NEWSLETTER
Hey, what happened to all the winning? The Cactus League Cubs are back to .500 with San Diego threatening to drag them below water. Here’s the lineup for the 10th-to-last game before the regular season!
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Nico Hoerner
- Dansby Swanson, SS
- Ian Happ, LF
- Trey Mancini, 1B
- Cody Bellinger, CF
- Yan Gomes, C
- Edwin Ríos, 3B
- Mike Tauchman, RF
- Matt Mervis, DH
Without Seiya Suzuki, this is pretty close to the best offensive lineup the Cubs can roll out there on any given day. Maybe not best overall (there are always matchups to consider and defense/base running/etc), mind you, but best offensive group. Maybe you prefer Patrick Wisdom in right and/or Nick Madrigal at 3B, but those two (and Tauchman/Rios) all have their pros and cons.
That’s also me putting a lot of faith in Matt Mervis, who’ll start the year at Iowa (justifiable in my opinion), over Eric Hosmer. We’re just going to have to let that one play out.
Pitching Matchup
Cubs: Justin Steele, LHP
Padres: Julio Teheran, RHP
Today marks Justin Steele’s fourth start of the spring (third of Cactus League play), and there’s only one thing I want to see: a little more length.
March 3: 2.0 IP, 0H, 0ER, 0BB, 0K
March 8: 2.1 IP, 2H, 3ER, 2BB, 2K
March 14: 2.2 IP, 5H, 3ER, 1BB, 4K
I’d like to see him complete at least 3.0 innings today. Adrian Sampson, Drew Smyly, Hayden Wesneski, Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad, and Marcus Stroman have all done it 2+ times already. So I think it’s fair to say Steele is a little behind, granted he was scratched from his first start of the year. There’s no concern or anything like that, I just want to see him healthy and fully ready to go come Opening Day.
Early season wins will be disproportionately important to the Cubs this year, so a locked-in Steele from Day 1 is huge.
How to Watch
San Diego Padres (10-11) at Chicago Cubs (10-10) – Sunday, March 19 at 3:05 CT on Marquee, 670 The Score
