The last two days, the Cubs played intrasquad games. Which means the games were played by Cubs players on both teams. Here are observations I observe during the two short games. Remember … don’t look muchinto these 2 games.
*The Cubs future looks bright with the kids showing off their skills.
*The guy who showed the most was OF Matt Szczur. He played the 1stgame and drive in 6 runs … a grand slam and a 2 run double. Also, he showed his speed and his base-running skills. Szczur does have speed and we could see him in the majors in a year or two.
*Brett Jackson may be the real deal. Jackson played in both games and homered in both. The best thing I saw from Jackson was he will take walks. As he walked twice in the 1st game. He can hit too and play defense. Let’s just hope for a heck of a spring training and we will see his skills in the majors sooner than later.
*If Tony Campana shows he can get on base at a good pace, he could lock up the 5th OF spot. He showed his speed in both games too.
*The more experience players did not look good with the bat, most of them wen t0-whatever. Hopefully that will pick up and we can actually see some offensive.
*Travis Wood looked very bad and is going to have to shape up or he’ll spend the year in Triple A. He’s the guy who gave the grand slam to Matt Szczur. Hopefully we will see better results in real spring training games. Member Wood came over in the Sean Marshall trade with the Reds.
*Trey McNutt is still not living up to the hype of being the Cubs top pitching ’spect. He came in to pitch and right away he gave up a home run to Joe Mather. By the way, Joe Mather (who could make the team as a back-up) has some pop.
*One guy who has been struggling in Triple A, pitched 3 shutout innings. Thatguy being Jay Jackson. Hopefully he can pick it up and who knows, maybe we’ll see him in the majors this year. My guess it’ll be out of the bullpen, though.
Tomorrow is the Cubs 1st spring training. The Cubs will be playing the Oakland Athletics. Here’s the lineup Dale Sveum will
put out there and pitchers who are slated to pitch:
1) LF Alfonso Soriano
2) 3B Ian Stewart
3) SS Starlin Castro
4) 1B Brian LaHair
5) CF Marlon Byrd
6) RF Davis DeJesus
7) 2B Darwin Barney
8) C Welington Castillo (Geovany Soto still out about a week with the groin injury.)
Don’t look much into the line-up as David DeJesus is still the favorite to lead-off. However, Dale Sveum did say Alfonso Soriano may lead off this year.
Pitchers that we are expected to see tomorrow are … Rodrigo Lopez (will start), Carlos Marmol, Dae-Eun Rhee, Rafael Dolis, Lendy Castillo and Marcos Mateo.
Baseball is almost back in full swing!
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