Bears – I mean Cubs – Spring Training Game Eleven

It was another Spring Training game where the Cubs were on the losing end of a football score (17-9 to the Reds), and I had to remind myself that results really don’t matter in Spring. Sure. OK. Whatever.

All of the positives were on offense, so let’s start there:

• Moises Ballesteros looked excellent at the plate, blasting two rockets the opposite field for hits and walking in his three at bats. I feel like the DH role against right-handed pitchers is his to lose. And his ability to at least play some catcher gives the Cubs some roster flexibility where they could play both Amaya and Kelly against lefties on occasion, we Ballesteros available as the 3rd catcher.
  
• With Suzuki and PCA off on WBC duty, the 4th Outfielder race will be heating up, as all of the contenders will be getting lots of at bats. Dylan Carlson had anonther good day, with
  2 hits and an HBP, McCormick was 1 for 3, and Alcantara was 1 for 3 with a walk.
  Here is the latest 4TH-OF-o-METER:

Player	PA	HR	Runs	RBI	OPS
Dylan Carlson	20	0	3	2	1.392
Chas McCormick	20	0	2	2	.550
Justin Dean	23	0	2	0	.461
Kevin Alcantara	8	0	1	0	.393
Michael Conforto	3	0	0	0	.333

• Not to the bad….Jameson Taillon gave up 2 home runs, to bring his Spring talley to 6 homers allowed in only 6 innings. Unsurprisingly, a 9 HR/9 metric would be one of the worst ever. His ERA in 19.50 and his FIP is 16.89. Now he heads off to play for Canada in the WBC. Honestly, if this performance continues, perhaps we’ll have to put the blame on something physical (wink, wink) and he’ll need to start the season on the IL, with Colin Rea taking his spot while he get “healthy”.
  
• Ryan Rolison was the final holdout for the “lousy left-handers” club, the name I’m giving to the Cubs lefty relievers who are on the 40-man roster. Rolison decided to join that club yesterday, with a terrible inning that rivaled Thielbar’s from last week: 0 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 HR.
  Here is the latest stats for the Cubs (shocking it’s actually gotten better):

Pitchers	IP	ERA	WHIP
Caleb Thielbar	2.1	19.29	3.86
Hoby Milner	3.0	6.00	1.67
Luke Little	2.2	13.50	2.62
Riley Martin	2.1	7.71	1.29
Ryan Rolison	2.0	27.00	3.50
Total	12.1	13.86	2.51

Today is a game the doesn’t count even more, as they face the Italian team from the WBC.