Cubs vs. Diamondbacks at Mesa Preview, Thursday 3/17, 6:05 CT

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- Buried at the very end of this Tribune article is a hint from manager Joe Maddon as to possible games that Kyle Schwarber will catch this year:

Maddon said Kyle Schwarber is more likely to start at catcher in games Jason Hammel starts rather than those featuring Kyle Hendricks. Schwarber will catch Hammel on Thursday.

"They seem to work well together," Maddon said.

As you can see from the lineup below, Schwarber is catching Hammel today. I don't think that makes Schwarber Hammel's "personal catcher," as I can't see him catching all of Hammel's starts. It only means that Maddon will use Schwarber as a catcher in maybe half of those starts, giving the other catchers a break.

Here are the rest of today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Fowler CF, Heyward RF, Rizzo 1B, Bryant 3B, Schwarber C, Soler LF, Russell SS, Kawasaki 2B, Hammel P

This is likely very close (with the exception of Ben Zobrist at 2B) to what we'll see Opening Night in Anaheim, except that night you'll probably see Miguel Montero catching and Kyle Schwarber at DH.

Diamondbacks lineup:

Segura 2B, Brito CF, Goldschmidt 1B, Peralta RF, Drury 3B, Weeks LF, Hayes C, Bradley P, Ahmed SS

This is the first game this spring in which pitchers are in the batting order for both teams.

SITE NOTE: Since this game is, essentially, a "night" game for those of you in Central or Eastern time, the recap will post at the usual night game recap time -- 8 a.m. CT tomorrow, Friday.

As noted above, Jason Hammel starts for the Cubs. I would expect Hammel to go five innings. Relievers on the Cubs list today: Aaron Brooks, Brandon Gomes and Drew Rucinski.

Archie Bradley will go for the D'backs. Other pitchers for Arizona will include Matt Reynolds, Tyler Clippard, Daniel Hudson, Keith Hessler and Brad Ziegler.

Today's game is on cubs.com with Len Kasper and Mick Gillispie, and televised nationally on ESPN.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit. If you do go there to interact with D'backs fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

Please note that during spring training, Gameday doesn't usually go pitch-by-pitch as it does during the regular season -- usually, it will update after each at-bat.

For spring-training games, we'll have a first-pitch thread at five minutes to 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 6 p.m. CT and 7:30 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. There will also be a StoryStream on the front page with all the game thread links, as well as the recap after the game is over. The pitcher boxes and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.