Spring Training Battle Watch: March 8, 2010

The Chicago Cubs beat up on the Oakland A’s yesterday, but what was far more important was the performance of the three guys vying for a spot in the rotation. Jeff Samardzija, Sean Marshall and Tom Gorzelanny all pitched.

  • Samardzija threw two scoreless, but struck out none, and gave up a hit, a walk, and hit a guy.
  • Marshall gave up two hits, one of which was a solo homer, struck out two and walked a guy.
  • Gorzelanny had maybe the toughest outing of the three, giving up a two-run homer, hitting a guy, and striking out one. Nevertheless, all three had far superior first outings than Carlos Silva, the other “competitor” for a rotation spot.
  • On the offensive side, Mike Fontenot saw some time at shortstop and had a couple hits, Tyler Colvin played a few more innings in center field (which I continue to think is telling), and Chad Tracy played some third base, and picked up another hit. Jeff Baker played second base, and went hitless.
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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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