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SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — The Cubs are ready for the 2018 season. Here’s proof in quotes from various players, as well as Joe Maddon.
Jose Quintana:
“I feel really good,” Quintana said. “I’m ready [for the regular season]. One more left, a little shorter, in Fort Myers [Fla.] and ready to go for the season.”
Pedro Strop:
“I don’t think about roles,” reliever Pedro Strop said Thursday. “It’s not a big deal for me. I like to win. If you use me in the fifth or sixth [innings] and this is the way I’m going to help the team win, I’m fine with it. I like to pitch.”
Kris Bryant:
“Adding new people -- [coach Brian] Butterfield, Chili, [assistant hitting coach Andy Haines], plus guys getting used to themselves and who they are as players and trusting themselves, it all adds to why we’re doing so good and why we think we’re going to do good,” Bryant said. “It’s so awesome to see guys just kind of grow into themselves and realize who they are as players.”
Joe Maddon:
“They’re so bought into the team concept, I think they think if they came to me to talk about something like that, they’d be going against the team concept,” Maddon said. “It’s something we’ve been preaching -- unity situation. I think some of the conversations that guys would normally have with me by now have not occurred. I think they get that we do our best with the right men out there, we do our best to make sure everybody gets their plate appearances.”
I’m ready for the season. I’m sure you are too. But, we still have a practice game to watch today.
Here are today’s particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Happ CF, La Stella 3B, Rizzo 1B, Schwarber LF, Gimenez C, Freeman SS, Bourjos RF, Court 2B, Chatwood P
A lot of the guys who played in Thursday’s night game have Friday off.
Brewers lineup:
Villar 2B, Yelich LF, Shaw 3B, Santana RF, Thames 1B, Pina C, Sogard SS, Broxton CF, Woodruff P
Tyler Chatwood will start for the Cubs. The Cubs relief list today includes Brian Duensing, Brandon Morrow and Justin Hancock.
Brandon Woodruff gets the call for the Brewers.
Today’s game is on 670 The Score with Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies, yes, the TV crew doing radio work, as there is no TV today.
You will be pleased to learn that after today, every Cubs game in 2018 will be televised. Some remaining spring games will be carried by the Cubs opponent’s network, but beginning Saturday, all Cubs games will be on TV somewhere.
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 Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. If you do go there to interact with Brewers 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 3 p.m. CT and 4:30 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.