Cubs vs. Angels at Tempe Preview, Monday 3/6, 2:05 CT

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- Last time the Cubs played the Angels, last Tuesday, the Cubs looked fine against them until the minor leaguers took over, at which time L.A. bats teed off on (primarily) Maikel Cleto. And that was without Mike Trout and Albert Pujols in the Angels lineup.

Today, we'll see Trout. Still no Pujols, and still, this Angels lineup, to me, is unimpressive.

Once again, I'm skipping this one and will watch on TV with all of you.

Here are today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Schwarber LF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Zobrist 2B, Heyward RF, Contreras DH, Kawasaki SS, Corporan C, Almora CF

Anthony Rizzo, back in the lineup. Addison Russell, held out another day. Russell was bruised up a bit after being hit by a pitch on Saturday.

Angels lineup:

Escobar DH, Calhoun RF, Trout CF, Maybin LF, Espinosa 2B, Cron 1B, Marte 3B, Maldonado C, Pennington SS

Jake Arrieta will start for the Cubs, his first appearance of spring 2017. Happy birthday, Jake! He turns 31 today. Other Cubs pitchers scheduled today: Eddie Butler, Brian Duensing, Zac Rosscup, Ryan Williams and Jhondaniel Medina.

Jesse Chavez gets the call for the Angels. Angels pitchers scheduled in relief: Cody Ege, Alex Meyer, Keynan Middleton, Andrew Bailey, Greg Mahle, Kirby Yates and Drew Gagnon.

Today’s game is on cubs.com with Len Kasper and Mick Gillispie. It’s being televised by Fox Sports West with the Angels broadcasters and will be available on MLB.tv. It’s also on MLB Network on a one-hour delay beginning at 3 p.m. CT.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Angels site Halos Heaven. If you do go there to interact with Angels 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 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. 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 Night.

Discuss amongst yourselves.