Ian Happ is having himself a heck of a spring training. Ian has really poured it on so far in this young season batting .375 with a 1.025 OPS. He capped it off today by getting his first home run of the year. Happ, 22. keeps making his case to get on the big-league club as a utility man. Last season with the Tennessee Smokies, a Cubs minor league team, he finished out the season with .279 batting average with 15 home runs and 73 RBI's.

This was the first time a Major pitching starter for the Cubs got a second start in spring training. Joe Madden was planning to have Kyle go for 4 innings of work today, but after 43 pitches of scoreless work he got the ax.

In his next start, they will gradually get his pitch counts up getting ready for the regular season.

“We still have three or four outings until the first one in the regular season, so that’s plenty of time to get our innings up and our pitch counts up,” Hendricks said.

Cubs let it slip away

Most of our Studs on the Cubs were spared the long bus ride to Peoria. Besides the great day, Ian Happ was having more hitting came from Chris Dominguez. Chris drove in three runs with a homer and a double. The Cubs were winning 10-2 at one point and Seattle came all the way back to win. Dylan Floro is the pitcher that opened the flood gates.

He allowed Seattle to score on a three-run homer in the seventh. The winning runs were scored off Maikel Cleto in the Ninth inning. Cleto recorded only one out, but allowed a double, two singles and a walk to cap off the Mariners rally for the win.

An amazing catch

Albert Almora Jr.

continues to shine robbing Mariners star Kyle Seager of extra bases with an amazing catch. He played opposite Jon Jay in left, which could be a nice paring when they are playing together in the big-league organization. Almora turns 23 next month and still needs to work on his offense. He is only turning in a .738 OPS, but has a .290 batting average. Being so young, he must work on his plate discipline. Albert is having a tough time with the Cubs way which is taking pitches and getting walks.
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