Hey, it’s just one game today! But it’s still a little unusual, because it’s a night game. The Cubs head out to Surprise tonight to take on the Rangers. The game is on MLB Network tonight live, so that’s pretty sweet. The audio is also available via Cubs.com.
Javier Baez makes his second straight start at second base, as the Cubs seek to expose him to the position (and seek to see how he looks out there) for future potential planning purposes.
The good news is that Mike Olt is back in the lineup, but the bad-ish news is that he’s DH’ing, rather than playing third base. He had hoped that, after resting up for a day, he’d be ready to make his debut at third base. Not so, apparently. Olt has been dealing with a sore shoulder since Spring games started, and it’s going to be hard to take him seriously as a third base candidate out of Spring Training if he can’t get in some time over there. That said, there’s still almost two weeks worth of games left. I tend to think he won’t need much time to show what he can do defensively. The bat was always the question – and we could probably debate whether that question has been answered satisfactorily yet. For my part, I still love the upside in Olt, but still see plenty of good reasons for him to start the year at AAA Iowa.
The last time Baez and Olt teamed up in a night Spring game, by the way, they unleashed hell.
Donnie Murphy is today’s shortstop fill-in, and Ryan Kalish gets a start in center field. And check out third base! It’s A-ball prospect Jeimer Candelario getting in on the action.
Jason Hammel starts for the Cubs, and we’re likely to see Alberto Cabrera and Armando Rivero at some point tonight.
Lineup:
- Chris Coghlan, 1B
- Donnie Murphy, SS
- Ryan Kalish, CF
- Mike Olt, DH
- Javier Baez, 2B
- Rafael Lopez, C
- Darnell McDonald, LF
- Brett Jackson, RF
- Jeimer Candelario, 3B