The Cognitive Dissonance of Spring Training

[Rice Cube]

How do you separate the joyful anxiety of watching any Cubs baseball game, even a practice one, from the knowledge that spring training generally doesn't matter?

Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

The Cubs' spring training game against the White Sox got rained out on Friday, but that still leaves them eight games to play in the Cactus League, not including the Spring Breakout games and the exhibitions in Japan before the two games that matter. It has been fun, in the few opportunities I've had to listen on the radio or actually get a free MLB.tv broadcast, to follow the practice game action as it happens, and even if I can't watch or listen, at least there are highlights via Marquee's YouTube channel or the various denizens of Cubs social media who enjoy clipping highlights for the rest of us. It's even more fun knowing that most of it doesn't matter, as long as everyone comes out of it healthy and feeling good.

I think I was catching up on a condensed game on YouTube when I saw a random comment saying they hope Kyle Tucker figures it out soon. If you have time to look it up, it seems so far that poor Kyle has no hits, just three walks, and a bunch of strikeouts. Now, Tucker has famously told us that he approaches batting practice differently than most, where he doesn't really swing so much as he tracks the pitches. A quick Google search shows at least 20 articles lamenting Kyle's 0-fer, including Matt Trueblood being tongue-in-cheek here, and a nearly equal number of articles touting the main piece traded to the Astros, Cam Smith, who apparently is now their top prospect.

It probably isn't too surprising hearing from the Cubs that they're not worried about the lack of hits so far from Tucker, and the fact is that while Cam Smith is "tearing it up" in spring so far, he has at this writing only 15 plate appearances—half as many as Gage Workman, who is vying for a bench spot. If you dig into it a bit more, you realize that Smith has done most of his damage in the parts of the game that nobody really cares about anymore because the starters are out, whereas Workman has a healthy mix of starts and late-game entries. I don't know that you can draw any conclusions in spring no matter if you're in Arizona or Florida, but sports sites have to sell content and clicks, right?

Therein lies our cognitive dissonance, where we know that guys just need to get reps, get their game timing on, and you really only care about performance for the guys on the fringe, who are trying to get that last bench spot or the last bullpen role. I think that's where you can kind of shrug at Ben Brown's three runs given up against the Royals, while you can understand why the Cubs just sent Chris Flexen packing to minor-league camp. Yet, in our human tendency to react emotionally despite past experiences and empirical data, we prefer to see the players representing our favorite squad do well, and we'd love to see the Cubs remain atop the Cactus League (nope, it's the Rockies, who are definitely going places). 

It is comforting to know that the professionals in charge of preparing for the games that do matter are taking this in stride, and especially reassuring that most everyone is healthy. Guys who are on the shelf will come back sooner rather than later, and there's so much depth on the Cubs that we see dozens of articles, including on this here website, debating who will make the cut. Perhaps the anxiety we feel now is good practice for the regular season, but there is some level of satisfaction knowing that the Cubs have done their best to prepare for 2025, even if it isn't reflected in the box score. Of course, it would be nice if Pete Crow-Armstrong would save some of his chaos for games that matter, but there's no dissonance in saying that we've enjoyed his madness so far.

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