Spring Training Games Nine and Ten

OK…the overreactions bit has already gotten old for me, so I’m dumping it. That being said…WHAT IS GOING ON WITH SHOTA IMANAGA!

I thought that Jameson Taillon had an unassailable lead in Spring home runs allowed, but Imanaga is saying “Not so fast, Jamo!”

But when taking a closer look at each of the home runs, I’m not quite as worried as I was last season, when his home run rate soared to 1.93 HR/9. I wrote extensively about his propensity to give up the long ball in 2025: https://cubsin7.blog/2025/10/29/cubs-offseason-position-review-starting-pitcher/

But here are the 3 home runs from Sunday:
Home Run #1 – Edgar Quero :

This pitch was was well out of the strike zone, and almost 94 mph. I think the issue here may have been pitch sequencing, as Quero must have been looking for a fastball to be able to catching up with a pitch this high.

Home Run #2 – Braden Montgomery:

This was a pitch that barely caught the corner of the strike zone. But it was the third low and inside pitch in a row, which may have been a reason Montgomey could hit it 107.7 MPH out to left center. So, again, not a bad location, but maybe not the location he wanted.

How Run #3 – Austin Hays:

A low an somewhat outside splitter that got hammered. Again, bit a bad location, but a really nice piece of hitting as Hays took the pitch to right field.

On all three home runs, the hitters looked like they were almost expecting what was coming. So either Imanaga was tipping hi pitches, or he was not sequencing or locating them in such a way that the hitters would be off-balance. I also wonder if the White Sox have picked something up about Imanaga, as they also hit him hard in a start last season: https://www.espn.com/mlb/game/_/gameId/401696461/cubs-white-sox

OK, here are some other thoughts from the weekend:

• Kevin Alcantara and Michael Conforto have entered the chat regarding the last outfield spot. But with Tyler Austin having knee surgery, this might turn into 2 spots for these 5 players. BUu I’m not going to change the name yet.
  So, here is the latest 4TH-OF-o-METER:

Player	PA	HR	Runs	RBI	OPS
Dylan Carlson	17	0	1	2	1.193
Chas McCormick	17	0	2	1	0.529
Justin Dean	23	0	2	0	0.461
Michael Conforto	3	0	0	0	0.333
Kevin Alcantara	4	0	0	0	0.000

• Both Javier Assad and Ben Brown have looked great this Spring. Their combined line on Saturday was 5 IP, 0R, 2H, 0BB, 7K. It is probably not feasibly that both will make the bullpen coming out of the Spring, but one certainly could.