Baseball! No, it isn’t the playoffs. Or the regular season. Or even Spring Training. But it’s baseball, dagnabbit.
Today, the Chicago Cubs will square off against the Chicago Cubs in a six inning affair. Pitching prospects Kyle Hendricks and Eric Jokisch will get the starts, with Arodys Vizcaino, Armando Rivero, Chang-Yong Lim, Neil Ramirez, Tsuyoshi Wada, Brian Schlitter and Marcus Hatley also potentially seeing action on the mound.
The lineups (I may have made up the team names):
Team Zack Attack
- Luis Valbuena, 3B
- Junior Lake, CF
- Starlin Castro, SS
- Nate Schierholtz, RF
- Ryan Roberts, DH
- Darnell McDonald, LF
- Chris Valaika, 1B
- Darwin Barney, 2B
- John Baker, C
Team Slater’s Raiders
- Emilio Bonifacio, 2B
- Justin Ruggiano, RF
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Ryan Sweeney, CF
- Welington Castillo, DH
- Donnie Murphy, 3B
- Javier Baez, SS
- George Kottaras, C
- Chris Coghlan, LF
Overreactions: OMG Junior Lake in center! (But also Ryan Sweeney in center.) OMG Chris Coghlan and Darnell McDonald as the “next” outfielders! OMG Welington Castillo isn’t catching yet after his knee procedure last year! OMG Mike Olt not starting! OMG Luis Valbuena leading off! OMG JAVIER BAEZ!!!
Now that we’ve got that out of our system …
There’s very little to actually be gleaned from these lineups, though I do think it’s nice to see Lake getting a shot in center field. Today’s benches include pretty much everyone else in big league camp, so there’s a chance that many of the guys not in the starting lineup will get an at bat or two.
There’s no video of today’s game because most of the Cubs fan world is not as insane as we are, and there may not be a market for it. Hopefully we’ll be able to follow along on Twitter, and you can feel free to share what you see in the comments.