Spring Training So Far

So far this team looks like a continuation of past seasons, which means, of course, spotty pitching, no patience, no runs, not much excitement.  Yesterday, Dale Sveum, now the third base coach of the Royals, visited Mesa.  He said he had no regrets and would not have done anything differently. I suppose that is why he was fired.

The biggest disappointment to date is really the strategy the Cubs have adopted in their early games in terms of who is getting a serious look.  These games seem designed to showcase some of the marginal talent competing for roster spots, the guys who are non-roster invitees or players signed to minor league contracts, not the decent regular players or the hot-shot prospects.  Kind an odd perspective for a team this bad.

In all honesty, in particular if you look at the 40-man roster, there is not much room to add or subtract without running into protected prospects.  So, partly as a result of this, for a team still in rebuild mode and for a team that is so appallingly bad, there are relatively view spots at issue.  Go figure.

Some of this apparent contradiction is the result of the Cubs development plan for young players, which consists in bringing them along quite methodically through each level of the minor leagues, as well as being too cheap to let prospects accumulate major league playing time while the Cubs are unlikely to contend. This is a bit of Catch-22 for the kids, as the Cubs are likely to contend only if they eventually bring up the kids and let them play.

In any case, the Cubs have major league talent at only four positions: catcher, first base, second base, and shortstop.  Also, it is not as if the talent at these positions is without question marks.  Strangely enough, I guess in view of his bad 2013 season offensively, Darwin Barney's job is in doubt. Management keeps trotting out the flawed utility man Emilio Bonifacio as some sort of alternative. Bonifacio is fast and steals bases. A problem with his game, however, is he hardly ever gets on base. Also, he cannot catch or throw.

As to the other positions, someone is under the illusion that guys like Murphy and Valbuena and Ruggiano and Sweeney and Schierholtz are players who belong in the lineup every day and can provide a transition to better things.  If they were, the Cubs would not have lost over a hundred games in 2012 and nearly as many in 2013.  Still, these guys will all be coming north with the team.

Given the fact the Cubs will break camp with 12 pitchers and two catchers, when you add in the players who seem to have a lock on spots to fill out the remaining 11, it leaves very little competition to be had and very little improvement to anticipate. Assuming the Cubs stick with the third base platoon of Murphy and Valbuena, that means there is only one slot for certain left for the infield, a slot seemingly reserved for the aforementioned Bonifacio. Pretty depressing, eh?  Even if Olt is given a shot at third base, that just means they will cut Murphy.

Now, assuming Lake, Schierholtz, Ruggiano, and Sweeney are locks,  you get only two remaining roster spots to fill, likely a utility infielder and a reserve outfielder. What is kind of puzzling, though, is how tight the 40 man roster is packed and how little room for manoueuvre exists.  Maybe some of the pitchers like Dallas Bieler are expendable, but certainly none of the outfielders are likely to go to make room for a Chris Coglan, for example.  Nor are any of the infielders likely to be cut loose.  Maybe Logan Watkins would clear waivers.

So not only is the roster tight and the major league ready talent thin, but you have to wonder why all these non-roster invitees are playing now.  I mean, there are fifteen position players in this category and the only prospects among them are Baez and Almora, so how come these other guys are getting such a hard look?  To my mind, it rather telegraphs management's intentions, which are to pretty much hold back any talent and field another team that is just as bad as was fielded the past two seasons.  In fact, almost the identical team.  It makes you wonder, doesn't it?