Spring Training Battlewatch: March 10, 2009

The Chicago Cubs are puting together a little winning streak. Cool. Great. Whatever. Battles:

  • Aaron Miles played 2nd, Mike Fontenot played 3rd, and each had a nice game at the plate. Say what you will about who should win the starting 2B job, but this team is much, much better if those guys can play all over the infield and not see their performance at the plate drop off.
  • Koyie Hill raised his Spring average to .389. Watch out, Bako.
  • Micah Hoffpauir is in a mini-slump and took another 0-fer.
  • There is only one pitcher who is possibly throwing better than Sean Marshall. Unfortunately for Marshall, it’s fellow 5th starter competitor Aaron Heilman. If they’re dead even coming out of Spring Training, the smart money is on Heilman to win the spot. Marshall has already shown he can handle the swing role AND the LOOGY role on an occasional night as necessary. Also, as we previously noted, when Jim Hendry was going after Heilman, it was expressly to make him a starting pitcher. Like it or lump it.
  • written by

    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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