Spring Training Game Thread

[Stratos]

16 minutes ago, Bertz said:

64.4% coming into today.  If he were an MLBer last year that would have placed him between Zach Gelof and Will Benson.  Ranked 282nd of 286 hitters with 300+ PAs.

And I don't think Smith's anything is all that rare or special.  He looks like a good hitter that will end up with a wRC+ in the 120 neighborhood and play a passable 3B.  It's a comparable overall package to guys like Caissie, which is why he ranked comparably on offseason prospect lists.  

Having a plus hit and power tool is rare, so if Smith has that as MLB pipeline thinks then that is something, Shaw is the only guy in our system with that combo because it's rare.

i don't think anybody knows what his hitting profile is yet because of the sample sizes, so making predictions on him right now is pretty useless.

[Bertz]

29 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Having a plus hit and power tool is rare, so if Smith has that as MLB pipeline thinks then that is something, Shaw is the only guy in our system with that combo because it's rare.

i don't think anybody knows what his hitting profile is yet because of the sample sizes, so making predictions on him right now is pretty useless.

Via Fangraphs

Quote

The Cubs selected him 14th overall (he was seventh on our Draft Board) and Smith posted strong contact and power numbers after he signed. He slashed .313/.396/.609 in 134 PA, with an 84% zone contact rate (77% overall), 111 mph max exit velo, 107 mph EV90 (the big league average is 104-105), and 43% hard-hit rate. Those are pretty good, and they reinforced Smith’s fairly aggressive draft ranking.

That's average contact and good (but hardly otherworldly) power.

I don't want it to sound like I'm crapping but this whole thing is just getting very silly.

[Bertz]

Based on how teams are laying out their early season rotations, it looks like the Cubs are catching a couple breaks after Arizona.

- Rangers are lining up deGrom as their #5 which would have him miss us

- Dylan Cease and Michael King look slated to miss the Padres series at Wrigley.  King wouldn't pitch in the series in San Diego either 

Weather or injury can obviously change things but every little bit helps with this tough early season schedule.

[JD94]

 

[Derwood]

1 hour ago, JD94 said:

 

[chibears55]

What up with Marquee,  they can't televise these weekend games, not like they have other programs to show.

 

[CubinNY]

56 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

What up with Marquee,  they can't televise these weekend games, not like they have other programs to show.

 

Yes, they’ve really cut down. I mean if you don’t want to pay JD and whoever just get one guy from a minor league affiliate to do pbp from his house. 
 

Cheap ass bush league stuff. 

[chibears55]

5 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Yes, they’ve really cut down. I mean if you don’t want to pay JD and whoever just get one guy from a minor league affiliate to do pbp from his house. 
 

Cheap ass bush league stuff. 

Give me Alex Cohen and Ryan Sweeney and I'll be good with that

[Rcal10]

35 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Yes, they’ve really cut down. I mean if you don’t want to pay JD and whoever just get one guy from a minor league affiliate to do pbp from his house. 
 

Cheap ass bush league stuff. 

Exactly. Kind of funny that I got a survey from the Cubs. In the survey they asked  for 3 words to describe the organization. . I used cheap, mismanaged and frustrating. And said I was a huge fan. What is wrong with me…..🤷

[Bertz]

Everyone's pro labor until they're mildly inconvenienced

[Rcal10]

Just now, Bertz said:

Everyone's pro labor until they're mildly inconvenienced

What? Don’t understand this response. 

[KCCub]

6 hours ago, Bertz said:

Based on how teams are laying out their early season rotations, it looks like the Cubs are catching a couple breaks after Arizona.

- Rangers are lining up deGrom as their #5 which would have him miss us

- Dylan Cease and Michael King look slated to miss the Padres series at Wrigley.  King wouldn't pitch in the series in San Diego either 

Weather or injury can obviously change things but every little bit helps with this tough early season schedule.

 

[Bertz]

41 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

What? Don’t understand this response. 

God forbid the crew at Marquee take a couple days off after traveling halfway across the world and before a 6 month season

[CubinNY]

4 minutes ago, Bertz said:

God forbid the crew at Marquee take a couple days off after traveling halfway across the world and before a 6 month season

lol

[muntjack]

22 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Ha! This place crushed labor into a sea of subservient sycophants dominated by all kinds of violence (state, financial, political/economic, spiritual, sexual etc etc) and coercion. AfaIct the main objective of pro sports is to further bleed and divide workers, distract them with endless frivolity during whatever moments of down time is left, and maintaining the societal rhetoric and status quo that everyone but the overlords are overpaidz, aging/depreciating, easily replaced

I mean, yeah. 

If we're starting the revolution now, count me in.    Until that point,  I desperately need the distraction.  

[Rcal10]

46 minutes ago, Bertz said:

God forbid the crew at Marquee take a couple days off after traveling halfway across the world and before a 6 month season

I don’t have much of an issue with the games not televised today. But I don’t think it is because they wanted the staff to rest. I think the Cubs decided to televise less games this year because they were saving money. Or, as I described them in my survey, they were cheap, mismanaged and frustrating.

[Bertz]

3 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I don’t have much of an issue with the games not televised today. But I don’t think it is because they wanted the staff to rest. I think the Cubs decided to televise less games this year because they were saving money. Or, as I described them in my survey, they were cheap, mismanaged and frustrating.

Why do you think they are televising Monday and Tuesday's games and not today or yesterday's?  Even with the tourney on, weekend games would surely have a better ROI no?

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, chibears55 said:

What up with Marquee,  they can't televise these weekend games, not like they have other programs to show.

 

Maybe the Marquee crew are getting a bit of a break right after Tokyo and  before the season starts?

[CubinNY]

They know eyes are going to the NCAA tournament. Who gives a horsefeathers? Give Mic Gilespie a T1 line and a monitor. 
 

some people want to watch meaningless baseball. 

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

God forbid the crew at Marquee take a couple days off after traveling halfway across the world and before a 6 month season

I would hope they have more crew members on staff then the ones they sent to Japan, but then again $$$$

[Dfan25]

I think it’s a case of both . I think this weekend not been on marquee is about the Japan trip . However , they didn’t do any road broadcast this year .

I remember in previous years , pretty much every game was on Marquee during ST .

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

Why do you think they are televising Monday and Tuesday's games and not today or yesterday's?  Even with the tourney on, weekend games would surely have a better ROI no?

I think you are making a case to the wrong person, or at the very least arguing something I am not arguing against. As I said, I don’t really care that this game isn’t televised. Fine, give them a break. But last year they televised way more games. They cut back this year to save cost. I believe they even said something to that point. Why do you think they televised less games this year, even before the trip to Japan? Was it the union refusing to work, or the Cubs cutting cost? I say it was the Cubs cutting cost. 

[CubinNY]

I saw Chourio is hitting close .500 this spring. 

[Rcal10]

36 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

I saw Chourio is hitting close .500 this spring. 

Armstrong is hitting .500 and Amaya .542. So maybe spring really doesn’t mean much. I think Chiurio is going to be a star for a long time. But if he was hitting .100 right now, I would still feel that way.!

[Stratos]

2 hours ago, Dfan25 said:

I think it’s a case of both . I think this weekend not been on marquee is about the Japan trip . However , they didn’t do any road broadcast this year .

I remember in previous years , pretty much every game was on Marquee during ST .

2 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

I think you are making a case to the wrong person, or at the very least arguing something I am not arguing against. As I said, I don’t really care that this game isn’t televised. Fine, give them a break. But last year they televised way more games. They cut back this year to save cost. I believe they even said something to that point. Why do you think they televised less games this year, even before the trip to Japan? Was it the union refusing to work, or the Cubs cutting cost? I say it was the Cubs cutting cost. 

Cubs are now doing shrinkflation LOL. 

We need to stop giving the Cubs so much of our money.  It's the only way they'll make changes because money is the only thing they care about.  They keep squeezing us just like many other big corporations do to their customers.