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Cubs vs. White Sox at Mesa preview, Tuesday 2/27, 2:05 CT

This is the first of three spring meetings with the Cubs’ crosstown rivals.

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Buried in this article about Kris Bryant and some of his attempts at improving his craft last year (“information overload,” he said) was this interesting note:

Bryant learned to cope with a finger injury for most of the second half of the season.

You might remember how that happened [VIDEO].

At the time of that injury, it was feared Bryant might miss significant time. Instead, he sat out just one game and actually wound up hitting better (.323/.420/.550, 10 HR in 63 games) than he did before the injury (.273/.399/.524, 19 HR in 87 games), although as you can see the HR rate was down a bit. Then he didn’t hit well in the postseason (.200/.220/.325, 1 HR), though the entire Cubs team didn’t hit much in the postseason.

Hopefully, a healthy Bryant has another MVP-type season. The linked article details some of the adjustments he’s making this year.as another MVP

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Happ CF, Schwarber LF, Contreras C, La Stella DH, Caratini 1B, Bote 3B, Freeman SS, Young 2B, Hannemann RF

White Sox lineup:

Cordell CF, Anderson SS, Abreu 1B, Garcia RF, Davidson DH, Castillo C, Moncada 2B, Delmonico LF, Sanchez 3B

Jon Lester will start for the Cubs and is expected to go one inning. Relievers on the Cubs list today: Dario Alvarez, Rob Zastryzny, Michael Roth, Cory Mazzoni, Dillon Maples, Oscar De La Cruz and Duane Underwood Jr.

Carson Fulmer gets the call for the White Sox. Other White Sox pitchers scheduled today: Hector Santiago, Connor Walsh, Danny Farquhar, Xavier Cedeno, Chris Volstad and Jeanmar Gomez.

Today’s game is on WGN-TV with Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies. It’s also on cubs.com with Mick Gillispie. It will be on MLB Network (outside the Chicago market) on a one-hour delay beginning at 3 p.m. CT.

MLB.com Gameday

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.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. If you do go there to interact with White Sox 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.

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 Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.