Spring Training Miscellany: Cubs 10, A’s 6 – March 23, 2014

cactusThe Cubs slugged out a healthy win today against the A’s. Well, three Cubs did, anyway.

  • Junior Lake, where you been all Spring? After a great game yesterday, Lake blew it out of the water today with three(!) homers in five at bats (and no strikeouts). Let’s hope he’s settling into a groove just in time for the season to start, rather than using up all of his powder now.
  • Perhaps feeling the increasing presence of Mike Olt (that’s mostly just an exaggerated narrative), Luis Valbuena had another monster game with another two homers. Sure, he struck out in all three of his other at bats, but you’ll take two homers any day of the week. As I wrote this morning, sorting out the playing time situation for Olt, Valbuena, Barney, and Bonifacio could be interesting if they’re all on the 25-man roster come March 31.
  • As for Olt, he had another homer today in his four at bats, but he did make two errors in quick succession at third base. He threw one high, and he misplayed a not-super-easy back-hander. They weren’t terrible errors, but the rust was probably showing.
  • (Although he didn’t homer, Ryan Roberts had a couple hits. Altogether, he’s had an all right Spring. It just seems that, with the emergences of Olt and Ryan Kalish, there simply won’t be a spot for Roberts absent a last minute rash of injuries and/or trades.)
  • On the pitching side, Jason Hammel got hit hard in his 4.2 innings of work (eight hits), and he also walked three and hit a guy. Not much you can say besides, “It’s just Spring Training.” I’ll evaluate Hammel in April – the key for him was staying healthy this Spring.
  • Alberto Cabrera threw yet another scoreless, walkless, hitless inning (one strikeout), and, especially considering the no-options situation, I think his bullpen job is sewn up.
  • Arodys Vizcaino got in a late scoreless inning of his own, allowing one hit and striking out one.
  • Darnell McDonald did this:
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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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