GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2013 Cubs right-hander Ben Brown<\/b> has thought through the hypothetical of, what if he could go back to last year, when a \u201cbenign area of concern\u201d on his neck \u2013 essentially a non-cancerous growth \u2013 wiped out more than half of his season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know if I would do anything different,\u201d he said last week. \u201cI\u2019d still want to pitch until I couldn\u2019t pitch anymore. And I\u2019d still try to come back all year, hoping I was going to come back. I think it\u2019s just something that baseball players have to go through. And the biggest thing with injuries, in my opinion, is the way you bounce back from them. And I think the greatest people that we see, even in modern-day baseball, they get hurt, and they come back just as good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown stretched out to 3 \u2154 innings in his last start, on March 6. Though he allowed three runs in the fourth inning, he retired the first nine batters he faced in order. And he\u2019s been working on a changeup to add a third element to his pitch mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made jokes about it,\u201d Brown said, \u201cbut right now, I probably feel more comfortable with my changeup than I do with the other two.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a normal year, the fifth starter battle would be heating up the week before Opening Day. But with the Cubs heading to Japan Tuesday, for the two-game Tokyo Series next week, no such decision has to be made.<\/p>\n
The Cubs are expected to announce the rest of their travel roster decisions Tuesday morning, including whether they\u2019re going to bring Brown and left-hander Jordan Wicks<\/b>, two young pitchers in the rotation battle.<\/p>\n
With two exhibition games and two regular season games for Cubs pitchers to cover, length will be important. But the Cubs also don\u2019t need to carry all of their starters on the active roster \u2013 or even necessarily on the travel roster.<\/p>\n
They are expected to throw a bullpen game for the first exhibition game and piggyback two starters for the second. Shota Imanaga<\/b> is slated to start Opening Day, and Justin Steele is in line for Game 2.<\/p>\nAlc\u00e1ntara in lineup<\/h3>\n
Cubs outfielder Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara<\/b> was in the lineup on Monday, after exiting the game Sunday as a \u201cprecaution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe felt a little shoulder pain on the swing,\u201d manager Craig Counsell<\/b> said Monday. \u201cThen gave him 15 seconds that he was fine, essentially.\u201d<\/p>\n
Counsell likened the decision to pull Alc\u00e1ntara to the Cubs scratching center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/b> last week. The team is going to take an extra-cautious approach in spring to avoid injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe showed up [Monday] feeling perfect,\u201d Counsell said of Alc\u00e1ntara.<\/p>\n
In his first at-bat, Alc\u00e1ntara lined a double into center field with an exit velocity of 109.6 mph, according to Statcast.<\/p>\n
As expected, right-hander Javier Assad<\/b> (strained left oblique) will begin the season on the 15-day injured list, Counsell said Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a significant ramp up to go,\u201d Counsell said of Assad\u2019s bullpen Saturday, \u201cbut all signs are good.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Shota Imanaga\u2019s last start before the Tokyo Series. He allowed four runs in the second, temporarily leaving the game after the seventh batter he faced that inning. But thanks to spring training rules he was allowed to re-enter and pitch 4 \u2153 innings total. \u201cI think the important part is stacking up those [up-downs],\u201d Imanaga said. \u201cBut I learned today how much fatigue that is with the longer innings, longer outings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara returns to the lineup, Javier Assad is headed to the IL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":40238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n