Spring Training Thread

[seanimal]

Pro-tip for you guys... if you want to get around the Tribune's pay-wall, just Google (in quotes) the small excerpt they actually post on the Tribune site and Google will take you to what I think is the Tribune's article archive site.

 

In this case, I searched:

 

"Darwin Barney has enough confidence in his ability he bragged last year he would spend the offseason taking his manager's money on the golf course."

 

from this article:

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0214-cubs-spring-training-chicago--20130214,0,6023123.story

 

and Google gave me:

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-13/sports/ct-spt-0214-cubs-spring-training-chicago--20130214_1_dale-sveum-darwin-barney-starlin-castro

 

That's by design. The NY Times does the same thing, where a linked version of the article bypasses the pay wall. It's actually a very intelligent strategy.

 

Plz explain.

 

Because if you have a hard pay wall, then nobody will read your articles because nobody will link to your articles, and you won't get any clicks or any advertising money. The pay wall is for people who read the paper frequently and should be subscribers. They access the content from the home/front page. Yeah sure, someone could figure out that they can manually bypass the pay wall using google, but that's pretty tedious and actually not the norm. It has worked very well for the NY Times. Lots of content publishers are going to this model.

[Cubswin11]

Cubs are on MLBN "30 Clubs in 30 Days" thing tonight, airs at 5, 7 and 10 CT. They usually don't have any ground breaking insight but hopefully they have some good interviews with players/coaches/FO and we will at least get to see some video from spring.

[Guest]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Cubswin11]

Thanks for the heads up!

:good:

[Guest]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/14855/video-jackson-breaks-down-new-swing

[Guest]

Carrie Muskat ‏@CarrieMuskat

Jorge Soler preps to hit at Fitch. #Cubs http://yfrog.com/odgstaej

View photo

 

Paul Sullivan ‏@PWSullivan

Soler swings for the fences. http://twitpic.com/c413xf

View photo

[Sammys Boombox]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/14855/video-jackson-breaks-down-new-swing

 

I'm no expert. I was just an ok high school hitter on a very good high school team with a very good coach, but I thought the goal was to make his swing more compact and not so long? The only compact swings I saw he was setting his foot down closer to the plate (closed finish) and was cutting off his power. The swings where it looked like he actually finished his swing and still had power were the swings that were not very compact (and supposedly the source of his K rate last season). These swings are not very consistent to me. The only thing that seems consistent is the beginning of the swinging motion looks similar to Rizzo's motion.

 

Edit: It might help if I added the video link.

 

http://www.bleachernation.com/2013/02/15/brett-jacksons-new-swing-in-action-video/

[Guest]

Brett Taylor ‏@BleacherNation

I don't know much, but I love watching that swing. RT @M_Montemurro #Cubs Soler takes some BP.

[MWV]

hypnotic...

[davell]

I wish the one guy who truly broke the swing down would show up and post his thoughts. At any rate, its spring, time to be optimistic. Having a solid pre-arb CFer would make things a lot easier moving forward, especially if the power isn't affected too much.

[Guest]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/14855/video-jackson-breaks-down-new-swing

 

I'm no expert. I was just an ok high school hitter on a very good high school team with a very good coach, but I thought the goal was to make his swing more compact and not so long? The only compact swings I saw he was setting his foot down closer to the plate (closed finish) and was cutting off his power. The swings where it looked like he actually finished his swing and still had power were the swings that were not very compact (and supposedly the source of his K rate last season). These swings are not very consistent to me. The only thing that seems consistent is the beginning of the swinging motion looks similar to Rizzo's motion.

 

Edit: It might help if I added the video link.

 

http://www.bleachernation.com/2013/02/15/brett-jacksons-new-swing-in-action-video/

 

It's tough to do images because the ST video is dim and far away, but here's Jackson at load in 2011:

 

http://i.imgur.com/mhvOvZC.png

 

and at the same spot in 2013:

 

http://i.imgur.com/9OWAHex.png

 

His hands look to be tighter to his body and further forward, which is by definition would make the swing shorter. His bat is more upright as well which would make for a quicker swing path.

[Guest]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/14855/video-jackson-breaks-down-new-swing

 

I'm no expert. I was just an ok high school hitter on a very good high school team with a very good coach, but I thought the goal was to make his swing more compact and not so long? The only compact swings I saw he was setting his foot down closer to the plate (closed finish) and was cutting off his power. The swings where it looked like he actually finished his swing and still had power were the swings that were not very compact (and supposedly the source of his K rate last season). These swings are not very consistent to me. The only thing that seems consistent is the beginning of the swinging motion looks similar to Rizzo's motion.

 

Edit: It might help if I added the video link.

 

http://www.bleachernation.com/2013/02/15/brett-jacksons-new-swing-in-action-video/

 

It's tough to do images because the ST video is dim and far away, but here's Jackson at load in 2011:

 

http://i.imgur.com/mhvOvZC.png

 

and at the same spot in 2013:

 

http://i.imgur.com/9OWAHex.png

 

His hands look to be tighter to his body and further forward, which is by definition would make the swing shorter. His bat is more upright as well which would make for a quicker swing path.

He's also stand more upright for quicker hip rotation. It's just bp so it's hard to really tell but it looks good to me.

[Cubswin11]

Brett Taylor ‏@BleacherNation

I don't know much, but I love watching that swing. RT @M_Montemurro #Cubs Soler takes some BP.

Soler is a big/long guy

[Guest]

[davell]

Meghan Montemurro, a beat writer for the Nothwest Herald is a good follow on Twitter for Cubs stuff. @M_Montemurro. Had never heard of her before today.

[Butterscup1679666578]

 

I love the "Throw Outs" on the bag.

[A New Era]

Thanks for the heads up!

 

Yeah, I'm gonna make sure to record. Getting Cubs Cabin Fever. Atleast in about a week MLBN will have a bunch of Spring Training games on almost 2 every day. So there's that.

[A New Era]

Cubs are on MLBN "30 Clubs in 30 Days" thing tonight, airs at 5, 7 and 10 CT. They usually don't have any ground breaking insight but hopefully they have some good interviews with players/coaches/FO and we will at least get to see some video from spring.

 

are you sure? It's 9:18 central and I see nothing on MLB Network for the next 12 hours about 30 clubs in 30 days.

[Gilby]

Cubs are on MLBN "30 Clubs in 30 Days" thing tonight, airs at 5, 7 and 10 CT. They usually don't have any ground breaking insight but hopefully they have some good interviews with players/coaches/FO and we will at least get to see some video from spring.

 

are you sure? It's 9:18 central and I see nothing on MLB Network for the next 12 hours about 30 clubs in 30 days.

 

It's part of MLB Tonight.

[Guest]

Sooooo with Sveum saying he'll have Baez and Soler in the lineup together at some point, it appears Soler is at big league camp too?

 

Did we know this before today?

[Guest]

Cubs are on MLBN "30 Clubs in 30 Days" thing tonight, airs at 5, 7 and 10 CT. They usually don't have any ground breaking insight but hopefully they have some good interviews with players/coaches/FO and we will at least get to see some video from spring.

 

are you sure? It's 9:18 central and I see nothing on MLB Network for the next 12 hours about 30 clubs in 30 days.

 

It's part of MLB Tonight.

 

Yea. Aside from the 30 clubs in 30 days piece, they also did a separate segment with Barney on his defense.

[Guest]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397904.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397897.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397874.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397883.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397870.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397871.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397866.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397856.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397861.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397863.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397839.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397834.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397835.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397823.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397814.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74397809.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2013-02/74383096.jpg

[Gilby]

Sooooo with Sveum saying he'll have Baez and Soler in the lineup together at some point, it appears Soler is at big league camp too?

 

Did we know this before today?

 

He's on the 40 man, so he was always going to be in big league camp this year. I think it got lost in the shuffle when Baez came with a non-roster invitee announcement and Soler got no such thing because he's already rostered.

 

sweet pics btw

[Guest]

Sooooo with Sveum saying he'll have Baez and Soler in the lineup together at some point, it appears Soler is at big league camp too?

 

Did we know this before today?

 

He's on the 40 man, so he was always going to be in big league camp this year. I think it got lost in the shuffle when Baez came with a non-roster invitee announcement and Soler got no such thing because he's already rostered.

 

sweet pics btw

 

Derp. That's right.

 

I'm actually excited about watching entire spring training games this year. Possibly more excited about the later innings.

[Guest]

Ian Stewart fluff

 

The bigger thing, as far as Stewart is concerned, is he’s certain a left wrist injury that continually flared up for more than two years finally was diagnosed correctly through exploratory surgery and repaired.

 

‘‘It feels like I have a brand-new wrist,’’ said Stewart, who arrived at camp Friday looking stronger and fitter — and maybe even happier — than last season.

 

The fact that his repaired wrist hasn’t given him so much as an ache or a twinge since he went back to swinging a bat this offseason makes him confident his problems were all in the wrist.

 

‘‘At first I kind of anticipated a little bit of soreness still being there,’’ he said. ‘‘But it was a pleasant surprise that at least mentally there was nothing there at all when I started swinging.’’

 

He also commuted to Southern California over the winter to work with Hall of Fame hitter and former big-league hitting coach Rod Carew.

 

And it probably doesn’t hurt that as he turns 28 in April, he’s close to the peak age of a baseball player’s prime, historically.

 

More than that, he seems especially motivated.

 

In a thin market for third basemen this winter, Stewart said he had at least two other offers he could have accepted before the Cubs formally made their offer.

 

‘‘I’m glad I didn’t,’’ said Stewart, who spoke regularly during the offseason with both Sveum and team president Theo Epstein as the Cubs kept their interest clear after non-tendering him (and avoiding an arbitration-influenced salary of $2.3  million or more).

 

‘‘I really wanted to give the Cubs a chance. I feel like I owe the organization for the way they stuck with me and they allowed me to do these great things by supporting me and my family, supporting me through the injury, and sticking with me through the surgery. I feel like I couldn’t just walk away from that.’’

 

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/18260781-573/cubs-ian-stewart-ready-to-prove-himself-after-going-off-the-radar.html