NEWSLETTER
The youngsters put together a nice little 9th inning rally to give the Cubs this win, with all of Pete Crow-Armstrong, Brennen Davis, Andy Weber, and Darius Hill coming through.
That’s the Cubs’ fifth straight win this spring.
- Drew Smyly once again got hit hard, including a Kris Bryant dinger:
- I still land on the side of “he’s just getting in work and building up the pitch count, so the results don’t matter” when it comes to veterans who have set roles (I’ve seen SO MANY pitchers get blown up in Arizona because they had other things to work on, and then be fine in the regular season). That said, you’d like to see Smyly start to have something looking more like positive results by the end of Spring Training.
- Brandon Hughes finally made his spring debut, and honestly did not look sharp. Or at least not as sharp as he looked last year, or as sharp as so many Cubs relievers have looked this year (which is no doubt skewing the perspective). The movement on the slider didn’t seem to be quite there yet, and the velocity on the fastball wasn’t there yet. Not really a concern in a first appearance when the season is still three+ weeks away.
- Manny Rodriguez still isn’t missing bats, but the velocity was in the upper-90s today. That’s a minimum requirement for him if he’s going to have any success.
- Hello Michael Fulmer looking nasty with the slider and touching 96 mph with the fastball (and adding a sweeper to the mix):
- Michael Rucker also looked good today. Ryan Jensen, unfortunately, had one of his “wild” days. But hello Brendon Little, who looks REALLY good on the days he has it working:
- David Bote really wants that Cactus League MVP:
- Other offensive bursts:
