Spring Training Miscellany: Cubs Atop the Standings, Enjoyable Dingers, Smyly, Chavez, More

The Cubs won their fourth straight today, beating the Mariners 8-5. Thanks to the weirdness of Spring Training records, that has the Cubs TIED for first place in the Cactus League! Woot. Cactus League playoffs, here we come baby!!!

⇒ On the day it was confirmed he’s in the rotation, Drew Smyly allowed just one run in his 2.2 innings of work, but there was a lot of traffic, and not the highest level of efficiency. No reason for worry or anything, just describing the day as it was. Ultimately, once you’re “in the rotation,” it’s all the more just about getting your arm built up, working on all your grips, your mechanics, etc.

⇒ Another strong couple innings for Jesse Chavez, who seems pretty likely to make the Opening Day bullpen if any of the non-roster pitchers makes it. If he’s healthy and throwing like he usually does, seems like a good idea to have another versatile arm in the mix.

⇒ It was a day for particularly fun homers, with Seiya Suzuki hitting his first spring dinger with the Cubs (first hit), and Clint Frazier going deep, too:

⇒ Nico Hoerner had a couple hits in this one. Ditto Frank Schwindel, including this ABSOLUTE SCREAMING ROCKET SHOT DOUBLE (in the scorebook):

⇒ Another couple hits for Nick Madrigal, who just does this kinda thing a lot:

⇒ Andrelton Simmons is working in the field right now, but still not throwing:

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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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