View of the field from Sloan Park press box

Hot Takes for the Off Day

In Facepalm by Rice Cube24 Comments

You know how they say that spring training doesn’t matter and also keep harping on the whole small sample size thing? Well, the sample and performance probably doesn’t matter much for the guys you know are going to be making the team, but for the ones who are on the bubble, more often than not you’d like them not to suck. I did take a look at the roster again last time and with the off day coming up, I think we will see additional cuts as the Cubs continue to whittle down to 26.

Going Out On a Limb

Based purely on the part where he seemingly hasn’t had a start yet where he didn’t give up multiple home runs, I don’t think the Cubs will be carrying Adrian Sampson as a starter, or even at the major league level. At this point I’m not even sure he will even remain on the 40-man roster. Hayden Wesneski has pitched phenomenally in his audition to not be relegated to Iowa so far, and even with the whole spiel about short- and long-term development and winning, I think Wesneski is the best bet to make it for the fifth starter spot at this point because he’s made the most of his opportunities compared to the other candidates.

That 40-man roster spot is pretty important because I think one of the outfield options I totally forgot about, Mike Tauschman, is left-handed and is also doing well in his spring audition. Since he’s not on the roster now and I doubt they’re moving Seiya Suzuki to the 60-day injured list unless they absolutely have to, it may make sense to jettison Sampson and roster Tauschman for the time being since this team is basically treading water for 2023 anyway.

Stray Baseball Thoughts

The World Baseball Classic has been rolling along and has been entertaining to its fans both in person and watching on TV. There have been plenty of amazing performances by the MLB players participating (not just by Shohei Ohtani) as well as some Cubs prospects such as Owen Caissie, who killed a baseball and then did a Marlon Byrd sprint around the bases:

The B-story in that game was the part where it took nearly three hours to get through the first four innings, and now that we are in the pitch clock era, that lengthy time of play is even more pronounced. I think I get why they don’t want to use it in WBC because a lot of these pitchers, even with pitch counts, are giving it their all, and maybe the recovery time that isn’t possible with a firm pitch clock would be unreasonable this early in the year, but that long to play four innings is pretty ridiculous.

From a fan perspective, the raucous atmosphere is pretty cool despite all that time (there were a boatload of runs scored too). I was watching a Savannah Bananas game with the wife the other day and although she’s not nearly as big of a baseball fan as I, she really wants to go to a game because of all the silly stuff they do on the field to make the experience fun (not to mention a strict game timer to get it done within a couple hours). I don’t think that strict of a timer is necessary, nor does MLB need guys batting while on stilts or pitching with clown pants on, but the accessibility of the players to their fans during and after the game plus the default of fun at all costs is pretty appealing. Kind of makes you wish players wouldn’t get butthurt over a bat flip, eh?

In the meantime, the Cubs lost to the Brewers again but it’s spring training and they should try not to lose as much during the regular season, but at least they got it over with in just two hours and 29 minutes. The real deal starts at the end of the month, so get it together, boys.

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  14. berselius

    It would be very Jets if Rodgers managed to get them to sign all his buddies, followed by retiring (dying laughing)

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  20. berselius

    Rice Cube,

    Packers GM Brian Gutekunst is gonna need to go on a darkness retreat of his own once this finally shakes out (dying laughing). At least this dragged out process isn’t affecting the Packers ability to do anything in free agency, since they rarely do anything major there anyway.

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  21. berselius

    Rice Cube,

    Looking forward to this showing up in MLB, since it will make moot my irrationally retrograde resistance to the value of catcher framing stats (dying laughing).

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