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SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — The Cubs made some spring roster cuts earlier Saturday morning. If you haven’t seen those, details are here.
Not among those cuts was Dillon Maples . As Jordan Bastian writes, he has a shot at the Opening Day bullpen due to injuries, but:
It is not hard to identify what Maples must change to finally emerge as the kind of bullpen weapon Chicago needs.
”Just throw a few more strikes,” [Brandon] Morrow said. “I mean, his stuff’s better than everybody. I think his breaking ball probably rates as possibly the best pitch in all of baseball based on spin rate, movement and velocity.”
Here are today’s particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Zobrist LF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Baez SS, Heyward RF, Davis C, Happ CF, Bote 2B, Hendricks P
We are starting to see lineups close to an Opening Day look. Willson Contreras was originally in today’s lineup, but:
Willson @WContreras40 (right ring finger) scratched from lineup, Taylor Davis starts in his place. Contreras expected to return Tuesday.
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) March 16, 2019
Diamondbacks lineup:
Souza RF, Vargas 3B, Marte CF, Walker 1B, Kelly DH, Szczur LF, Murphy C, Tomlinson 2B, Querecuto SS
Kyle Hendricks will start for the Cubs. Cubs relievers today: Tyler Chatwood, Mike Montgomery and Allen Webster. We’ll see if Chatwood in relief is better than Chatwood the starter.
Matt Koch goes for the D-backs.
Today’s game is on 670 The Score. No TV today.
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 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.
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 3:05 p.m. CT and 4:35 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.