The Cubs head out to Peoria – like, Arizona, not Illinois – to take on the Mariners tonight. If you’re able to stay up, you can catch the game on MLB Network and MLB.tv. It’s kind of like a West Coast game during the regular season, though it’s a little atypical for Spring Training.
Fifth starter competitor James McDonald makes the start tonight, and we’ve reached the point in the Spring where the results for guys in the very few “competitor” spots tend to mean a little bit more. Not a lot, mind you, because the coaches and front office are seeing things behind the scenes that we are not, and those still mean more than the in-game stats that result from a small sample size of fake baseball games. But, yeah, it matters a little.
The lineup features Javier Baez and Emilio Bonifacio in the middle infield, but Baez is still at his usual shortstop spot, and Bonifacio is manning second. I guess the plans to play Baez at second a bit are still a day or more away. Ryan Kalish gets yet another start, which, by my count, gives him the most starts in the outfield so far this Spring among the guys competing for the 5th outfielder job. (Because of the projected extra bodies in the infield, though, we may not see the Cubs actually carry a traditional fourth/fifth outfielder combo.) I believe Casper Wells, who also starts, is right up there with him. I am not surprised by those two names being the most featured.
Also, MIKE OLT! gets in the lineup as DH, while Christian Villanueva mans third.
Lineup:
- Emilio Bonifacio, 2B
- Junior Lake, CF
- Casper Wells, RF
- Mike Olt, DH
- Javier Baez, SS
- Ryan Kalish, LF
- Chris Valaika, 1B
- Christian Villanueva, 3B
- John Baker, C