Chicago Cubs Lineup (2/25/25): Happ Leads Off, Tucker DH, Taillon Tossing
The Cubs are now 5-0 this spring following a win over the Padres in Peoria, and they’re back at Sloan Park with a little more cash in their pockets to boot. By trading Alexander Canario to the Mets for cash considerations, Tom Ricketts has improved his chances of breaking even on the baseball operations side of the house this year. And while that’s mostly a joke, there’s nothing you can say to convince me that parting ways with Canario in this manner was a good decision.
Best-case scenario, it all comes out in the wash and all my bitching about it sounds like a foolish old man who doesn’t know ball. Fingers crossed. The Cactus Cubs are playing pretty well regardless of who’s been in the lineup to this point, and the pitching has been decent as well. Even some of the less savory outings have provided glimpses of something better.
Jameson Taillon becomes the latest presumed starter to take the bump this spring, and I’m interested to see whether he showcases anything different from his first two seasons in Chicago. The chances for that are slim given what is sure to be a very brief outing, though we could see hints when it comes to his breaking balls. Taillon worked with the folks at Tread Athletics to further refine his sweeper and cutter, so we could just see better versions of those offerings.
Taillon’s cutter took on more of a slider shape last year, getting a lot more depth and sweep than in previous seasons. He also threw the cutter four ticks slower than in 2022, when it averaged over 90 mph. That too is right where his slider was when he was still throwing it, which leads me to believe he may try to de-integrate the offerings a little bit. The cutter was his best pitch by far last year and graded out as the best offering of his career in any individual season, so maybe it’s just a matter of getting his curveball back to being at least okayish.
The bats have been more than okayish in every game so far, and a home game means a preponderance of everyday players in the lineup. Ian Happ leads off in left with Kyle Tucker at DH and Seiya Suzuki in right. It’s interesting that Suzuki has been in the field the whole time with Tucker taking it slowly with his new team. Dansby Swanson is at short, Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center, and Carson Kelly is the catcher. Jon Berti handles third base, Vidal Bruján is at second, and Jonathon Long is at first.
Ed. note: The D-backs are going instead with Joe Mantiply out of the gate, so disregard everything below.
To paraphrase a quote Wayne Gretzky gets credit for even though it apparently originated with his father, you have to know where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. In the case of today’s game, A.J. Puk will be on the mound at Sloan Park as the starter even though he’s worked almost exclusively as a reliever in the past and figures to be in line to close plenty of games for the Diamondbacks. The big lefty is on for the first time this spring and will probably pitch just one inning.
The 6-foot-7 southpaw gets excellent extension from his long limbs and uses a low three-quarter arm slot to fire a repertoire based on working the angles. He gets very little depth on any of his pitches, with only his slider and sweeper straddling the mid-line of the movement profile chart. But by keeping his sinker to the extreme arm side and the sweeper way to the glove side, he creates a variance of nearly 40 inches of induced horizontal break.
Puk’s weaknesses are a high walk rate and a tendency to give up a lot of balls in the air, but he shouldn’t be around long enough for any of that to matter much. If nothing else, he’s a fun watch for pitching nerds.
First pitch is set for 2:05pm CT on Marquee.
Back at @SloanParkMesa today!
Tune in: https://t.co/Gs2hZXyTjH pic.twitter.com/WTmPhNd8QJ
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) February 25, 2025
