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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.
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