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There's an event going on in Atlanta tonight, about two miles from Turner Field, that will probably draw just a tiny bit more attention than the Cubs/Braves game. The Georgia Dome will be packed, many of you will likely be watching, and Turner Field will be largely empty.
Me, I'll be watching the baseball game. How about you? Vote in the poll.
And write your own caption to the photo at the top of this post.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Schierholtz RF, Castillo C, Valbuena 3B, Gonzalez 2B, Villanueva P
Braves lineup:
BJ Upton CF, Heyward RF, Justin Upton LF, Freeman 1B, Uggla 2B, Francisco 3B, Laird C, Pena SS, Teheran P
Andrelton Simmons was in the original lineup, but was scratched with a left thumb sprain and is listed as day-to-day.
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Well, let's see. Carlos Villanueva made a couple of relief appearances against the Braves last year for Toronto in interleague play. Not too relevant. Rummaging around in his record, he has one career start against them... it was in 2007. Not too relevant either. Current Braves are hitting .231 (12-for-52) against Villanueva with no home runs. So maybe that's good. Villanueva is the third pitcher this week to make his Cubs debut. Hope he has a better result than the previous two.
Julio Teheran has been a top Braves pitching prospect for a couple of years now. He pitched briefly in the major leagues the last two years with middling results, and had an outstanding spring training this year (six starts, 29 innings, 1.04 ERA, 0.615 WHIP, 35 strikeouts). He has never faced the Cubs or anyone on the current roster. You know what that usually means.
Today's game is on WGN.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Braves site Talking Chop.
Here's how we're going to do game threads this year, as it seems to have worked well during spring training. You'll find the game preview -- like this one -- posting as the first link in the StoryStream™, which will then contain all the overflow threads and the recap. The recap will also be on the front page as a separate post; once I post a game recap, the stream for each game will be retitled "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.
In general, game previews will post two hours before game time. Exception: for day games after night games (like today), that will usually be 90 minutes.
As has been the case during spring training, you will also be able to find the First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in this StoryStream™. As I've done for each regular-season game for several years now, we'll have the First Pitch thread at game time, then an overflow one hour, two hours and 2:45 after game time.
Discuss amongst yourselves.