Spring Training Miscellany: Cubs Win One and Lose One – Homers, Happ, Heyward, Cease, More

The Cubs beat Team Japan today at Sloan, which is where I was, and therefore that is the game today that counts.

The other Cubs team lost to the Brewers in Maryvale, but, as I said, that does not really count.

  • In the game against Team Japan, John Lackey got his work in, and definitely looked to be feeling perfectly healthy. Which means his outing was a success, regardless of the results (which, incidentally, were strong). Wade Davis and Pedro Strop also looked good in their innings of work.
  • Jason Heyward made consistently hard contact today (two singles included), which was nice to see.
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  • Munenori Kawasaki had a very nice game atop the Cubs’ lineup, which was especially nice given who the Cubs were playing. The Japanese media in attendance were eager to interview him after the game:
  • (If you’re unfamiliar with the hashtag, that would be a reference to this awesome Kawasaki commercial.)
  • Ian Happ very nearly took one out of the other way, which did yield a run, and also a strange and fun Miguel Montero tag from second base:
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  • Happ saw a few balls in left field, where he looked fine out there. Despite the recent focus on second base, he still seems to be perfectly fine in left field.
  • Despite the loss in Maryvale, the Cubs went all homer happy against the Brewers, with each of Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, Jacob Hannemann, and John Andreoli. Of course, the Brewers also socked three homers of their own, and scored 13 runs. Jake Buchanan, Felix Pena, and Jose Rosario got knocked around early in the game, and Aaron Brooks got knocked around late.
  • Pierce Johnson struck out three in his scoreless inning of work, as he conversion to the bullpen – in Spring Training, at least – has been a clear success, as he’s now struck out nine in his five innings of work.
  • There was a Snapchat Spectacles location placed outside the game, which prompted my buddy Jim to buy a pair, and make me make this happen during the game:
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  • Before the game, I watched the youngsters at the back fields, including Dylan Cease throwing near 100mph:
  • Cease looked to have a live fastball today with a great, hard-breaking curveball. He tried out the changeup a few times, but didn’t really have the location on it (still got a whiff or two, though, purely based on the change of speeds).
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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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