Cubs vs. Braves Preview, Saturday 5/10, 6:10 CT

You'll pardon me for continuing to lead the Mike Olt bandwagon, but I found this article interesting:

Olt said that earlier this season, he struggled at times to commit to the approach outlined in scouting reports.

"I was being overaggressive, then I was being under-aggressive," Olt said. "I was kind of in-between, I wasn't committing myself to my approach, so I just kind of stood back and relaxed. And when I go out there and I have that approach, I stick with it, instead of being indecisive."

Well, that's good. Does that reflect too much coaching? Lack of coaching? Whatever it is, it does appear that Olt has figured something out. He might never be a superstar, but it appears he could become a serviceable major-league regular. That's a good thing.

Cubs lineup:

Bonifacio CF, Kalish RF, Rizzo 1B, Castro SS, Valbuena 2B, Castillo C, Olt 3B, Lake LF, Samardzija P

Braves lineup:

Heyward RF, J. Upton LF, Freeman 1B, Gattis C, Johnson 3B, B. Upton CF, Simmons SS, Santana P, Pastornicky 2B

The Braves continue to hit their pitcher eighth, fifth game in a row. Presuming Darwin Barney starts at some point, the Cubs should do the same.

Today's Starting Pitchers

Jeff Samardzija Cubs vs. Ervin Santana Braves vs. Atl -- vs. Cubs

Jeff Samardzija will get a "win" sometime, because starting pitchers do. Even starting pitchers whose teams don't score runs when they start. Current members of the Braves roster are 13-for-65 (.200) against him with one home run (Dan Uggla) and 25 strikeouts. At the very least, Shark can keep this one close.

Ervin Santana has never faced the Cubs. Players on the current Cubs roster are 2-for-12 against Santana, and he is off to a good start this year, with a 2.41 ERA and just eight walks in 33⅔ innings. Clearly, we are doomed.

Today's game is on WGN.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Braves site Talking Chop.

For 2014, we are going to have the same game-thread routine as 2013. Here's how it works.

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, that will usually be 90 minutes.

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 five minutes before game time (moved up from actual game time per your requests), then an overflow one hour, two hours and 2:45 after game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.