Oh, I see you Matt Szczur, that was a big boy homer right there. Â Matt Szczur is making a lot of noise in camp, today might have been the exclamation point as he destroyed a Derek Holland 1-1 offering into the parking lot. Â This kid has a place on the opening night roster in my opinion.
Hey boys, save some for Sunday, eh? The Cubs smacked around the Rangers in the ninth today to the tune of eight runs, turning a 9-7 deficit into a 15-10 victory.
The Cubs made it official today, Javier Baez, Addison Russell, and Kris Bryant have all been sent down. Technically Baez has been assigned to Iowa, Bryant and Russell have been assigned to minor league camp. Not surprised by the moves except for Baez being sent to Iowa, I really thought he would break camp with the team given his skill set but obviously the Cubs want him to work on a few things in the batters box. The Cubs have said all along that Bryant would not break camp with them, and I’m glad they stuck to THEIR plan, and not anyone else’s. Six days until real baseball.
It’s been a productive couple days for the Cubs lineup, yesterday they scored 14 runs, and they added seven more to their spring total today. Once again the long ball played a large role in the victory as Miguel Montero, Junior Lake, and Matt Szczur all had a dinger. Edwin Jackson turned in a good outing, and the Cubs defense threw the ball around the field with a purpose, things are coming together nicely.
Miguel Montero Dinger
Cubs Gun Down Gordon
Baez With a Solid Throw
Welcome back, Jeff. Jorge Soler absolutely annihilated that baseball to give the Cubs an early 2-0 lead over Jeff Samardzija and the White Sox.
The Cubs aren’t doing so well tonight, but there has been a few bright spots. One of them is this Mike Olt blast, Olt has been impressive so far this spring as he has his sights set on an opening day roster spot.
Bright lights for the Cubs tonight as they battle the Angels on ESPN tonight, first pitch is at 6:05 PM CST. The lineup the Cubs are trotting out tonight is worthy of the National media, and I’m sure there will be endless talk about how the Cubs are handling Kris Bryant, so tune in… Eric Jokisch gets the ball for the Cubs, he will face off against veteran right-hander Jered Weaver, and a pretty regular season looking Angels lineup. The Cubs made cuts earlier today, no surprises really (Almora, and Schwarber included), the roster now stands at 40.
1. Baez – 2B
2. Russell – SS
3. Bryant – LF
4. Soler – RF
5. Rizzo – 1B
6. Olt – 3B
7. Castillo – C
8. Jokisch – SP
9. Szczur – CF
Impressions? Kris Bryant is getting his first start in LF this spring, and Joe Maddon is once again hitting the pitcher 8th, obviously something he likes to do. Also of note, Chris Denorfia is battling a hamstring issue that will most likely keep him off the opening day roster, so Matt Szczur has another great opportunity to get noticed tonight.
I’m not even mad. Taijuan Walker put on a pitching clinic last night in what had to be the fastest spring training game in the History of ever. The Cubs couldn’t do much of anything against the young right-hander, and they could only manage six hits in the 3-2 loss. Travis Wood wasn’t terrible, he just couldn’t keep up in the five innings he worked. Wood gave up three runs on five hits, while walking two, and striking out three, his spring ERA sits at 4.19 which is fine. The pen did some work last night, Pedro Strop, Phil Coke, and Hector Rondon combined to work three scoreless innings, giving up one hit while walking two, and striking out four.
Lots going on around here, one of those things that is keeping us busy has been creating and prepping for the upcoming minor league season. We provide daily in-depth recaps of every minor league team in the Cubs system, it’s a lot, but it’s worth it.
Make sure you check in daily for the recaps, and box scores, you’ll learn a lot about the Cubs prospects coming through the system, and how well they are doing. We are excited to provide you with this in-depth reporting all year long!
Edwin Jackson did himself no favors today as the Athletics put a hurting on the right-hander. E-Jax gave up eight runs on nine hits in just 1.2 innings of work, his spring ERA sits at a meteoric 7.59, yuck. The result was never really in question today with the A’s scoring ten times through three frames en route to a 14-2 victory. How did the Cubs get their runs you ask? Well, the usual ways. Jorge Soler had an RBI single, and Kris Bryant increased his ridiculous home run total to nine on the spring. Bryant did make his third error of the spring this afternoon, but no one is talking about that, except the Cubs front office (wink, wink). Not a lot of things went well today, but one bright spot was the Cubs walked nine(!) times, sure they were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, but NINE WALKS.
Born on Third 