Spring Training in the age of the Internet

The Internet (in general) and social media (specifically) have bought a plethora of problems to society and our individual lives. But one thing it has greatly improved is how we can enjoy the Cubs during Spring Training, and doesn’t that make it all worthwhile?

When I was growing up and during my early adulthood, I did not pay too much attention to baseball in the Spring. College Basketball was reaching the end of the regular season, with March Madness dominating my sports landscape.

There might be one Sunday afternoon when WGN was actually televising a spring game where I would flip it on and get bored when players I had never heard of would replace the regulars in the 4th or 5th innings. The best part was that if if was a warm spring day, I might open the windows and let some fresh air in for the first time in a few months, helping me get in an afternoon nap as the game concluded.

But now things are completely different. Now I know the name of every single Cubs player who is on the spring roster. I’m actually more excited to see some of the players at the fringes: to see if that new pitch is effective, or if it is really true that they are in “the best shape of their life”. I know about every position and roster battle, where spring performance might actually matter. And while I used to know only about the highest rated prospects who were invited to Spring, now I know about all of them.

Sure, the games don’t count and the stats for the established players don’t mean a thing. But it is still a very important step in building out what the team will look like this season.

There is a potential downside when following Spring Training too closely: overreactions.

After being DFA’d at the end of 2022, David Bote had a great spring in 2023, slashing .323/.447/.548, and there were several people calling for him to make the team. But he didn’t make the opening day roster, and spent the entire season in Iowa. He had another great spring for the Dodgers in 2025 (.400/.471/.700!), and there were rumblings that he might make their opening day roster. Instead, when he did not make the team, he opted out of his contract and didn’t play for anyone the whole season.

Here is Bote hitting a home run in 2023:
https://www.mlb.com/cubs/video/david-bote-s-three-run-homer?partnerId=web_video-playback-page_video-share

In 2025 Kyle Tucker had a .100/.243/.200 slash line, and went on to have a great first half of the season. So the lesson is that even a great spring wont guarantee a roster spot and a terrible spring is not necessarily a predictor of how well a player will do when the season starts.

So, while Spring Training in the Internet Era is much more fun, we do have to take every glowing report of all the improvements every player has taken with some skepticism, and the results of every pitch, at-bat and game with a huge grain of salt.

And most of all, we have to hope that there are a minimal number of injuries.

Here are the other things I’m most interested going into the Spring:

• Who will get the last couple of spots in the bullpen? Webb, Hodge, Brown, Assad, Wicks, Little…or someone else?
• Will Ballesteros and Austin earn a DH platoon?
• Who gets the last outfield spot: Carlson, McCormick, Alcantara or Dean?
• Will one of the NRI pitchers impress enough to steal a roster spot?

The bad news is that we won’t get too many televised Spring Training games this season, so we’ll have to rely on the beat writers and boxscores to figure out what is happening in Arizona from day to day.