Spring Training: Cubs vs Indians 3/28/11

It was Cubs versus Indians on Monday in Goodyear, Arizona.

PITCHING

Carlos Zambrano was erratic in his final start of the Spring. He issued five walks compared to two strikeouts and gave up four runs. Zambrano has a history of bad Opening Day starts, so hopefully he got the bad out of the way before he left Arizona, and will feel more comfortable taking the mound on Saturday instead of being the Opening Day starter this season. The Cubs have also been trying to jam as many outings as possible for John Grabow over the last remaining games as he missed the majority of the Spring while trying to come back 100% from last season’s injury. He put up another scoreless frame to bring his Spring ERA down to 2.57. Grabow has shown that he can be an above average lefty out of the pen when he is healthy, and he will be a key piece to providing bullpen depth behind Sean Marshall as the second left handed reliever.

Marcos Mateo, who will also have a chair in the Cubs pen at Wrigley come April 1^st, continued his sparkling Spring with a scoreless inning of his own. The 12 man bullpen has an excellent mix of veterans and young arms, and will provide a little more ease for Cubs fans in the later innings compared to the last couple seasons. I am looking forward to seeing this unit once the games count.

DEFENSE

Sick of hearing about errors? Sorry, you will have to put up with yet another one. I may be dating myself, but for those of you that remember the days when you had to write your own scores at the bowling alley, the Cubs defense might want to consider penciling in a bold lined “wall” on the calendar between the March 31^st and April 1^st.

OFFENSE

Spring is almost over and going into April at least, it looks like the Cubs offense will have to settle with starting the game off with one out already. No player has yet to step forward even a little bit to try to seize the job. To be fair, there are no true lead off hitters to select from on the current 25 man roster, but at the same time, trying to force the .176 hitting Kosuke Fukudome into the role is not the answer either.

There should also be some concern for Alfonso Soriano. He started the Spring with a hot bat, and proclaimed that health wise he was feeling the best he has since coming to Chicago, but since his bat has been silent and his Spring average currently sits at .230. It should also be noted that he did not attempt even one stolen base all Spring. So far manager Mike Quade has been applauded for his handling of the players, and it will be interesting to see how he will handle Soriano in the regular season if the mega millionaire gets off to a slow April.

So where is the good news? Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena both collected two hits, with Pena’s consisting of a double and a home run. His Spring average is still not much prettier than his regular season average from 2010, but it is a start. Be on the look out for a nice bounce back season for Ramirez. In addition to the contract year that has been well discussed here on Cubbies Crib, the word out of the Cubs clubhouse is that the veteran third baseman has really allowed himself to accept Rudy Jaramillo’s coaching this Spring.