2014 Spring Training Cactus League Reports – Cubs vs. Angels
2014 Spring Training Cactus League Reports – Cubs vs. Angels
By Doug Upstone of Sports Watch Monitor
One of the advantages of living in the Phoenix area besides the weather this time of year is the ability to see spring training baseball. This is where you can see half the teams in baseball and be able to draw strong conclusions for wagering purposes on season win totals.
We continue our coverage in Tempe, where the Chicago Cubs visited the L.A. Angels.
The Game: The Cubs were bombed 15-3 and it started early with starter Steve Rusin hit hard (four runs, five hits) in his two innings. Retread pitchers James McDonald and Jonathan Sanchez were thoroughly ineffective in surrendering nine runs in less than two innings between them.
Mike Trout excited the home crowd with a grand slam off McDonald and had a total of five runs batted in a trio of at bats.
Jered Weaver threw three solid innings (no runs, one hit), seemingly wanting to establish his fastball and hard stuff in the first two innings before working in more off-speed pitches in the last inning.
Cubs Prospects: In the Cubs long history of failure, they have never put together two sorrier seasons than the last two in which they lost 96 and 101 games respectively. Truth be told, 2014 very much appears to be more of the same.
An easy case could be established, Chicago has the worst outfield in all of baseball when it comes to production. Nate Schierholz is the closest individual to a true major league outfielder and he is strictly platoon material because he is abysmal against left-handed pitching.
Starlin Castro has growing reputation as a selfish undisciplined player and while Anthony Rizzo has pop in his bat at just 24 years old, why were Boston and San Diego so willing to trade him?
Let’s be honest, on an average team, Jeff Samardzija would be a No. 3 or 4 starter, not an ace, which tells you how pitching poor the Cubs organization is. The bullpen at the moment is no better.
Cubs fans have forever heard the mantra, “Wait till next year” and they will once again be asked to be patient, as all its best players like 3B Kris Bryant and SS Javier Baez are coming up thru the ranks as team president Theo Epstein has promised.
Expect another long season on the north side and hopefully the Cubs kids do tremendous and can be called up in August to give their fans hope.
Angels Chances: When you look at what the Halos have or think they have, you could project quite possibly the widest variance of a possible win total in all of the majors.
If the Angels suffer more debilitating injuries again this season, 76 victories is a real possibility because of their age in certain positions, both young and old.
On the flip side are stalwarts like Trout, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Weaver and if they and their best young players on the 25-man roster come through; this could turn into a 93-win team.
The chasm of possible finishes is amazingly wide for Mike Scioscia squad. If the big three in the lineup put up the kind of numbers to support their payroll (Trout the exception) and younger players like Kole Calhoun and B.J. Shuck come through and newly acquired David Freese fits in with Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar, maybe there is something to get fired up about.
But is this as likely to occur as not, just like finding three dependable starters behind Weaver and C.J. Wilson. Also, few in baseball honestly believe Ernesto Frieri is a legit long-term closer and the rest of the bullpen has to be discovered and is far from settled like it was when this team was winning division championships earlier this century.
Given the possibilities of events that could occur in Anaheim, figure somewhere between in the middle between 76 and 93 wins is accurate.
