MESA, Arizona -- Cubs workouts sped into full swing Friday morning with batting-practice sessions involving Jon Lester, Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo and most of the rest of the regulars.
They took over fields 5 and 6 on the back of the Cubs' complex after many of the pitchers had completed more fielding drills. You can see the entire Friday schedule in photo 4 above.
Lester's session was watched by an overflow crowd that included a couple of dozen professional photographers as well as fans lined up along the fence taking photos. One of those sitting watching Lester's outing was his dad John, armed with a camera.
It's a good thing they got all these workouts in over the last three days, because the weather forecast for the next few days is pretty lousy. As a result, it's possible the workouts could move inside the Cubs' large batting cages, which you can see in the background of photos 2,3 and 7. Those areas aren't open to the public so I likely won't be heading over to Mesa this weekend.
One thing that's been done by the team in recent years won't happen in 2015:
As of now, #Cubs not expected to play intrasquad game. 1st Cactus League contest will be split squad games Thu vs A's, Giants
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) February 27, 2015
Pity. I kind of enjoyed the intrasquad game last year, with free admission and maybe 100 people watching. Nevertheless, it appears intrasquad games aren't Joe Maddon's thing, and so we will have six more days, until next Thursday, for the first BCB game thread of the year.
Enjoy the photos and video from this morning's workouts.