Cubs Inch Closer to Cactus League Opening Day

It was another day of "live" BP in Mesa, with ten Cubs pitchers throwing 30 pitches each to groups of Cubs position players this morning at Fitch Park.  


Jeff Samardzija threw the ball well again today, as his hard sinker was getting a ton of ground balls. Cubs #1 pitching prospect Trey McNutt appeared a bit nervous and struggled with his control, at one point getting admonished by veteran catcher Geovany Soto (who had to move around quite a bit behind the plate while catching McNutt's offerings).


All of the Cubs players participated in pre-BP fielding drills today, and all of the position players got to take "live" BP except Max Ramirez, who did get to hit with his group (M. Ramirez, Clevenger, and Robinson) on Field #2 (with a coach throwing) after the "live" BP session had concluded.


FIELD #2


PITCHERS
Todd Wellemeyer
Andrew Cashner
Jay Jackson
Thomas Diamond
Kyle Smit


CATCHERS
Chris Robinson (Wellemeyer & Cashner)
Steve Clevenger (J. Jackson & Diamond)
Koyie Hill (Smit)


GROUP 1 HITTERS (vs Wellemeyer & Cashner)
Matt Camp
Brett Jackson
Marquez Smith
Geovany Soto


GROUP 2 HITTERS (vs J. Jackson & Diamond)
Kosuke Fukudome
Bryan Lahair
Lou Montanez
Fernando Perez
Chris Robinson
Brad Snyder


GROUP 3 HITTERS (vs Smit)
Jeff Baker
Darwin Barney
Steve Clevenger
Augie Ojeda


FIELD #3


PITCHERS
Randy Wells
Jeff Samardzija
Chris Carpenter
Jeff Stevens
Trey McNutt


CATCHERS
Welington Castillo (Wells & Samardzija)
Max Ramirez (Carpenter & Stevens)
Geovany Soto (McNutt)


GROUP 1 HITTERS (vs Wells & Samardzija)
Marlon Byrd
Tyler Colvin
Koyie Hill
Aramis Ramirez
Alfonso Soriano


GROUP 2 HITTERS (vs Carpenter & Stevens)
Welington Castillo
Reed Johnson
Bobby Scales
Josh Vitters


GROUP 3 HITTERS (vs McNutt)
Jim Adduci
Starlin Castro
Blake DeWitt
Scott Moore
Carlos Pena


It was sunny and cool today, but weather predictions for this weekend are not good, with rain & strong winds expected on Saturday (when the Cubs are scheduled to have a work-out at HoHoKam Park), and then cold temperatures (around 50) for Cactus League Opening Day on Sunday, before a warm-up into the 70's next week.

Tags: 
Cubs Spring Training
Submitted by Arizona Phil on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 2:40pm
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Comments

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 2:59pm

I would love 50 degree weather right now.

Submitted by Childersb3
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 3:11pm

With Samardjiza's contract as it is we all better get used to him being in the bullpen to start the year. We can't just waste a five year investment in a guy by letting him walk with 3 million before the season starts.

RH Relievers:
Marmol, Wood, Cashner, Samardjiza [that's a lot of heat, but command?]
LH Relievers:
Marshall, Grabow, Maine or Russell

Starters: Demp, Z, Garza, Silva, Wells (1 option left) or Russell.

I don't see management letting Silva walk with 6 million by waiving him, either. He'll be on the 25 man (maybe relief) if Hendry can't trade him.

Coleman, Jackson, Wellemeyer, Looper are optioned or released. Guys like Looper and Wellemeyer could be in the Swing man role instead of a 3rd lefty like Maine. Maybe they get added to the 40 man and put on the DL to work out in Mesa or Iowa and wait for an injury or slow start.

Submitted by tim815
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 3:22pm

Might as well trot Silva out as a starter in April. He was our best pitcher early last season. If he gets hurt, bring up Coleman.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 3:48pm

I may have to argue with the basic premise that it makes more sense to pitch a guy with an ERA of 6 because he's getting paid $3 million, than it does to release him and pay someon $400K to have an ERA of 4.5, but you're probably right in that he makes the roster.

Submitted by Childersb3
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 4:16pm

Fair point.

Samardjiza did have his best stretch in the majors when he first came up in the pen (even though he started in the minors to get more reps) and just threw as hard as he could because that's all he could do.

Let him try and go back to that. I have never understood the need to make him a starter, then change to reliever, then back to starter concept. There are players in baseball that make more than 3 million a year to do just one thing. Take Grabow for example: he sits on his ass in Mesa for five months, makes 4.5 million.

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 4:06pm

Baseball tonight- Cubs Preview

Saw Pena and Colvin getting reps at first

Pena spent week in Dallas with Rudy in December(hit .205 vs RHP in 2010)

Aram came in looking for help this year, according to Kurkijan his source said "last year Aram would not listen to anyone." Completely "different guy"

Kurkijan saw Z in weight room at 6:45 am

Players like Quade's "enthusiasm".

Dempster does Farley's Matt Foley the motivational speaker.
Not very good, kruk an kurkijan laugh like they being tickled by an ostrich feather

Submitted by Stevens
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 4:25pm

Dempster does Farley's Matt Foley the motivational speaker.

Exhibit A for prosecuting Dempster as Dusty's mystery pooper. That Foley bit requires lots of bending and abdominal tension. A deuce is a natural expectation.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 4:58pm

from the department of "well, yeah...duh"

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/i...

"Quade plans to bat Castro second"

also, aram to hit cleanup

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 5:54pm

Pena third?

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 5:59pm

who f'n knows...

soto will probably end up trying to get 70rbis hitting 7th/8th...byrd/pena probably 3rd or 5th...soriano 6th...

*shrug*

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 7:42pm

9 days til the first televised cubs spring game (Sat, March 5th)...bring it on...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 8:22pm

Silva weighing down the rotation

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/7...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 8:29pm

he beat his projection by over 1.00era point last year, so he should be up there with dumpster...cheer up. =p

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 9:21pm

It's like ESPN intentionally hires people who aren't very bright. Why not go with a 1-man rotation?

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 9:31pm

it's just retarded as hell marcel projections...take 3 years, weigh the most recent, throw in an age factor, pretend it matters.

this year their hitter projections have 5 guys even hitting 30+ homers, and the top at 34...only 54 hitting 20+ homers...

...and we thought 2010 was the year of the pitcher. =p

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 11:10pm

Adam Wainwright, Era: 2.98 Ip: 198

Whoops. Sure, you can call it 'unforeseen circumstances' or whatever, but a lot of times these unforeseen circumstances make all the difference. It doesn't mean you can't plan for them, it just means projections are kind of stupid.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 11:42pm

marcel is one of the worst out there...it's even worse with hitters and doesn't take in account discounting injury years even if the player is healthy again with nothing lingering.

i beat up on projection stats a lot, but this one has outlived it's usefulness...and could probably use an update on how much they handicap players who are 30+ years old. we live in the nutrition, supplements, and weight room era since the 90s at the very least.

hardball times loves pushing this crap projection method...meh...

-edit-

here's the formula...which has lucked itself into being close with other projection systems over the years. some take this to mean marcel is decent. i take another view of the whole thing and it has nothing to do with "decent"

http://www.tangotiger.net/archives/stud0346.s...

Submitted by The Joe
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 1:04am

I'm confused, so they're saying the 5th starter is not as good as the rest of the rotation?

Incidently, I think Pujols should play all of the infield positions because he's much better than all the other guys.

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 1:15am

that, and having guys throw 250-300ip a year is worth the 2 extra wins he calculates it would result in.

awesome. that's why you don't let random bloggers write for espn. =p

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 1:33am

my god...this place is a nuthouse.

what's in the water in the STL blog-o-sphere?

http://www.fungoes.net/

i don't even know where to start...my brain absolutely shut down once i hit the "david freese playing SS" part...there's an absolute lack of realizing human beings playing baseball produce these numbers, for a start.

Submitted by George Altman
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 9:57pm

I spent the first 18 yrs of my life in downstate Illinois in the heart of Cardinals territory. To say their collective fan base is the biggest group of 'mouth-breathers' this side of Alpha Centauri would be to say the Grand Canyon is a pretty big ditch.

My Dad taught me to root for two teams - the Cubs and whoever is playing the Cardinals. To this day I wish their fans, the Cardinals, and their city the worst life has to offer. To know a Cardinals' fan is to hate them.

Submitted by JoePepitone
on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 1:15am

Their city already has the worst life has to offer. Just ask some of the former residents who keep on fleeing it in droves (Pop. 856,796 in 1950, 319,294 in 2010).

"According to CQ Press's "Cities Crime Rankings 2010," St. Louis city was rated the "most dangerous city in America," overtaking Camden, New Jersey." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/22/nat...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 9:06am

Just showing teams that had the biggest dropoff from their top 4 starters to their 5th and then using that to make a loose point about going back to a 4-man rotation, something that has been a topic for about the last 7 years or so.... At least in the blogosphere. Although I think a few teams threatened to consider it over the years.

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 11:05am

nolan ryan harps on it every few years...he also harps on bullpen being used too much, too. he hates the specialist reliever.

nolan ryan doesn't get that not everyone is nolan ryan, though.

there's some "nolans" out there that we'll never get to see thanks to modern pitching management and the fact a pitcher costs a zillion bucks if they can manage 200ip a year and stay healthy while producing a sub-4.00 era.

the last remaining place these days that pitchers tend to be used like they're disposable is high school. some highschool coaches out there do stuff that would make arm-protection-nuts go crazy with anger.

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 11:08am

Ted Williams the manager could not understand why everyone on his team could not hit over .300.

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 6:48am

800 wrist bands for tix today.
Magic "#1937

500 wrist bands last year.

Submitted by Ryno
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:36am

Geez... write-up in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch basically saying Pujols is a bad Christian for being so greedy.

Submitted by Ryno
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:39am

And here is a link.

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 10:45am

I'm Christian and that's just f'ing appalling.

Open the books up on that church and let's see how pious they are being.

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:59am

that's just low...im not religious, but that is looooooow.

let's at least judge him by his actions and choices beyond his paycheck...

the article contains a point/counter-point, but i'm a little shocked it even needs to be written. he does a lot more than many players with his personal life and his money than a lot of guys out there.

...i'll just stay away from his political views...which i wish he'd stay away from...

Submitted by The Joe
on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 12:08am

My theological counter-point: bullshit.

Thank you, seminary, for training me for this day.

Submitted by JoePepitone
on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 1:04am

Re: Pujols and his Christianity: Wow. Imagine -- using religion to try to shame someone else into doing what you want them to do. What a novel idea.

edit: Oh, and +1 to The Joe.

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