Cubs battle hungry A’s in first spring training game

The Chicago Cubs take on the Oakland Athletics at Sloan Park, Mesa, Az., this week in the first spring training game of the season. An aggressive Athletics team looks to get in winning mode – early.

It’s here! We’ve waited patiently through the Super Bowl, winter meetings, impeachment, debates and primaries to get to our first game of spring training, which officially denotes that MLB is back in action!

The Chicago Cubs had nothing less than a tumultuous offseason, where fans waited with bated breath to see who the Chicago Cubs were going to pick up in free agency or trades to bring the team into 2020 under a brand new manager, David Ross. The last free agent the Cubs got serious with, the Athletics were also showing a substantial interest in Jason Kipnis. More on the Kipnis situation later.

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The Chicago Cubs might be easing into this first game with a lot of minor league players and a sprinkling of veterans. At least, that’s how former Cubs manager Joe Maddon and many MLB managers approached the first game of spring training. Think of it as shaking off the cobwebs of last season and getting the look, feel and taste of the game back in your soul.

The Athletics have finished the last two seasons with 97 wins and two unsuccessful trips to the Wild Card game. They are wildly hungry to do better and make a run through the postseason this year.

Their plan?

They want to get out of the gates early and win. They don’t want to play catch-up or bounce up and down in the standings. They want to set the pace during spring training and continue on through the regular season.  The hope is to avoid an MLB Wild Card game for the third year in a row and instead cruise right into the postseason. Brodie Brazil of NBC Sports Infinity recently spoke with A’s pitcher Liam Hendriks on the team’s expectations:

“It’s getting out of the gates early,” Hendriks said. “We haven’t been able to bounce out early enough. We had a tepid couple of months, and then able to turn it on once our backs were against the wall. But we need to play like our backs are against the wall the entire season.”

So even though the Chicago Cubs may be shaking off cobwebs and trying out their shiny, new personnel from the minors – there is still an expectation of winning. Will Ross go easy on his players as Maddon did during spring? Or will we see Ross going hard from the start?

Chicago Cubs: Steal Kipnis from the Athletics

The 32-year-old, second baseman, Jason Kipnis, was born in Chicago and went to school just 20 miles from Wrigley Field. Kipnis probably had “Cubs-Trade” at the top of his list for Santa and well… sometimes the man in red comes through.

The Athletics have been unsatisfied with second baseman Franklin Barreto and highly considered bringing Kipnis in to shore up the coverage on the two bag.  Barreto made 58 appearances for the A’s in 2019, but that’s not saying much, and Athletic fans have been disgusted with the position since Mark Ellis departed. The former second baseman, Jed Lowrie, who last played for the A’s in 2018, really only put up one good season out of three.

On the other hand, the Cubs couldn’t be happier bringing the wayward Chicagoan home. They picked up Kipnis’s contract as part of a minor league deal, and if he explodes onto the scene with all the excitement of finally playing in his hometown that the news is reporting, this could be an excellent signing for the Cubs.  As Kipnis told Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, it just made sense:

“It made sense. It did. It really did. I didn’t fully understand it until it was announced and my phone started blowing up and I realized just how many people this impacted around my life, and how many people still — friends and family — still live in Chicago. It’s going to be exciting.”

Kipnis, without a doubt, will be trying everything in his repertoire to get back to Wrigley Field this season, and I wouldn’t put it past the Cub-newbie to be thinking about setting some records and making a lasting impression in his hometown.

So who will come out on top in the Cubs first Spring Training meeting?

Chicago Cubs: Oakland Athletics vs. Chicago Cubs

When I listen to the game this Saturday, I’m not expecting a huge match-up, mainly because it’s the first game of spring training. There are so many games to play ahead of that it would be foolish to think this game “meant” more than say… the last game of spring training.

At the same time, the question of how Ross will approach this season, spring training, or anything as the new manager for the Cubs, is up in the air and quite curious. Until fans get a few Ross games under their belts, no one can tell you how the Cubs are going to perform. That’s why I don’t put much salt in the critic’s predictions of an utter mess this season. Ross is the Wild Card this season – it’s his show, and everyone else is just playing a part in it.

So on the surface of things, the A’s are coming to spring training with some outstanding looking pitchers on paper but, for the most part – untested. This is where the big question comes in for the A’s: will they prove their paper stats and deliver, or will it be a bust?

The A’s have always been known as the team that made its name by using computer stats, but the wifi must’ve been turned off when putting together the current pitching rotation cause the projections are not good for the A’s.

The Cubs are an open question mark about how they will field, play and bat in Ross’ first challenge as a manager.

But you know, Ross would love to win his first game.