Chicago Tribune|Chicago Sports|Section 3|Monday, February 24, 2020 3
CUBS
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Here are four
takeaways from Cubs spring training Sun-
day:- Yu Darvish could start the season
opener.
The Cubs rotation is lining up in a
manner that could lead to Yu Darvish
starting the March 26 opener against the
Brewers in Milwaukee.
Darvish will throw live batting practice
Monday before making his Cactus League
debut later this week. Jon Lester will face
the Rockies on Tuesday, followed by Kyle
Hendricks on Wednesday against the Roy-
als.
The Cubs haven’t made a formal an-
nouncement about the rotation. The cur-
rent plan is for starters to throw only one
inning in their spring debuts, but pitching
coach Tommy Hottovy said Darvish — who
had a 2.76 ERA with 118 strikeouts in 81^2 ⁄ 3
innings in the second half last year — will
pitch two innings in his debut.
Jose Quintana was scheduled to pitch
live batting practice Sunday until he
experienced flu-like symptoms.
“It’s really managing the workload early,”
said Hottovy, who managed Sunday’s game
against the Dodgers as David Ross missed
his second consecutive game because of
flu-like symptoms. “Each guy has a certain
way they like to do that first game.”
Hottovy likes limiting his starters’ spring
debuts to one inning so “we can easily build
up from that point. We look at intensity
increasing with volume.” - Tyler Chatwood clears his first hur-
dle.
Tyler Chatwood, who’s vying for the fifth
spot in the rotation, was pleased after
working out of a jam in the first inning in his
spring debut.
“I feel really good,” Chatwood said after
jamming Justin Turner and inducing AJ
Pollock to ground into a double play. “My
stuff ’s exactly where I want it to be. I’ve just
got to keep that muscle memory and stay in
my routine, but I’m excited and ready to go.”
Chatwood, who lost his spot in the
rotation in the middle of the 2018 season
because of control issues, threw three
consecutive balls to Mookie Betts before
working the count full and retiring him on a
fly to right.
“There’s still a lot of untapped potential,
and I feel this is the best I’ve ever been,”
Chatwood said. - Craig Kimbrel’s schedule allows the
Cubs to look at more candidates.
One benefit of closer Craig Kimbrel
working on his own schedule is it allows the
Cubs to look at other relief candidates.
“We’ve got to get a good look at a lot of
these guys to get them in games as much as
we can,” Hottovy said. “Right now everyone
is looking and feeling good, so we’ll keep
that process.”
Kimbrel is scheduled to throw live
batting practice Monday.
Meanwhile, the Cubs would welcome
any contribution from Brandon Morrow
after he suffered a right chest strain.
“Getting Brandon Morrow anytime in
the year is beneficial for us, whether it’s
opening day, mid-June or September,”
Hottovy said. “Right now the process is just
him getting comfortable and continuing his
progression and knowing there will be
bumps in the road.”
Morrow hasn’t pitched in a game since
July 15, 2018, because of right forearm
discomfort. - Rule 5 pick Trevor Megill warms to
technology.
Trevor Megill, whom the Cubs selected
from the Padres organization for $100,000,
initially struggled with a suggestion after
spending time in the Cubs pitching lab.
“I was kind of hard-headed when I came
to the organization with my curve grip,”
Megill said. “They showed me the spike
curve, which they have everyone here on.
“The first week it sucked. I hated it. I kept
going after it. Week 2 came around, and I
felt more comfortable with it and I’m
throwing it in live BP for strikes. I think it
will be another pitch that will be an
equalizer off my fastball.”
Megill — who threw three wild pitches in
the fourth inning Sunday — hopes to join
Rowan Wick and Brad Wieck as former
Padres who found success after joining the
Cubs and spending time in their lab.
Megill must stay with the Cubs for the
entire 2020 season or be placed on waivers.
If he clears waivers, he must be offered to
the Padres for $50,000 and can be outright-
ed to the minors only if the Padres decline.
4 TAKEAWAYSDarvish could
be lining up
to start opener
By Mark GonzalesYu Darvish will throw batting practice Mon-
day and pitch in a game later this week.ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNEGLENDALE, Ariz. — Len Kasper is
entering his 16th year as play-by-play
man for the Cubs, matching Harry
Caray’s 16-year run on the North Side
from 1982 to 1997.
And at 49, Kasper doesn’t look much
different than when he replaced Chip
Caray in 2005, with the exception of a
gray hair or two.
As he begins a new season as the voice
of the Cubs for Marquee Sports Net-
work, for which he’ll team with longtime
partner Jim Deshaies and a rotating cast
of co-analysts, Kasper answered a few
questions about what we can expect
from him in 2020.
How has the transition to Marquee
Sports Network been?
The first game was special. The fact
that this has all started really from
scratch is pretty mind-boggling. I’ve
seen the studio. The big rollout will be
opening day. I don’t think there will be as
much done in the studio in spring
training because it’s not opening day.
There will be more bells and whistles
once the season starts that people
certainly will notice, but to get on the air
with J.D. and (Mark Grace) is exciting.
What can we expect with a three-
man booth on the Marquee tele-
cast?
There’s been a lot of talk and a lot of
meetings on how this is going to go. But a
lot of the on-air content I don’t want to
do off the air. I talked to Gracie (before
Saturday’s game) and he was really
excited. I said: “A lot of it I don’t want to
tell you what we’re talking about. I want
to spring it on you during the game.”
That’s the fun of it. I just want to make
sure that as prepared as we are, we’re not
overprepared to the point it’s not organic
and genuine, because that’s how J.D. and
I roll. I don’t want to bring up a lot of
topics off the air because I want to hear
what his first take is on the air.
Will there be any difference Cubs
fans will notice?
Yes and no. It’s the same because it’s
Cubs baseball and it’s J.D. and me, but a
lot will be different. A lot more resources
and a lot more people involved, and I’ve
embraced the newness of that. I guess
the familiarity of our voices, hopefully,
will be comforting for people. But I also
think there will be a lot of new wrinkles
that people will like as well.
Will it be difficult getting comfort-
able with all of the rotating analysts
after pairing only with Jim Deshaies
for so long?
Certainly the dynamic changes a little
bit, but my job in those spots is to let the
two former players have a baseball
conversation, and I really pride myself in
being adaptable and being able to work
with a lot of people. There is no finite
number of games or number of innings
people are going to do. A lot of them will
come in in the middle three (innings),
and there will be games where there will
be a three-man booth for the whole
game. So they’re going to try some
different things to see what works. I
believe we have four games in spring
training that are three-man — J.D. and
Gracie, and later in the spring it’ll be
Gracie, (Rick Sutcliffe) and me. J.D. will
have few days off.
And you’re doing more national
games?
I have added more Fox (games), so I
will have eight to 10 Cubs games off for
Fox. When we’re in London, I’ll be in
Atlanta doing Dodgers-Braves, and
when we’re in New York, I’ll be going to
Fenway to do Red Sox-Cardinals. So it’ll
be something different. Chris Myers will
fill in for me, probably about 10 games. I
also might do a little radio for Pat
(Hughes). He takes off like 12 games, and
I’ll slide over to radio and Chris will do
TV. Just keeping it fresh. I like radio. I
turn 50 next winter and I don’t want to
be the person who is unable to do new
things and adapt. I like stuff that gets me
out of my comfort zone.
What’s your workload like this
spring?
I’m doing all but three (Cactus
League) games. I’m used to it. I do as
many as I can. I don’t do any other
sports.
So you are no Jason Benetti?
No, he’s insane. Every time I talk to
him, it’s “Where are you (broadcasting)
today?” I’m just a one-sport guy.
Q&A LEN KASPER
7 questions
about Cubs’
new network
By Paul Sullivan
Marquee Sports Network announcer Len
Kasper works the Cubs game Saturday.
JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNEMESA, Ariz. — If this is the last hurrah for
the core group of Cubs hitters that came
up through the farm system, it’s news to
Albert Almora Jr.
“That’s what you guys are here for, to
make some stories,” Almora said with a
smirk. “We love that. I don’t want to say
there’s pressure or the limelight, but this
group of guys is incredible, and we’d go to
war with them every day.”
Almora did, however, take individual
inventory during the winter after an
admittedly disappointing 2019 season in
which he “wasn’t in a good place men-
tally.”
His production wasn’t in a good place
either, which caused him to alter his swing
to try to hit with more authority.
“It’s visibly different,” said Almora, who
lifted a breaking pitch into right-center
field for a double off the Athletics’ Lou
Trivino during a three-run rally Saturday
night. “I’m going to face pitching now, and
everything is going to come together. It’s
more the mindset, the mental approach of
that. I feel that will be a big difference.”
Almora, 26, has a career 77.4% contact
rate — well above the team mark of 73.8%
in 2019. But that was offset by Almora’s
penchant for swinging early in counts
against pitchers’ pitches. His batting
average on balls in play was .255, and his
hard-hit ball percentage was 30.6%.
He also lost his mastery of left-handed
pitching that once earned him playing
time. His batting average against lefties
sank from .342 in 2017 to .295 in 2018 to
.213 in 2019. His overall on-base percent-
age dipped to a career-low .271.
“The league made an adjustment, and I
had to make an adjustment back,” Almora
said. “That’s about it. This is a game of
adjustments. I took that seriously this
offseason.”
The biggest challenge for Almora will
be hitting the ball in the air with more
authority while maintaining a respectable
contact rate.
“I don’t think he’ll lose the ability to
make contact,” said hitting coach Anthony
Iapoce, who initially joined the Cubs as a
special assistant in 2012, five months after
Almora became the first draft pick of the
Theo Epstein regime. “There’s a learning
balance throughout your career to estab-
lish things you don’t do well and things
you’re very good at and learning how to
combine those things in certain situations.
“The swing is ever-evolving. You’re
always going to improve. And then as you
shorten up, learning to stay center with
your body and getting yourself in the best
position to land and to be able to drivepitches through the middle of the field.
Sometimes he wasn’t in position to do
that, and he just made contact.”
“It’s maintaining that focus on elevating
the ball more.”
Almora, like teammate Javier Baez, also
fessed up about not preparing properly for
games last year and is determined to make
amends.
“It’s the little things that matter in this
game,” Almora said. “The outcome, good
or bad, if you prepare the right way, you
can turn the page a lot easier.
“And I learned a lot this offseason.
There are no games going on, but you
learn how to prepare mentally and
physically before games.”
Almora chafed at having extra time to
dwell on his shortcomings as the Cubs
missed the playoffs for the first time since
he reached the majors in 2016.
“It’s really difficult,” he said. “I didn’t
watch a lot of playoff games. I needed to
disconnect a little bit. It was an important
year in my life that I needed to go through
and experience.”
Almora said he opened up to his “circle”
of trusted friends and was receptive to
their advice.
A fresh mind can’t hurt, considering the
image occasionally lingers of the young
girl Almora struck in the head with a line
drive at Minute Maid Park in Houston last
May.
“That’s not an excuse (for the poor
season),” said Almora, who has respected
the family’s wishes to remain private. “It
definitely impacted me, but I’m not going
to sit here and say that was the reason I
didn’t perform the way I wanted to.”Albert Almora Jr. walks to the batting cages to work on his swing during spring training.ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNEAlmora makes
key adjustments
Outfielder says he wasn’t ‘in
a good place mentally’ in ’19By Mark GonzalesAlbert Almora Jr.: “It’s the little things
that matter in this game.”JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE