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A tweet sequence this morning:
Good news for Garza. He's going to play catch today. Says feels good #Cubs
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) February 28, 2013
Sounds great, right? But...
Garza sounds like he will start out on DL. Got "to think of team" before self.
— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) February 28, 2013
A little more detail:
Garza (lat) heading out to play catch, leaves open possibility of DL to start season. "I'm not going to rush this thing."
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) February 28, 2013
That's probably the right move. If Matt Garza is healthy, and stretched out, he could start April 7 -- because the Cubs have an off day after Opening Day, so whoever the Opening Day starter (it's looking like Jeff Samardzija now) is could go a second time April 6.
A little internal discussion: I know some of you have asked about having the recaps in a separate post from the game-thread stream. I could do that; to me, it makes some sense to have all the posts from one game in a single spot. I've been changing up the headlines for the streams after the game is over, and if you want to go directly to the recap, you just click on the headline below the main stream headline.
But I'd like to do what seems best for everyone. As I've said, this is a work in progress and spring training is the best time to work things out. So vote in the poll attached to this post.
Cubs lineup:
Sappelt CF, Barney 2B, Hairston DH, McDonald LF, Soler RF, Navarro C, Baez SS, Lillibridge 1B, Lake 3B
Smart move, resting Starlin Castro this afternoon. And, here's more news on that:
Sveum sez Starlin will miss 2-3 days. Baez will get more playing time.
— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) February 28, 2013
Doesn't look too serious for Castro, and we get to see more of Javier Baez in big-league games.
Athletics lineup:
Crisp CF, Sizemore 2B, Reddick RF, Moss 1B, Donaldson 3B, Nakajima SS, Norris C, Choice LF, Head DH
This afternoon, Scott Feldman makes his spring Cubs debut, facing A's lefthander Brett Anderson. Other Cubs scheduled to pitch today: Kyuji Fujikawa, Jensen Lewis, Carlos Marmol, Hector Rondon and Travis Wood.
Today's game is a webcast on cubs.com (and via the MLB At Bat app) with Len Kasper and Mick Gillispie. The webcast will be online starting at 1:50 p.m. CT.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
For spring-training games, we'll have a first-pitch thread at game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time (because I know how you all like overflow threads!). For today, that will be 2 p.m. CT and 3:30 p.m. CT. These threads will not post individually onto the front page; instead, you can find links to them in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page. They will also appear in this StoryStream™. The pitcher box and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.
Discuss amongst yourselves.