Is anyone really surprised?
While other members of the Cubs apparently did quite a bit to try to correct their poorer-than-expected play from last season, Carlos Silva came to camp looking, well, fat.
The Cubs were hoping they could find a way to get this guy back on track.
So far, no success.
The White Sox torched Silva yesterday. And actually, it wasn't even a full Sox squad as they were split playing also against the Dodgers yesterday.
The Sox plated 3 runs in the first, and 3 in the second as the Cubs went down in defeat for the first time in 2010 by a score of 15-3. In fact, there wasn't much to cheer about for the Cubs who didn't do much outside of a base-hit by Fook that scored 2 in the third.
Soto had a couple of hits and has looked good so far this spring.
This was Soriano's first game back, and he made a nice tumbling catch in the outfield. Then a little while later, he let a routine ball go right under his glove...so he's in mid-season form.
Theriot also had a couple of hits as he tries to remind everyone that he will be the starting shortstop this year.
Now to the ugly part.
As I said, the Orca gave up six runs in the first to innings. Carlos Marmol came in to pitch the third, and retired all three batters he faced, striking out two.
Some Russell kid came in...gave up a run. We got our first look at former first round draft pick, Andrew Cashner, and he looked pretty good. He gave a run in 2 innings. His stuff seems to get to the plate quickly. I think he'll be an affective pitcher at some point in the major leagues...but it remains to be seen if he will actually be a starter or a reliever.
After Cashner left the game, well, then everything really fell apart. Jeff Kennard...28 year career minor leaguer...gave up 4 runs in the eighth and was not able to finish the inning. Grabow came in the ninth and was anything but affective as he gave up 3 runs. Remember folks...he's going to be a left handed setup man out there! Oh joy! Well, at least he didn't walk anybody.
Other notes...Andres Blanco twisted his ankle on a pick-off play at second base. He left the game. It looked nasty...probably a sprain...so he'll likely miss some time. That's ok, though, because we got to see future Hall-of-Famer, Starlin Castro, play a little bit.
One other note, as you probably know, Angel Guzman has missed most of spring training so far with some leg and arm problems. Well, he had an MRI done on his shoulder and it revealed a tear. He's going to miss some significant time. If the Cubs thought they were going to be able to get by without signing another reliever (or trading for one), Guzman's injury will probably force them to make a move.
Ok...so today?
The Cubs are doing a split-squad set against the White Sox and Dodgers. The Cubs get to see former future Cub, Jake Peavy, pitch in his first appearance of the spring at the Camelback Ranch. More interesting though are the Cubs starting pitchers for both of those games. The long, goofy name brothers, Jeff Samardzija and Tom Gorzelanny will pitch, with Spellcheck facing the Sox and Sloth facing the Dodgers at HoHoKam. Both of these guys are competing for that fifth start spot.
Mentioned during the game yesterday, and contrary to what was said earlier in the week, Xavier Nady will not be making his ST debut today. Hopefully he's ok.
Where can you watch? Well, WGN will have the Cubs/Sox game...with presumably the Sox announcers calling the game (Hawk and Stone). The game will also be on the radio on the Score. The Dodger game will be available on MLB Gameday audio from the Dodger's station. I'm not sure if Vin Scully does anything on the radio during spring training, but he might call a couple of innings...which would be cool. This is reportedly Scully's last season as an announcer.
Now if this damn headache would just go away.
