Jason Ross

The Cubs are not going to re-heat an arm in sub 40 degree weather. That's a really good way to create injuries.

Jacob Webb has reverse splits and the Guardians are heavy LHH. The Cubs used up Milner and Thielbar in game-1. So it's either Webb, a RHH who is especially good at limiting LHH or Riley Martin, the rookie, as your two "LHH specialists " for this game.

I doubt the team uses him a second time on a cold day like today. Maton or Harvey will get the duties.

Happ.

They don't have many options. It's either Shaw and Carlson in the same lineup and Happ at DH or someone like Conforto/Ballesteros as lefties. And it's April 5th, they had the day off yesterday. He's been a good player his entire career, he's had a bad handful of games. He can work through it.

Miggy. Miggy. Miggy.

Odd that Mo isn't starting game 1. Lefty slated for game 2.

Jerzembik was a big time recruit who went to South Carolina and then basically spent his entire time hurt. He didn't log an inning with USC in an official spring game since 2023. He's a complete dart throw, but the stuff on him was always big. If his arm lasts a few years he could be a fun thing.

Looks like it's a pretty chilly day with high's as low as 41 and a bunch of wind. Probably not going to be an easy day to hit all around.

Martin has been stretched out and has been starting as well. Assad had good velo in his first start this year in Iowa but got crushed. He probably isn't coming up to take a start right now. It'll probably just be Rea with Martin coming up as someone who can go a few extra innings right now.

My memory is fuzzy but there was a pitcher in the last year or two who got taken off the field at one point and everyone here decided it was definitely TJS only for them to make his next start.

It is probably too soon for Wiggins. Especially if Steele isn't forever away. My guess is Rea to the rotation, Asaad to the pen. They will tread water until Steele returns and then Wiggins will be later or the next serious injury. Things change if at any point another injury hits though.

Exactly this. If you want guys who break the concept of what we expect humans to do, this is going to be an unintended consequence. Horton throws 98 while essentially throwing a cutter with big IVB. It's a pitch that stretches the human capacity to the fullest. They're going to blow up. If you want power guys, this is the outcome, sadly.

Ugh. I've been battling with MLB.tv because they keep blacking me out (I'm no where near a blackout area) and I come back and this is what I missed? Great.

Same concept, but lessened. Instead of Kingery, the end result is that Carlson or Conforto is your RF the rest of the game. Conforto hasn't looked good and Carlson has never really hit RHH in his career and the team hasn't given him a PA yet. Plus, while I think Shaw can handle RF, Seiya is probably a better defender right now due to experience.

Yes. At least "primarily". Lineups are fluid and sometimes a player will DH to get a bit of a break, But think of it this way: if the goal is to essentially have Ballesteros as your main DH against RHP, but you don't want him to start against LHP, then Shaw is Ballesteros. replacement. If you don't really want Shaw hitting against RHP as the game goes on, but you have him at 3b over Bregman and Bregman at DH you're in a bad spot. You can't move Bregman to 3b, or you'd lose the DH. So then you either are forced into Matt Shaw hitting against a tough RHP, or substituting your best LHH - none of which play 3b. If this spot comes up in the 6th, and you PH Shaw for Ballesteros, Mo gets one PA, and then you have to insert Scott Kingery the rest of the game. That's it. That's all you got.

I think if Bregman is starting at 3b, Suzuki will be the RF, not Matt Shaw.

Mathis horsefeathers murdered that. Wow.

Man, for what is supposed to be a down year for the system, it's starting off pretty good.

That is definitely a new swing. https://www.milb.com/iowa/video/james-triantos-solo-home-run-x1725

Mr. Boyd with the lowest velo whiff of the day, league wide.

He currently has a +1 DRS and a 0 AA.

I spy with my little eye...

Image courtesy of © Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images Last night, the Cubs lost 2-0. It was a bit of a frustrating game: he weather was frigid, the bats were as cold as the temperatures, and the team was seemingly just an inch or two short on a few spectacular defensive plays that could have kept the score knotted up. Despite all of that, there was one standout; Ben Brown. If we're just looking at the final stat line for Brown, it's pretty excellent. He went 3 1/3 innings, struck out five, walked one, and surrendered a solitary hit. On the surface, that's a good outing, but I think it hides a lot of the really good things that came out of it. In fact, what we may be seeing are the sprouts of a new, improved Ben Brown who could stick in the rotation. One of the things the right-handed pitcher worked on in the spring was ensuring that his fastball sat in the upper third of the zone more frequently than in the past. Our very own @Matthew Trueblood explored Brown and this location earlier this offseason when looking at his spring training data, and last night seemed to be a continuation of that. Below is a map of all of Brown's offerings last night. The red dots indicate fastballs. The vast majority of these pitches are located in the upper third, which is exactly where you'd like to see them. Better yet, there's a distinct lack of uncompetitive pitches; command and control were on display for the fireballer Tuesday. The result of getting his fastball in the upper third is that it creates space on the bottom half for his sinker (in on the hands of righties) and for his curveball to create chases and whiffs. The sinker is especially important, as it forces the hitter to cover the whole zone. Brown doesn't really want to throw fastballs in the lower half. With swing planes the way they are today and the movement he gets from his arm slot, those can be sent a long way. Nor does he want to throw low-and-in-curves. Without the sinker, the area we see filled above with the yellow/orange dots would be effectively empty, and it's an especially useful place to go against right-handed hitters. We can see how all three pitches play off each other in a nice sequence against Jo Adell in the 8th inning. Adell has some swing-and-miss tendencies, but also some big power. His xSLG last year was in the 97th percentile. Even on cold nights, he's capable of muscling out a pitch. The more options you have, the less likely Adell is to find the bleachers and extend the two-run lead to something less surmountable. To start Adell off, Brown painted a sinker on the lower, inside corner for a strike. This is a great pitch to begin an at-bat. Either Adell swings at it, which almost assuredly results in a ground ball, or you get ahead 0-1—as Brown did, tilting the balance of the at-bat in the pitcher's favor. This is how Brown is filling up a new portion of the zone against those like-handed-hitters. Next, the hard-throwing-righty went with an uncompetitive changeup, and then fastball-fastball. Both of his heaters resulted in swings. The first earned a whiff (below), and the second was right at the very top of the zone. That caused Adell to have to cover the entirety of the plate: low and in, middle-high, and the very top of the zone. That first-pitch sinker wasn't in Brown's repertoire last year, meaning he'd either have been on his third fastball by the 1-2 foul, or maybe he'd have started Adell with a curveball that he doesn't really throw for strikes. Either way, the new pitch gave Brown options, and options are always good. Now sitting in a very favorable count, Brown could finally throw the curve. Ideally, he'd have gotten him a little more on the outer portion of the lower half, but small quibbles aside, it was a good pitch. It was also the fourth type of pitch Brown had thrown in the sequence. It created a harder decision point for the hitter, and Brown got the pitch on the black. Adell grounded out harmlessly to Alex Bregman. That sinker adds just an extra point of reference for a hitter, and it's going to make Brown incredibly difficult to deal with against right-handed hitters. While these are all great offerings, what encouraged me most was a pitch that Brown threw in the next at-bat, this time by Angels left-handed-hitting outfielder Josh Lowe. So far in his young career, the Cubs' reliever has struggled against southpaws, surrendering a .342 wOBA (up from his .295 against RHH). It makes sense, too, because he doesn't have a pitch that's designed to attack lefties. His sinker can't be the solution here, either. Sinkers are much better against the same-handed hitter, and while he may show it every so often, it's not the pitch that's going to solve this problem. Within this at-bat, however, Brown flashed a pitch I want to see more of; a hard-thrown changeup that registered 90 mph on a very cold night. This wasn't a perfect pitch, mind you. It's certainly too high in the zone. Ideally, you'd like to see it thrown more like the one below, from Cade Horton. But it's a start. The velocity is reminiscent of Edward Cabrera's changeup, which sat well into the 90s on Monday night. As you can see, there's some solid arm-side movement on it; the pitch broke 13 inches to the right. What I liked the most about it is that he did have the confidence to throw it, and I want more of it. I want him to bury it more, sure, but I want to see him feel confident in that offering to throw it more than once or twice in a three-inning appearance. If Brown can bury that changeup a bit more, he's going to get weak ground balls against off-handed hitters, just like Cade Horton did with Daylen Lile above. "Baseballs have a tendency not to fly over the fence when they hit the ground," a friend of mine said last night when discussing the game, and it's such a good and simple line that I have to steal it here. Couple a changeup that Brown can more consistently get to the outside corner against hitters like Lowe with the new sinker to a righty like Adell? You're cooking with gas, now. Strangely enough, the pitcher I envision the best version of Brown to be is probably very similar to the best version of José Soriano, the pitcher the Cubs had the pleasure to face last night. Soriano mixes his high-octane fastballs with a knuckle-curve (that he throws 85 mph+) and a splitter he uses to keep lefties at bay. Soriano used his splitter nine times against off-handed hitters last night, and ideally, Brown could use his changeup in a similar manner. Even as-is, the guy we saw take the mound last night is a weapon. Don't let me sound like I'm trying to diminish what he accomplished. The new sinker is helping against hitters like Adell, and will make Brown better than when we last saw him in 2025. Instead, what I see is the path forward. If he doesn't ever find the changeup, Brown is a good pitcher, but there's the potential for a very good pitcher if he can just find that pitch a little. And I can't help but dream on it. What did you make of Ben Brown's appearance last night? Did anything stand out to you? Let us know in the comments below! View full article