Soler-Baez-Bryant Power on Display for Winless Cubs

March 11, 2015 @ admin → No Comments

Midweek musings: Jorge Soler, Javier Baez and Kris Bryant hit consecutive home runs for the Chicago Cubs in their Cactus League game Tuesday against the Cleveland Indians. Never mind that the Cubs lost 10-6. Never mind that they remain winless after six spring-training contests and are the only big-league ballclub without a victory (hey, they do have a tie, if that helps any). A friendly reminder that you can pick and chose whatever you want from spring training to provide optimism for the upcoming season.

Video below of Katie Calloway for those who care (and even for those who don’t).

* Speaking of spring-training optimism, White Sox second baseman Micah Johnson went 4-for-4, scored two runs and drive in one in a 6-2 victory over previously undefeated Kansas City. So Sox fans can rejoice about that, even if it might be against their nature for some of them to do so — exhibitions games or regular season.

* Speaking of picking and choosing what to highlight and what to dismiss as meaningless, Cubs starter Travis Wood allowed four runs (two earned) on seven hits in three innings. If it’s any consolation to Cubs fans (and the guess here is that it might be to some of the Cubs faithful), he is a possibility to be the No. 5 starter — as long as the four starters ahead of him remain healthy and the other competitors for the fifth spot don’t. He sure went from a top-of-the-rotation guy to lucky-to-be-in-it fairly fast.

* Speaking of the Sox (we were a couple of paragraphs ago), pitchers Chris Sale and Jeff Samardzija are the subject of the latest “Inside Look” to air Wednesday night a 9 on Comcast SportsNet. Additional content will be available at CSNChicago.com. “Inside Look” also is to air March 14 at 4 p.m. (5 p.m. on CSN+HD), March 15 at 3 p.m. March 20 at 6 p.m., March 21 at 11:30 p.m., March 26 at 9:30 p.m., March 28 at 6 p.m. and March 29 at 12:30 p.m.

* If today is Wednesday (which seems likely in that yesterday was Tuesday — provided that you are reading this on March 11, 2015, or a subsequent Wednesday), then that means tomorrow should be Thursday with the most minimal of luck. Which also means it will be time for another edition of “Sports & Torts” at noon Central time with co-hosts David Spada and Elliott Harris on Talkzone.com. This week’s guests are former Notre Dame and Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis and former Nebraska and Kansas City Chiefs offensive guard Will Shields. The two are among those to be enshrined this summer in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Podcast of the show will be available later Thursday at www.Talkzone.com.

* Speaking of “Sports & Torts,” Windell Middlebrooks — who portrayed the delivery guy on Miller beer commercials — is dead at age 36. David and I had the pleasure of interviewing him a few years ago on the show. Here is the link to the interview. RIP. Far too young. Far too sad.

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Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the euphoric efforts of the editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com):