Cubs Drop Contest at Diablo
Matt Cerda reached base three times on a single, a double, and a walk, but there just wasn't much other Cubs offense on display, as the EXST Angels defeated the EXST Cubs 3-1 in Extended Spring Training action at the Angels Minor League Complex at Diablo Park in Tempe this morning.
Three converted position players saw action on the mound for the Cubs today, and while RHP (ex-3B) Josh Lansford struggled with his control, 20-year old Dominican RHP (ex-SS) Gian Guzman and LHP (ex-OF) Ryan Sontag (2008 23rd round pick out of Arizona State) looked good, particularly Sontag, who worked quickly, fired strikes and punched out all four Angels batters he faced.
Exclusively an outfielder in his college days at Arizona State and in his first season in pro ball at Boise last year (where he hit an anemic .218 with only five XBH), Sontag was a combination OF/LHP in high school (8-3 1.45 ERA), and he also pitched occasionally in his freshman year at Michigan State before transferring to ASU and moving the outfield full-time. So it's not like pitching is a foreign language for him.
But the crew-cut 5'10 200+ 23-year old Sontag hardly fits the classic image of a pitcher. A few stocky lefties have had successful big league pitching careers (1954 A. L. MVP Bobby Shantz was only 5'6 145!), but it is unsual to see a body-type like Sontag's throwing off a mound these days.
Nevertheless, Sontag decided to give pitching a whirl in Minor League Camp this past March, and so far the results have been quite promising. He has pitched well in all of his EXST game outings so far, and he looks like he could advance rapidly through the system s a lefty reliever.
Here is today's abridged box score (Cubs players only):
LINEUP:
1. Jose Valdez, CF: 1-3 (1B, BB, 5-3, K - 1 R)
2. Dwayne Kemp, 2B: 1-3 (SH, K, 2B, K)
3. Matt Cerda, DH #1: 2-3 (2B, 1B, BB, F-8 - 1 RBI)
4. Chris Weimer, LF: 0-4 (FC, FC, K, K)
5. Juan Medina, 1B-C: 1-4 (GIDP, FC, 4-3, 1B)
6. Kevin Soto, RF 2-4 (2B, 1B, F-8, K - 1 CS)
7. Alvaro Sosa, C-1B: 2-4 (F-8, 1B, F-8, 1B)
8. George Matheus, 3B: 0-4 (E-5, GIDP, K, FC)
9. Robert Bautista, SS: 0-2 (BB, F-7, K)
10. Jose Made, DH #2: 0-2 (BB, 4-3, 4-3)
PITCHERS:
1. Tarlandus Mitchell - 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR
2. Josh Lansford - 1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 1 K, 2 HBP, 2/2 GO/FO
3. Cedric Redmond - 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 3/2 GO/FO
4. Gian Guzman - 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 GIDP, 4/0 GO/FO
5. Ryan Sontag - 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K
ERRORS: NONE
CATCHERS DEFENSE:
Alvaro Sosa - 1-2 CS
Juan Medina - 1-1 CS
Recent comments
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crunch 7 hours 32 min ago (view)
kevin rizzo is in camp with the cubs and is in workouts with the team.
very tiny guy, no power, but he can run down a ball in the field and he's almost impossible to pitch to. time to give him a contract and put him in the OF.
https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1366081602242023425
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crunch 8 hours 12 min ago (view)
Marquee has added a tuesday game, so now the first televised cubs game is March 2nd (3pm EST)
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Arizona Phil 18 hours 2 min ago (view)
The DFA of Robert Stock to make room for Kyle Ryan coming off the CoViD-related IL wil need to be followed by removing another player on the 40 to make room for Ryan Tepera.
It's possible somebody (like a pitcher) is injured to the extent that he might be placed on the 60-day IL, or else maybe somebody else will go on the CoViD-related IL (which is 40-man roster exempt) in the coming days to make room for Tepera.
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Arizona Phil 18 hours 37 min ago (view)
The Cubs have signed LHSP Ben Holmes (ex-LAD) and RHRP Jose Moreno (ex-NYM) to 2021 minor league contracts. Both were post-2020 minor league 6YFA and neither has been on an MLB 40-man roster.
Holmes pitched collegiately at Oregon State and has some AAA experience, but Moreno hasn't pitched above Lo-A over the course of seven seasons in the Mets organization.
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crunch 1 day 3 hours ago (view)
side note...k.wong is on 1st putting on one of those "baserunning mitts" (hand protection for sliding) that's extending past the length of his hand/fingers by at least 2-3 inches.
they're going to have to start regulating this piece of equipment if this keeps up...
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crunch 1 day 5 hours ago (view)
Q with LAA in his debut for them...HBP, a wild pitch, and BB through 7 pitches...then 3 pop-outs to follow.
blah blah spring training...
baseball on TV...neat.
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First.Pitch.120 1 day 9 hours ago (view)
We just traded for Maddux!!! ......... nope, the other one.
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crunch 1 day 21 hours ago (view)
yeah, i'm just saying i did consider piling onto it with a troll-level post about the trade...it's practically asking to be written that way.
jeff passan did it quite well... https://twitter.com/jeffpassan/status/136577746706...
that said, i had no idea zach bryant existed before today, but his early numbers looked oddly good (which means nothing without context that early in his career).
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Charlie 1 day 22 hours ago (view)
Oh, I mean the trade. You were quite diligent in posting!
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crunch 2 days 1 hour ago (view)
i contemplated writing the post totally trolled out as hell with "zach" coming after a wall of text.
i decided the cubs being cheap was enough pre-season punishment without piling on.
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Charlie 2 days 2 hours ago (view)
This is a straight up troll
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crunch 2 days 3 hours ago (view)
rsox aquiring ZACH bryant from the cubs.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player...
ptbn from the josh osich deal.
totally useless trade...hopefully not a terrible loss.
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Hagsag 3 days 5 hours ago (view)
Chase Strumpf and Andy Weber invited to the ML camp.
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Dolorous Jon Lester 3 days 10 hours ago (view)
Ryan Tepera returns. Major League deal
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crunch 4 days 8 hours ago (view)
spring training TV is usually fluid...adding and subtracting broadcast games...
first cubs TV (as of now) is March 3 (wednesday) on ESPN at 3pm EST.
radio broadcasts available for almost every game that's not televised. the cubs get going on monday and some other teams will start the day before.
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crunch 5 days 5 hours ago (view)
dj snelton's left elbow is screwed up...6 weeks rest then re-evaluate.
looks like he's going to try to avoid having surgery.
Comments
off topic: Look Out Lou
Re: off topic: Look Out Lou
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Re: Hudson
a lot of people were pimping for Hudson...he's had some injury issues and it seemed like they just got rid of DeRosa for the about the same amount money...but it sure looks like a bone-headed move right now.
Long season though...
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Cubs Don't Lose!!
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Trivia
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really? thought you had to be announced?
Lou clearly has no control over this team. If Ted Lilly calls the booth during a game, all bets are off.
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A. White!
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Re: A. White!
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someone in parachat said that len was saying he had surgery on one of his shoulders (right I believe) in the offseason and it's easier to swing from the left side. So we replaced one sore-armed infielder (Miles) with another one that can only bat lefty with a slew of lefties slated against us.
Outstanding planning by the Cubs.
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Cubs good against good teams
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