***Official*** 2019 Spring Training Thread

[zack54attack]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yu Darvish showed he was healthy, hitting 96 mph on the gun, but certainly rusty: 36 pitches, 17 for strikes, four walks, only one swing-and-miss. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cubs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cubs</a></p>— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) <a href="https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1100504237048500229?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
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[zack54attack]

Darvish was apparently hitting 96 today. That's a pretty good sign. The max he hit last year was 97.54 on his 4 seam and 97.81 on his sinker.

He was a little rusty. But I expected that in his first start.

 

[chibears55]

He was a little rusty. But I expected that in his first start.

He said his curve was off today..
Couldn't understand why because it was good during bullpen sessions

 

[CubsFaninMN]

I cannot believe the Cubs have Johnny Field playing LF and Zack Short playing SS...



-Doug

 

[CSF77]

Any news on CJ? I noticed that he hasn't pitched yet.

 

[beckdawg]

13 cubs likely to see the active roster this year are 20-72 with 10 BB and 17 K's so far. That's a triple slash of .278/.365/.458 with 12.2% bb rate and a 20.1% k rate. As a team last year they hit .267/.344/.426 9.4%/20.7%. Granted its spring training and a super small sample size but it's encouraging none the less. Looks a lot closer to their 1st half numbers where they were the best offense in baseball excluding pitching(.276/.357/.444 10.2%/20.1%).

I was gonna do a similar thing with the pitching but it's kinda pointless because the only likely bullpen arms who've pitched are Kintzler and Duensing(and Chatwood if you think he makes it) and the starters have only thrown 2 or fewer innings in their 1 start. That being said 4 of the 5 starters have looked pretty good with Davish being a mixed bag. He wasn't *bad* but didn't have much control.

The hitting numbers also don't today's game where Happ is 1-2, Bote's 0-1 with a walk and a run, Schwarber is 1-2 with an RBI, and Russell is 1-2 with a run.

 

[beckdawg]

Any news on CJ? I noticed that he hasn't pitched yet.

He pitched today 1 IP 1 k nothing else.

 

[Castor76]

Did mine eye deceive me? Chatwood with 3 IP and no walks! Not calling for him to have a starting slot, but that's nice to see.

 

[CSF77]

Did mine eye deceive me? Chatwood with 3 IP and no walks! Not calling for him to have a starting slot, but that's nice to see.

Pitching mechanic:

Over the offseason, Chatwood got his work in at the University of Redlands in California, where two of the school's coaches (Chris Hernandez and Ryan Garcia) helped him iron out a delivery flaw. Chatwood explained that he eliminated a glove tap at the start of his throwing motion last year, but he was still sort of stabbing his right hand in the direction of third base. This caused a chain reaction, ending with his hand not being in sync with his landing foot.

Usually it takes a off season to figure it out and create new habits.

Back logged a Kintzler one also: https://www.mlb.com/news/brandon-kintzler-poised-for-bounce-back-2019-c304086262

MESA, Ariz. -- Brandon Kintzler believes his struggles in the second half with the Cubs last season were due to a classic case of information overload. After being traded to Chicago, the former closer felt he became too reliant on pitching to scouting reports rather than sticking with his strengths.
That was part of the discussion he had with manager Joe Maddon at the start of this spring.
"He just said, 'I believe in what you can do. You're a ground-ball machine,'" Kintzler said. " They just said, 'We want to get back to what you do best, and that's just powering your sinker in there. No more thought process about any scouting reports or analytics. Let's just stick to what you do best.'"

I'm pretty sure the issues will be solved in house. The talent is there. IMO it was a bad decision on the coaching staff picked. All of a sudden now it is like...Oh I get it...

Sums up what situation Joe will use him in:::

"I thought it was a very good meeting with Joe," Kintzler said. "Who knows what it could lead to? But, I definitely know he's going to want me for double plays."

 

[beckdawg]

Giambrone seems like he could be an actual useful dude. It kinda sucks the cubs are in this weird flow state where they need vet leadership because between him and bote they feel like they have a pretty useful group of bench guys. I suppose neither is a lefty which is a bit of a hurdle but you look at Descalso and Zobrist and I just sort of wonder how much worse off they would be going with the young guys. I mean granted Zobrist is better but he's also costing you $12 mil and had for instance you dealt him this offseason you would also be bringing back something.

 

[CSF77]

Giambrone seems like he could be an actual useful dude. It kinda sucks the cubs are in this weird flow state where they need vet leadership because between him and bote they feel like they have a pretty useful group of bench guys. I suppose neither is a lefty which is a bit of a hurdle but you look at Descalso and Zobrist and I just sort of wonder how much worse off they would be going with the young guys. I mean granted Zobrist is better but he's also costing you $12 mil and had for instance you dealt him this offseason you would also be bringing back something.

It would be either or honestly. They are clones

 

[chibears55]

Today game 2:00 WGN

 

[chibears55]

30 for 30 on mlb network had nothing really to say about the 2019 Cubs that it spent most of the time talking about Harper, and Maddon slogan

 

[beckdawg]

 Player     	PA	H	AB	BB	SO	BB%	K%	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG▼	OBP	SLG	OPS
 Bote, D	10	3	5	3	1	30.0%	10.0%	4	1	0	0	3	.600	.700	.800	1.500
 Schwarber, K	16	4	8	8	2	50.0%	12.5%	3	2	0	0	3	.500	.750	.750	1.500
 Bryant, K	13	4	9	4	1	30.8%	7.7%	6	0	0	2	5	.444	.615	1.111	1.726
 Almora Jr., A	10	4	10	0	1	0.0%	10.0%	2	1	0	0	2	.400	.400	.500	.900
 Caratini, V	10	4	10	0	1	0.0%	10.0%	2	1	0	0	2	.400	.400	.500	.900
 Russell, A	10	3	8	0	1	0.0%	10.0%	2	0	0	0	2	.375	.300	.375	.675
 Heyward, J	6	2	6	0	1	0.0%	16.7%	2	0	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667
 Contreras, W	12	3	10	1	4	8.3%	33.3%	5	0	0	2	5	.300	.417	.900	1.317
 Baez, J	10	2	9	1	2	10.0%	20.0%	1	1	0	0	0	.222	.300	.333	.633
 Rizzo, A	12	2	10	2	4	16.7%	33.3%	2	0	0	0	2	.200	.333	.200	.533
 Zobrist, B	8	1	7	1	1	12.5%	12.5%	1	1	0	0	0	.143	.250	.286	.536
 Happ, I	16	2	15	1	1	6.3%	6.3%	1	1	0	0	2	.133	.188	.200	.388
 Descalso, D	10	1	10	0	3	0.0%	30.0%	0	0	0	0	2	.100	.100	.100	.200
 Team       	143	35	117	21	23	12.7%	16.3%	31	8	0	4	28	.299	.406	.470	.876

These should be updated through today's games if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Castor76]

It's only Spring Training, but Chatwood had 3 IP and 0 BB and 0 ER. Guy might work his way to tradeable.

 

[chibears55]

It's only Spring Training, but Chatwood had 3 IP and 0 BB and 0 ER. Guy might work his way to tradeable.

Be nice if they could move him and then be able to sign Kimbrel

 

[CSF77]

Be nice if they could move him and then be able to sign Kimbrel

Or he actually has value and ends up as the closer.

He has the stuff for it and his paycheck would be justified. Add to it he is durable and on the right side of 30.

Never know how this plays out.

 

[chibears55]

Or he actually has value and ends up as the closer.

He has the stuff for it and his paycheck would be justified. Add to it he is durable and on the right side of 30.

Never know how this plays out.

nice fantasy but doubt it
If anyone gonna get or should get an opportunity to close while Morrow out it Edwards

 

[TL1961]

Chatwood walked too many men to be even a 5th starter.

It's one thing to hope he gets his walks under control. But to think he becomes an effective closer? That's quite the leap.

 

[CSF77]

nice fantasy but doubt it
If anyone gonna get or should get an opportunity to close while Morrow out it Edwards

Edwards had control issues also. He has added a pause to his pitching motion like Janson to increase accuracy. IMO it is better to see what you have before placing labels.