Inside Cubs camp: How talent, data, discipline are shaping spring training

MESA, Ariz. — As Dansby Swanson stepped in to face Edward Cabrera during a live batting practice session at Sloan Park, Alex Bregman walked over to an iPad that had been set up on the first-base side in foul territory. It’s something hitting coach Dustin Kelly has done for years with live BPs so right-handed hitters (sometimes lefties too if they request it) can get immediate video feedback of their swings.

Bregman crouched down in front of the iPad and did exactly that, watching intently to see if his upper body was doing what he wanted. In a quick conversation in the clubhouse the next day, Bregman said he’s working on his load and trying to be “tighter.”

It was just more confirmation that the highly competitive Bregman is constantly looking to improve. The work he does during spring training isn’t just going through the motions.

“He’s very intentional,” Kelly said. “He’s looking for certain things, and there’s a way that he goes about it. He’s not just going in there to take swings to get loose, he’s going in with a plan. He’s always looking for feedback. His eyes go to certain things in his swing. That comes from experience and knowing what works and doesn’t work.”

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Before games started at spring training, the Cubs pitching infrastructure would have a daily debrief. It wouldn’t be unusual for reporters to be leaving the facility around 2 p.m. and see the group sitting at a table on the back patio by the agility field, chatting.

“In the mornings, we have conversations (with pitchers),” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “We talk about key things and takeaways that came from that (meeting). It’s a good way to end the day.”

Along with Hottovy, there was also assistant pitching coach Casey Jacobson, VP of pitching Tyler Zombro, bullpen coach Mark Strittmatter, bullpen catchers Garrett Lloyd and Erick Castillo, Triple A pitching coaches Tony Cougoule and Jamie Vermilyea and a pair of minor-league pitching coordinators, Matt Hinkley and Carlos Chantres.

It’s a large group, each of whom have eyes on the many pitchers in camp. Hottovy hopes these sessions will help ensure pitchers receive a consistent message about what is expected of them and that their individual plans are known to everyone they’re communicating with.

So in the morning, should, say, Strittmatter be talking to a pitcher he hadn’t directly been working with the day before, he won’t have to say, “Let me go get Tommy,” or whoever it may be should that pitcher have a question. It’s just another layer of detail they can take advantage of with the extra time afforded to them prior to games starting.

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On the backfields, it’s impossible to miss the technology that has proliferated across the game. As one walks toward the quartet of fields, it’s not unusual to see tripods set up as pitchers are long-tossing with a partner.

Those tripods are pocket radars that the organization uses for velocity feedback during the pitchers’ throwing programs. Velocity is the best way for staff to approximate the intensity of the throwing the players are doing.

How intense the throwing should be is based on each player’s individualized throwing program and where they are within said program. That, along with the Catapult data that is gathered, helps determine each day’s plan.

Catapult data is collected via a wearable — a piece of clothing that resembles a sports bra — that measures each player’s workload for the day. Everything, every movement a player makes from the moment they get to their locker and put on the Catapult to the time they remove it, is measured. Hottovy pointed out that for years, things like PFPs, bullpens, time in the lab were all separate and not treated as workload.

“If you’re not accounting for it, how can you properly build somebody up the way you want them to be built up?” Hottovy said. “The minute somebody walks into this building, everything should be accounted for it. The reason I say that is it’s the best way to make decisions. Data doesn’t lie.”

On one day, a group of pitchers ran through some PFPs. A few players came back the next day and it was noticed there was a spike in workload. Turns out they were throwing a football around before catch play. Something they’re certainly allowed to do, but doing that along with the 25-30 throws in catch play was too much work for one day.

“So the next day, we backed off PFPs,” Hottovy said. “I told them, ‘Hey, it’s fun to throw the football around. But that’s a spike in workload at this time of year.’ It’s not midseason, it’s spring training where we’re trying to be very dedicated and diligent with how we’re building you up.”

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Watching prospects on the backfields may be the most fun part of spring training. The Cubs’ top pitching prospect, Jaxon Wiggins, has put on a few shows early in camp. Already sitting 96 and touching 97, Wiggins has shown why he has one of the best fastballs in the minors. The pitch has induced vertical break of around 19 inches, which is elite and would be among the best in baseball.

He’s also got a nasty gyro slider that he’s developed with the Cubs, ditching a more slurvy, slower slider he used as an amateur. Along with that is a changeup that flashes plus and sits in the 88-90 mph range. At one point, in a three-pitch at-bat against Pete Crow-Armstrong, Wiggins unleashed a nasty changeup to get the young center fielder swinging.

During one live BP session, Jefferson Rojas pulled a Cade Horton offering deep to left field and onto the street beyond the fence.

“I told you! I told you!” a group of Rojas’ minor-league teammates, who were looking on and about to head to the cages, said.

“They’re absolutely great,” Counsell said of those moments in spring training. “I can’t stress this enough. When minor-league camp starts, if you can walk over and see what goes on in a minor-league game and how many guys are over there and how hard it is to get here, it’s intimidating. I still get intimidated thinking, ‘How did I get to this side?’ It makes the dream more special when you put some perspective behind it.”

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