NEWSLETTER
The Cubs wrapped their Spring Training schedule by beating the White Sox 8-5 at Sloan Park, with the youngsters doing the heavy lifting.
- Drew Smyly’s final spring tuneup went a lot like Michael Fulmer’s yesterday: a lot of pitches over the middle, and a lot of eager young White Sox hitters ready to swing. That’s not to say you wouldn’t prefer an alternative outcome, but I’m not sure it really says much of anything about Smyly’s readiness for the season. His last outing, when he was using all his pitches and trying to be in “compete” mode, he dominated. I still like Smyly as a guy who’ll manage contact, get some strikeouts, limit walks, and usually give you 5-ish solid innings.
- Bailey Horn followed Smyly and struck out four over two scoreless innings. The curveball is quite a weapon:
- Owen Caissie had a nice day, starting a relay to nail a runner at the plate, and plating a couple runners of his own:
- Bonus ups to Luis Vazquez on the relay there, with a perfect throw to the plate. Speaking of Vazquez, it’s been a big spring for the plus-glove infielder – would be something if he hits this year:
- Watch out for B.J. Murray this year:
- Of course you have to get at least one Pete Crow-Armstrong highlight out of the game if he was starting in center field. It was a particularly wild one, as he almost made a crazy diving catch on a ball he slightly overran (but only had a chance on it at all because he’s so fast and reads it so quickly) … and then he recovered to nail the runner at second:
- Bonus PCA, who is going to steal 140 bags this year:
- That’s that. Spring Training over. The real thing begins on Thursday. Enough of these shenanigans.
