Travis Wood is an Opening Day Starter of Sorts and Other Bullets

Mar 23, 2014

travis wood beard It’s, like, in the low-20s today in Chicago. How’s that for March Madness? *Rimshot.*

Your home opener starter will be Travis Wood, who’ll take the fourth spot in the rotation so that he can get the “Opening Day” honor at Wrigley Field, which is pretty nice move, and an acknowledgement that Wood was the Cubs’ best starter last year, based on results. Now both he and Jeff Samardzija get to be “Opening Day” starters.

Ah, so that’s what it was: Javier Baez explains to Cubs.com that his right heel contusion came because he was wearing metal spikes, and he landed hard on the base with all of his weight. That pushed the spike up into his shoe a bit, and boom, heel bruise. He doesn’t usually wear metal spikes, though, and he thinks this won’t be an issue going forward. Just a one-time, flukey ouchy.

Speaking of Baez, he talks to CSN about being cut from big league camp, and says he understands and wasn’t surprised by the decision. The Cubs have been pretty clear on the plan for Baez, which will see him starting at shortstop at AAA Iowa for at least a little while.

Get ready to be excited and then deflated: top Cubs pitching prospect C.J. Edwards will start Tuesday night for the Cubs against the Padres on a split squad day. The game … is not televised.

The Dodgers won again last night, beating the Diamondbacks 7-5. That concludes the two-game set in Australia, and each team will return to the States to get ready for the beginning of the broader regular season.

You’d think some of the public admonishments from his manager last year would have been enough to get Yasiel Puig in line. But we’re just two games into the season (for the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, anyway), and Don Mattingly is already having to deal with Puig issues. The outfielder had a couple of baserunning mistakes in last night’s game, and came out in the 9th with an apparent back issue. Get this quote from Mattingly, as recorded by ESPN’s Mark Saxon: “Shoulder yesterday, back today, so I’m not sure if they’re going to get him tests or get him to the MRI Monday or a bone scan on Tuesday, maybe,” Mattingly said sarcastically. “I’m not quite sure what we’ll do. We may not do anything. I’m not sure.” You kind of wonder if Puig’s breakout success last year wasn’t exactly the best thing for him, long-term.

written by

Brett Taylor

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.

Travis Wood is an Opening Day Starter of Sorts and Other Bullets

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