"We’ll be doing this again next weekend in Phoenix http://www.marinersfanproshop.com/authentic-edgar-martinez-jersey , playing the entire season series against the D-backs in a 10-day period, so the preview here from Jim McLennan, manager of our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit, will also be valid then (except for specific numbers).Fun factThrough 2014, the Cubs had played quite poorly against the D-backs. From Arizona’s entering the National League in 1998 through 2014, the Cubs were 55-70 against them, and a horrific 23-41 in Phoenix.Since 2015, though, things have gone better for the Cubs against Arizona: 16-10, with identical 8-5 marks at Wrigley Field and Chase Field.Pitching matchupsFriday: Kyle Hendricks, RHP (0-3, 5,40 ERA, 2.175 WHIP, 5.69 FIP) vs. Merrill Kelly, RHP (1-1 http://www.marinersfanproshop.com/authentic-edgar-martinez-jersey , 3.79 ERA, 1.053 WHIP, 3.84 FIP)Saturday: Yu Darvish, RHP (1-2, 6.11 ERA, 1.755 WHIP, 6.93 FIP) vs. Zack Greinke, RHP (2-1, 5.79 ERA, 1.200 WHIP, 5.68 FIP)Sunday: Jose Quintana, LHP (2-1, 3.43 ERA, 1.429 WHIP, 3.24 FIP) vs. Robbie Ray, LHP (0-1 Felix Hernandez Jersey , 4.64 ERA, 1.359 WHIP, 3.99 FIP)Times & TV channelsFriday: 1:20 p.m. CT, NBC Sports Chicago, MLB Network (outside Cubs and Diamondbacks market territories)Saturday: 1:20 p.m. CT, ABC7 ChicagoSunday: 1:20 p.m. CT, NBC Sports ChicagoPredictionThe numbers on a couple of those pitching matchups are pretty frightening, but Cubs pitching is generally trending in the right direction. They should take two of three here.Up nextThe Cubs have Monday off, then host the Dodgers at Wrigley Field in a three-game series beginning Tuesday evening. Back to your regularly scheduled Friday video game rumblings"MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan has this week’s Twitter mailbag:Leigh Oleszczak at KC Kingdom also weighs in on Moose:Alex Duvall doing double duty over at Royals Farm Report.First, he continued their Prospect Rankings with numbers 20-16.Then he runs historical comps for Nicky Lopez:This week, Caesar’s released their win total over/unders. The Royals come in at 69, 3rd lowest in the AL. Interestingly, 7 teams in the AL are at 77 or lower. Going to be a lot of ugly games this season as “the tank” is popular.We don’t see a lot from them about baseball, but Scout said to take the over. Interestingly:Apparently, the Royals, along with the Tigers and Diamondbacks Hisashi Iwakuma Jersey , watched an Adrian Gonzalez workout last week.MLB is looking at a rule change around DL and option time, moving both back to 15 days.This is to alleviate some of the sketchy ferrying of relievers between AAA and MLB.Personally, I do think something has to be done about this issue - it’s not really fair to the pitchers who get jerked around all year and it’s definitely against the spirit of the 25-man roster.However, teams should also not risk players’ health by waffling whether they should go on the DL or not so there may be unintended consequences. I’m not sure this is the solution but I’m curious as to the results.In today’s The Best of Royals Review (TM), we’re looking back at a Fanpost (WhatPost? FanWhat?). I’m stealing the description straight from Max’s The Best of Royals Review: 2012im_not_that_bright also had some popular stories in the style of other authors like Dostoyevsky and, my personal favorite: Dispatches from 2013 about Luke Hochevar.It’s a leftovers Friday.Time for some older, off-the-wall stories that I don’t think were ever posted here.If they were, you can be polite and not mention it.***This is a couple of weeks old but fairly high profile and a search didn’t show any mention of him on these pages.Enes Kanter’s a fairly non-descript Turkish player for the Knicks.He made news a couple of nights ago for not playing and wanting to get away from New York.But that basketball minutiae is best left to Posting and Toasting.The bigger story about him staying out of a game was from a couple of weeks ago.The Knicks played in London last week and he didn’t go because he’s worried he could be detained or killed because he’s a critic of Turkish president Erdogan.And lest you think this is just some player preening for the cameras: “Kanter has said he believes the Turkish government has targeted his father in the past because of the player’s critical stance against the country’s government. In 2017, Kanter’s Turkish passport was canceled and he was held at a Romanian airport upon landing in Bucharest... [Kanter] has received death threats... According to a report by The New York Times, Erdogan has jailed, fired or suspended tens of thousands of people accused of plotting a failed coup. In December 2017, Turkey’s state-run news agency, Anadolu Agency, reported that prosecutors were seeking more than four years in prison for Kanter on charges of insulting Erdogan in a series of tweets he posted in 2016.”That’s just crazy that a millionaire basketball player can be afraid of his life because of his political views.***Max briefly touched on this with a story a couple of weeks ago, but let’s look at it further.After Disney lobbied for copyright reform in the late 90s, no new material has joined the public domain for 20 years.Finally Ken Griffey Jersey , we are moving forward again.At least until their lawyers revisit this issue.After all, Steamboat Willie joins the public domain in 5 years and I’m guessing they’re not very excited to lose their exclusive rights to Mickey Mouse.There’s a lot of interesting material heading there in the next few years:Of course, it’s not quite that simple:***In other news, apparently it’s hard to find pants if you’re a hockey player.Finally, from the funny files: How could I pass up the headline “Authorities warn people to not eat chicken tenders spilled on roadside”?Or “A tiny town has been overrun with ‘cute’ but confused seals”?Back in the 8-bit generation, consoles didn’t have much graphical horsepower.The 16-bit generation was similar with few exceptions like Star Fox.Crude 3D gaming took root in the fifth (N64/PSX) generation of video game consoles, buoyed by gorgeous FMV sequences.But it wasn’t until the sixth generation where the......Oh, who am I kidding.I couldn’t do that to Hokius.Of course our song is from Kingdom Hearts III, which drops today in Japan and a couple days later stateside.Below is the final trailer which features Hikaru Utada’s theme song for the game (“Don’t Think Twice”).I don’t think is as good as “Simple and Clean” or “Sanctuary”, but you can be the judge:*Unfortunately, I won’t be playing KH3 for a while as it’s not being released on the Switch and I still have to catch up on the previous game first: Dream Drop Distance for the 3DS.