Cleaning up on loose ends

Assorted thoughts/comments as Spring Training winds down.

- Cubs have said their rotation will start the year as Lester, Arrieta, Lackey, Anderson, Hendricks.  I saw a few places try to say Hendricks is the “5th starter”, but it sounds like the order was set mostly on matchups for the first time through, and not having Lester/Anderson pitch in consecutive games

“Everybody’s always concerned about pecking order regarding who you perceive to be best or least best,” Maddon said. “It’s just more or less balancing it out. I don’t even know how important that is either. Some teams only have righties—you see righty, righty. Is that a benefit to the other side? I don’t know. We’re just going to do that to break it up a little bit.”

- Maybe the most impressive hitter this spring has been Ian Happ.  In 51ABs, Happ is hitting .392/.458/.762, with 5HRs.  He’s played at least 2B and LF.  While we shouldn’t take much of anything out of spring training stats, based purely on the amount of talk I do wonder if he’s passed Candelario as the first bat option to be called up (60ABs, .233/.292/.350).  Perhaps is just matters who they’re replacing, although Maddon did say he thought Happ could play some 3b (though he hasn’t yet with the Cubs).  Both will start the year in AAA.

- Schwarber has gotten a few starts in RF recently.  He played there some in 2015 (notably the WC game in Pitt).  Considering Heyward is still struggling (.152/.264/.326), it could be we see more OF time for Zobrist than the Cubs have led on.  Zobrist is better than Schwarber in both corners, but we know Maddon will put Schwarber in the easier corner depending on the park. 

- Almora has had a really nice spring, offensively (.322/.328/.627) and defensively.  He hasn’t magically learned to walk yet, but I’m pretty confident he won’t be starting the year in Iowa, which we had speculated was a possibility.  That means it’s very possible Szczur is out of a job, and in fact, I’ve seen a couple of rumors suggesting teams are interested in him. 

- Wade Davis hasn’t pitched much, but has been pretty bad.  Maddon publicly has said he’s not worried, but the little I’ve seen of Rondon hasn’t been super encouraging either.  I guess the bullpen is one area to keep a close eye on.

- Eddie Butler (subscription):

Of late, he’s been sitting at 95 and 96 mph with his heater, inducing ground balls on a regular basis. He’s also shown a plus changeup that’s a bit higher in velocity (88-89 mph) than what’s ideal, but has the type of sink and tailing action that makes it a more of a ground ball pitch rather than a swing-and-miss one. Because Butler’s gone back to a lower arm slot that he’s more comfortable with, he’s more confident in himself and is seeing the results that made him a top-tier pitching prospect four summers ago.

- Both Russell and Zobrist have been banged up off and on all spring, so hopefully they’re healthy come this weekend.