortes's ability to hit the ball at a HR-maximizing launch angle (between 23° and 34°) has increased from last year to this one, going from 11.6% to 21.4%.

Wrigley Field sits at the 10th-highest altitude in the league. High elevation tends to lead to better offense.. Hitting from the opposite that Jameson Taillon throws from, Matt Mervis will have an advantage in today's game.. Matt Mervis has seen a significant improvement in his exit velocity in recent games; just compare his 95.1-mph average over the past week to his seasonal 90.6-mph mark.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Kyle Stowers in the 90th percentile when assessing his home run skill.. Kyle Stowers is penciled in 5th in the batting order today.. Kyle Stowers will receive the benefit of the platoon advantage against Jameson Taillon in today's matchup.. Kyle Stowers has made significant strides with his Barrel% recently, improving his 21.4% seasonal rate to 31.4% in the past 14 days.. Kyle Stowers's average launch angle on his hardest-hit balls this year (15.1°) is significantly better than his 10.9° figure last year.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Javier Sanoja in the 95th percentile when estimating his batting average ability.. Wrigley Field has the 5th-shallowest LF fences among all parks.. Extreme groundball hitters like Javier Sanoja generally hit better against extreme flyball pitchers like Jameson Taillon.. Javier Sanoja has made significant improvements with his Barrel% of late, improving his 2.9% seasonal rate to 9.1% in the past week.

According to the leading projection system (THE BAT X), Kyle Tucker ranks as the 10th-best batter in the league.. Kyle Tucker is projected to hit 2nd in the batting order in today's game.. Wrigley Field sits at the 10th-highest altitude in the league. High elevation tends to lead to better offense.. The Miami Marlins have just 1 same-handed RP in their bullpen, so Kyle Tucker has a strong chance of holding the advantage against every reliever all game.. Extreme groundball hitters like Kyle Tucker tend to be more successful against extreme flyball pitchers like Ryan Weathers.

In Major League Baseball, the 7th-highest fences are at Wrigley Field.. The wind projects to be blowing in from RF at 8.1-mph in this game, the 2nd-best of the day for mound aces.. Based on Statcast metrics, the leading projection system (THE BAT X)'s version of Expected HR per 600 plate appearances (20.0) implies that Dansby Swanson has experienced some positive variance this year with his 30.7 actual HR/600.