Spring Training games thread

[Bull]

Cabrera looks amazing. Hits in third inning were cheap. One was a high chopper over Cabreras head.

[CUBDOM4life]

So PCA has to start over Buxton against Soroka tomorrow right?

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

13 minutes ago, CUBDOM4life said:

So PCA has to start over Buxton against Soroka tomorrow right?

He should but I don't think he will

[soccer10k]

On 3/8/2026 at 7:13 PM, Cubs420psd said:

Junior Lake is on team DR.

 

That name was a blast from the past.

I'll never forget being at a game in 2014 and telling my wife that Junior Lake wasn't a good hitter. He then hit 2 HRs that day. After the second one she said something along the lines of "I thought you said he wasn't good". I mean, I was right but it didn't seem like it in the moment.

[Bertz]

Jack Neely's not a threat to make the team, but he's been interesting this spring.  Throwing way more strikes than he has at any point since leaving the Yankees.  Velocity is down, but movement is way up, and so he's still getting crazy amount of swing and miss.

It looks like Hodge is dead but I feel much much better about Roberts, Little, and Neely than I did a month ago.  Probably a worthwhile tradeoff.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Stuff+ still really likes Porter Hodge, it's a shame he keeps having these nagging injury setbacks.

[Bertz]

Kepley getting the start is fun 

 

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Steele did his first live BP today, sounds like it went really well.

https://youtu.be/v6apCSctlhM?si=9YedtcEKJFDeZ3Ln

[Bull]

Shaw out two days in a row. Any indication if hbp is to blame?

[chibears55]

So is Marquee going away as to why we're not seeing games being televised or is it mostly due to JD and Boog not being around to do these games.

Approximately 145 games could be televised on marquee in 2026, Boog and JD will probably combine to miss half 🙄🙄

[Andy]

2 hours ago, chibears55 said:

So is Marquee going away as to why we're not seeing games being televised or is it mostly due to JD and Boog not being around to do these games.

Approximately 145 games could be televised on marquee in 2026, Boog and JD will probably combine to miss half 🙄🙄

Marquee doesn't make money doing ST games so they're not going to do them

[Gjfificifjdej]

3 hours ago, chibears55 said:

So is Marquee going away as to why we're not seeing games being televised or is it mostly due to JD and Boog not being around to do these games.

Approximately 145 games could be televised on marquee in 2026, Boog and JD will probably combine to miss half 🙄🙄

I seem to remember some stuff last year about Marquee struggling a bit or looking to cut back on spending, so it could be that 🤷🏻‍♂️. I can’t imagine theres a huge market of people with the time to be watching exhibition games in the middle of the work day either. 

[chibears55]

50 minutes ago, Gjfificifjdej said:

I seem to remember some stuff last year about Marquee struggling a bit or looking to cut back on spending, so it could be that 🤷🏻‍♂️. I can’t imagine theres a huge market of people with the time to be watching exhibition games in the middle of the work day either. 

I guess watching McCormick, Conforto,  Murray, Cowles, Miller, Kingery, Carlson and other duds most of these games isn’t exactly appealing either.

[Stratos]

Kinda sucks for the WBC players that they lose a few weeks to practice the ABS system before the season.

[chopsx9]

Apropos of nothing, Jamieson Taillon was a 2nd overall pick.  If you were gifted with the knowledge of how his career would turn out to this point (and not any of the other players) would you take him as the 2nd pick in a draft?  Again not his draft specifically but would the certainty of his career vs the lottery picks the other players would be, be enough to justify his selection as a number 2 pick?

[Bertz]

8 minutes ago, chopsx9 said:

Apropos of nothing, Jamieson Taillon was a 2nd overall pick.  If you were gifted with the knowledge of how his career would turn out to this point (and not any of the other players) would you take him as the 2nd pick in a draft?  Again not his draft specifically but would the certainty of his career vs the lottery picks the other players would be, be enough to justify his selection as a number 2 pick?

Found a reddit post pretty relevant to this question

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/s/YIYOBredu1

Taillon’s at almost 19 career WAR based on Fangraphs and a little over 15 as measured by Baseball-Reference.  So not by a huge margin but he's an above average #2 overall pick.  Goes to show how brutal the MLB draft is.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

23 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Found a reddit post pretty relevant to this question

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/s/YIYOBredu1

Taillon’s at almost 19 career WAR based on Fangraphs and a little over 15 as measured by Baseball-Reference.  So not by a huge margin but he's an above average #2 overall pick.  Goes to show how brutal the MLB draft is.

Too lazy to do the legwork for more but it looks like the *median* bWAR for pick number 2 is about 7 WAR, and Taillon is 21st of 61 #2 picks.  He's likely to jump a couple more spots too, which really goes to show that you that failure is the assumption for the draft given he's literally 2nd overall.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Were the Pirates trying to save money by drafting him 2 or was he legit that high on the board that year?

Edited March 14 by Tangled Up in Plaid

[Transmogrified Tiger]

1 hour ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Were the Pirates trying to save money by drafting him 2 or was he legit that high on the board that year?

He got the highest bonus in that draft, and that draft's number 1 was Harper.

[Bull]

7 hours ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

He got the highest bonus in that draft, and that draft's number 1 was Harper.

Oooh now do number 2 overalls who never made mlb.

Edited March 14 by Bull

[JunkyardWalrus]

25 minutes ago, Bull said:

Oooh now do number 2 overalls who never made mlb.

Then do the total WAR for 1st round players/Top 100 prospects who were traded prior to making their MLB debut. (or point me in the right direction if possible, because now I’m curious.)

[Derwood]

54 minutes ago, Bull said:

Oooh now do number 2 overalls who never made mlb.

Just for fun, here are all the #2 overall picks:

 

1965: Les Rohr
1966: Reggie Jackson
1967: Terry Hughes
1968: Pete Broberg
1969: J.R. Richard
1970: Steve Dunning
1971: Jay Franklin
1972: Rick Manning
1973: John Steams
1974: Tommy Boggs
1975: Mike Lentz
1976: Pat Underwood
1977: Bill Gullickson
1978: Lloyd Moseby
1979: Tim Leary
1980: Garry Harris
1981: Joe Carter
1982: Augie Schmidt
1983: Kurt Stillwell
1984: Bill Swift
1985: Will Clark
1986: Greg Swindell
1987: Mark Merchant
1988: Mark Lewis
1989: Tyler Houston
1990: Tony Clark
1991: Mike Kelly
1992: Paul Shuey
1993: Darren Dreifort
1994: Ben Grieve
1995: Ben Davis
1996: Travis Lee
1997: JD Drew
1998: Mark Mulder
1999: Josh Beckett
2000: Adam Johnson
2001: Mark Prior
2002: BJ Upton
2003: Rickie Weeks
2004: Justin Verlander
2005: Alex Gordon
2006: Gregory Reynolds
2007: Mike Moustakas
2008: Pedro Alvarez
2009: Dustin Ackley
2010: Jameson Taillon
2011: Danny Hultzen
2012: Byron Buston
2013: Kris Bryant
2014: Tyler Kolek
2015: Alex Bregman
2016: Nick Senzel
2017: Hunter Greene
2018: Joey Bart
2019: Bobby Witt Jr. 
2020: Heston Kjerstad
2021: Jack Leiter
2022: Druw Jones
2023: Dylan Crews
2024: Chase Burns
2025: Tyler Bremner

[chopsx9]

4 hours ago, Derwood said:

Just for fun, here are all the #2 overall picks:

 

2012: Byron Buston
 

Is that an intentional altering? LOL.

[Bertz]

Love Kelly at 1B. More please.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

1 minute ago, Bertz said:

Love Kelly at 1B. More please.

I think we're gonna be seeing Amaya there as well.