Roster Moves

The Cubs sent three of the most promising prospects in baseball to the minor league camp today.  The big one, of course, was Bryant, who tore up the Cactus League, and, were it not for the strange rules employed in counting major league service time, would almost certainly be the starting third baseman on Opening Day.  This move was inevitable from a business standpoint.  I noted in an earlier post that the question of Bryant hinged on how many early April wins the Cubs were willing to trade for an extra year of control.  Lets hope it does not backfire.

Addison Russell and Javier Baez were also demoted.  The Russell move was no surprise, as no one expected him to make the team in the first place.  The Baez move was a little more controversial, but Baez really made the move inevitable with his performance during spring training.  This guy looks so totally over-matched and so out of control that it is a wonder Cubs management even toyed with the idea of bringing him north.

The time is not far off when his career will be on the bubble, at least with the Cubs.  I mean, lets just face it, Baez was a complete disaster in his two months in the big leagues last year.  He went down to play winter ball and was a flop there as well.  Now he looked pretty bad in spring training.  Last year he looked good in Arizona, so it is impossible not to conclude he has regressed.  There has been a lot of talk about changing his mechanics, but he looks just the same as when he came up last August and the results have been the same.  We'll see what happens in Iowa.  It is not as though the Cubs cannot come up with championship caliber middle infielders without Baez.  They have Castro already, with Russell waiting in the wings.  They have Alcantara and LaStella (who really looked good) as well.

The Cubs have some other roster issues to sort out.  It looks, with the demotion of Bryant and Baez, that the Cubs will start the season with Rizzo, Castro, Olt, LaStella, and Alcantara as locks on the infield.  As the Cubs will start the season with three catchers and probably twelve pitchers, that leaves room for five outfielders.  Denorfia will start the year on the DL, so that leaves an opening for probably a couple of youngsters to join Fowler, Soler, and Coughlan in the mix.  Based on spring training alone, that should give Lake and Sczcur the inside track, but, of course, Sweeney is unfortunately still around, at least until he injures himself again.

There are similar puzzles as far as pitching goes.  Wood will almost certainly be the fifth starter.  Since Wada and Turner are hurt, the Cubs are off the hook there for the time being.  The bullpen looks reasonably set as well.  Rondon, Strop, Ramirez, and Grimm have surely earned their spots, as has Coke.  Motte has looked awful this spring, and he was awful last year as well.  I could never understand why the Cubs signed him, but he is likely to come north with the team.  That leaves only one spot.  Britten is out of options and has pitched well this spring.  He should be the second lefty in the pen.  If not Britten, Rosscup is the next choice.  That leaves Jackson as odd man out.  Jackson has been a disaster in his stint in Chicago.  He has certainly earned a one-way ticket out of town.  It will be interesting to see if the Cubs can engineer a deal or if they will eat his contract.  Notwithstanding all the talk of creative solutions, the Cubs cannot afford to limit their bench by carrying the extra pitcher.

Lost in Arizona

Aside from the usual hoopla about whether Kris Bryant, who seems to hit another home run every day, will break camp with the team and whether the Cubs will carry three catchers, there has been little noteworthy coming from spring training, at least little noteworthy for those connoisseurs of Cubness.  At least not until today.

Today Edwin Jackson managed to get lost on the way to the ballpark for his scheduled start against the Athletics.  Unfortunately, he found his way eventually.  He took the field in the second inning and proceeded to surrender eight runs in an inning and two-thirds.  Jackson has been unimaginably awful throughout his stint with the Cubs.  I feel sorry for him, as he was once an occasionally effective starter.  The Cubs are thinking of carrying thirteen pitchers through April, which is a really bad idea in general and a positively unthinkable idea if the thirteenth is Jackson.

The Cubs have a lot of guys in camp who deserve to make the team.  That includes Bryant and Castillo.  So, with three catchers and thirteen pitchers, that leaves spots for only nine position players.  In others words, two guys on the bench.  That cannot work out well even in April, so there needs to be some rethinking there, especially as Maddon is known for mixing up his lineups.

Cubs - TV

Nice to watch a replay of the Cubs-Reds game today.  Generally the Cubs pitching has looked good.  Wood was pretty dominant this afternoon.  Not much hitting today from either side.  The game was decided early when Denorfia hit a two-run homer off Cueto.

Bryant did not play, but he has certainly been impressive thus far.  Wonder what excuse the Cubs will have for not starting his free agent clock on opening day.  Defense?  I mean, the guy has hit a home run in every fourth at-bat and is batting nearly .500.

On the other side of the ledger, I do not see much improvement in Baez.  Still the same exaggerated swing; still the same woeful results.  His strikeout today was on a pitch that must have been two feet off the plate.  Baez is clearly pressing.  He may or may not have genuine major league ability, but it is pretty clear he is over-matched now.

Lolligagging

Not that these spring games mean all that much, but the Cubs have won only one game so far.  Apparently, Joe Maddon had enough and went off on the team for lack of fundamental play.  Kind of reminds one of Bull Durham.  Poor fundamentals have been a problem for the Cubs since time immemorial and you kind of wonder how this sort of sloppiness is tolerated throughout the minor league system so that when players arrive they just do not seem to be able to consistently execute routine plays.  Anyway, good for Maddon to have noticed this tendency.  Here is a link to the article.

On another topic, I saw a piece about Javier Baez that made the case he needed another year in the minors.  Pretty convincing arguments.  I watched the clip where Soler, Baez, and Bryant hit back to back to back home runs.  Pretty impressive.  But if you watch Baez, even when he connects, there is just so much going on, bat waving, twitching, huge stride.  It is little wonder he strikes out so often.

Spring Training

I have to say that thus far the news from spring training has been somewhat boring.  I suppose the amusement factor that was present in previous years when the Cubs were expected to stink and certainly did not disappoint is partly responsible.  Since the Cubs are expected to be pretty good, most of the news seems to confirm this conclusion.  Also, from the look of it, Maddon and his staff seem to know what they are doing, which is a substantial contrast to the last three managerial regimes.

There seem to be at least three stories that have caught people's eye.  One concerns the speculation about whether Bryant will be the Cubs starting third baseman on opening day.  My take on this is that the whole thing boils down to how many early season games the Cubs are prepared to trade for additional control of Bryant, who looks like a superstar in the making.

Another controversy centers on the future of Welington Castillo who either has no business being in camp, is on the verge of being traded, or figures to be part of a troika at the catcher position.  Personally, I have no problem with the team carrying three catchers.  Castillo can hit left-handed pitching and is not that bad a defensive catcher as all that.  Ross is a good handler of pitchers and a good strike-framer, but he cannot control the running game and cannot hit at all anymore.  Montero is a good defensive catcher, but, offensively, he has become pretty much of a platoon player.  So, all things considered, carrying two catchers means giving up three outs when Ross plays and three outs when Montero is matched against a left-hander, at least on the offensive side of the game.

The other big story is Javier Baez and whether he can figure out a way not to strike out every other turn at bat.  There was an interesting take on his problems - and to a certain extent the problems of other Cubs prospects making contact on a regular basis - at the SI site.  The article is by Tim Verducci and is worth a read.  Apparently, the Cubs are using some innovative approaches to training their hitters in general.

The premise in the case of Baez is to try to teach him to change his approach when he is behind in the count, which is pretty much all the time.  The idea is that Baez should shorten his swing and dispense with the big leg kick.  So far the reports are that Baez has had some success with the new approach, although, unaccountably, it is only being used when he has two strikes.  One wonders why, if it is successful, he does not use it all the time.  The long swing and the big leg kick, as well as all the ticks and movement and flaws in this kid's swing, pretty much add up to failure when he sees big league pitching on an everyday basis, which is what happened at the end of last season.