Cub Tracks’ double ought

Welcome to today’s edition of Cub Tracks news and notes™, a greatest-hits collection of Chicago-style beat writers and bloggers, ground from #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball, overheated, steeped in writers’ tears, and then cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor.

Clearly the ST No-No isn’t going to have the same effect that the last regular-season one did. The Cubs looked just fine Saturday in Sloan Park, both offensively and defensively. Good stuff. Even if the team doesn’t win, I like a well-played game.

Nico Hoerner continued to kick serious bootay, whacking a triple to left-center to open the scoring, and the Cubs’ staff continued their fine work. Jameson Taillon looked great, threw a couple of sweepers, and the rest of the pitchers dominated.

Mike Tauchman is making a serious case for himself, and he’s not the only one. The Cubs’ TOOTBLAN game is en pointe, but I’m willing to let that go, for now.

* means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled sarcasm font in the comments.

• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs Spring Training Notebook: A win for the organization’s pitching development and other prospect tidbits. “Those guys are young, putting themselves on the radar,” Ross said.
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): How the Chicago Cubs are handling the spring workloads for pitchers Brandon Hughes and Keegan Thompson. There’s a time where you feel you can slow play it and help guys get to a good position so that when they go into games, it’s not like they’re trying to figure everything out,” said Tommy Hottovy.
• Aldo Soto (Sports Mockery*): Cam Sanders can be lethal out of Cubs bullpen. “High velocity, a lot of spin and an aggressive mindset on the mound.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Cubs may add reliever soon as run on lefties thins market. “... perhaps I should echo Hoyer by saying I “wouldn’t be shocked” if Britton showed up in camp.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): How insight from a Hall of Famer helped Madrigal adjust to 3B. “It’s something that’s helped me a ton,” Madrigal said.
• Mark Feinsand (MLB.com*): Hoerner on board with leadoff duty: ‘All for it’. “... leadoff feels good. It’s an exciting opportunity.”
• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): 23 for ’23: What role will Christopher Morel have on the 2023 Cubs? “... even if Morel starts the season in the minors, expect him to play a role at some point in the big-league season.”
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times*): How Chicagoland native Mike Tauchman fits into Cubs’ outfield picture after Seiya Suzuki’s injury. “Tauchman has his sights set on playing at Wrigley Field.”

Food for Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the opinions of writers whose work is linked to in this series of articles. Thanks for reading!