Spring Training Miscellany: Hendricks Getting the Count Up, Caissie Whip, Roberts, Leeper, Weber, Suzuki, More

Another Fly the T. Cubs and Mariners tied at five in this one. Robbie Ray, that guy is pretty good.

⇒ Kyle Hendricks got up to 40 pitches in the game, and then went down to the bullpen for another 10, per reports. So he’s now to the point in his progression where he’s up and down for three innings and 50-ish pitches. It seems like he’ll be in a very good place, physically, to go 5+ and 75-ish pitches come Opening Day. You’ll take more, of course, if he’s there. But that was kinda where you hoped he could get, at a minimum, in this shortened Spring Training (ditto Marcus Stroman).

⇒ Owen Caissie just gets so much whip in his swing for being this big, long dude. His swing does not remind me of Cody Bellinger’s swing, but the WHIP at his size certainly does. He had a rocket double and a bloop single in the game:

https://twitter.com/CubsZone/status/1506392152552751111

⇒ The Cubs added Ethan Roberts to the 40-man roster in the fall for a reason, and you will see him up and down this year. He has big league stuff:

⇒ Ben Leeper got the 9th inning in this one (recall what I said yesterday: in Spring Training, with a lead, the 9th inning features nothing but youngsters on the other side, but often goes to pitching prospects the Cubs see as having late-inning relief upside). A walk and a couple ground balls that found holes did him in. He got a pop out and a couple strikeouts in the inning and he was so pissed when he came off the mound.

⇒ Another couple walks today for professional hitter Alfonso Rivas.

⇒ Ildemaro Vargas can homer off guys not named Josh Hader:

https://twitter.com/cachorros/status/1506383557614194688

⇒ I would really like to see Andy Weber emerge as a potential utility option this year for the Cubs at Double-A/Triple-A. He’s one of the few guys in the upper levels who (1) can play capable shortstop (in addition to the other positions), and (2) has the upside to be a big league average bat. That’s a tremendously valuable player to have in your back pocket, and if the Cubs could have that come 2023, it’d be huge.

https://twitter.com/CubsZone/status/1506393137383673861

⇒ Maybe a few more days for Seiya Suzuki’s Spring Training debut:

⇒ Nice for KB:

https://twitter.com/Rockies/status/1506374212017004544

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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