Cactus League report: Lance Lynn can serve as a role model to young Chicago White Sox pitchers, and Joc Pederson on how his Cubs number is a tribute to Kobe Bryant

Greetings from Arizona.

Nearly one week into spring training several free agents remain unsigned, while more teams, including the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals, are announcing plans for limited attendance at their ballparks to start the 2021 season.

Here’s what’s happening today.

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Friday’s games

Friday’s games

Seattle Mariners at White Sox, 2:05 p.m. at Camelback Ranch (whitesox.com): Chris Flexen vs. Jonathan Stiever","type":"text

Forecast: Sunny with a high of 82.

Forecast: Sunny with a high of 82.

Lance Lynn is setting an example

White Sox manager Tony La Russa used Lance Lynn primarily as a reliever during the right-hander’s rookie season in 2011 with the St. Louis Cardinals. Lynn is now one of the more reliable starters in the American League.

Starting is the long-term plan for Michael Kopech and Garrett Crochet, but both could be in line to work out of the bullpen this season.

La Russa believes Lynn could serve as a good example for the prospects.

“The advantage is Michael’s going to be watching the veteran starters that we have, watch what they do in between starts,” La Russa said Wednesday. “It’s all to the good.”

Lynn struck out three and walked one in two scoreless innings in his sharp spring debut Thursday against the San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The meaning behind Joc Pederson’s new No. 24

Joc Pederson’s decision to sign with the Cubs meant he needed to choose a new number.

Pederson wore No. 31 with the Dodgers the last six seasons, but that number is retired by the Cubs in honor of Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux. So Pederson picked what he called a no-brainer: No. 24 in honor of Kobe Bryant. Pederson met the former Los Angeles Lakers star a couple of times during his time with the Dodgers.

“Talking to him about how he viewed basketball, in the details that went into practice and film and all that was pretty eye-opening,” Pederson said. “Even in competing in practice and just his demeanor toward that, I understand why he was as good as he was in maximizing his ability.”

Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020, in Southern California.

What we’re reading this morning

Trevor Williams is working in the Cubs’ pitch lab to perfect his slider, and Nico Hoerner is off to a hot start.","type":"text

New White Sox starter Lance Lynn was sharp in his Cactus League debut. “He’s a real pro,” Tony La Russa says.","type":"text

Moving on up

Moving on up

Park Ridge native Katie Krall is among the growing number of women in MLB front offices, currently working as a baseball operations analyst for the Cincinnati Reds. The Northwestern graduate has come a long way already since working with the Chicago Cubs on their World Series trophy tour in 2016.

Kim Ng became baseball’s first woman general manager this offseason with the Miami Marlins, providing hope to Krall and others that the possibilities are endless.

“The fact that she’s become kind of like a cultural icon and has transcended sports, I think that’s super powerful,” Krall told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “The texts I received the day she was named (GM), even from people who aren’t sports fans, they recognized that this is a crucial moment. The paradigm has shifted in a lot of ways just because of what Kim has done.”

Voice for ‘Change’

Like many others protesting social injustice, Giants manager Gabe Kapler took a knee before games last season but has stopped doing so this year before Cactus League games.

“Our country and our dialogue has changed, and with that change I think it’s important that my actions change too,” Kapler said.

The San Jose Mercury News reported Kapler then referenced his “Pipeline For Change Foundation,” which provides resources for marginalized communities, women, nonbinary people and the LGBTQ+ community to participate in college and pro sports.

“I want the stories to be written about the work being done to change what’s wrong,” Kapler said. “Not whether I’m kneeling or not.”

A family affair

Pedro Strop isn’t the only talented player in his family. His son, Royelny, turns 13 in June and already is garnering attention.

A couple weeks before signing with the Cubs, Strop was pitching to Royelny, who at one point took him deep. Strop laughed as he recounted how someone joked with him that posting the video of his son hitting a homer off him was why he didn’t sign sooner.

“I think that’s true, man,” Strop said, laughing. “I didn’t think about that.”

Strop said it was the first time he ever has been happy to give up a hit like that.

“I’m really impressed right now,” Strop said of his son. “I don’t know at what moment he became that type of hitter, but in a blink (snaps fingers) and boom, that was him. I was like, really? And he’s tall. He’s big. He swings the bat well. ... And he’s like hitting balls out of the park already. He’s going to be good.”

Garrett Crochet is making a bruise — and an impression

Crochet and Kopech have each been clocked at 100 mph.

Kopech said the two have played catch a couple of times, and Kopech joked, “pretty sure I have bruises on the fingers.”

Kopech had high praise for the Crochet, a 2020 first-round pick who contributed to the big-league club during the final weeks of last season.

“That guy is nasty, man,” Kopech said Wednesday. “I don’t know what to say about him other than I am very, very impressed by him.”

Around the Cactus League

Good news and bad news for Brewers fans: The team signed center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. to a two-year, $24 million deal, but won’t allow tailgating for games.

The Brewers will begin the 2021 season with 25% capacity at American Family Field, the new name of Miller Park. But the Milwaukee Health Department did not approve tailgating in the parking lot, a tradition dating to the Brewers’ days playing in County Stadium. No word on whether the Racing Sausages will have to wear masks.

Los Angeles Angels two-way player Shohei Ohtani crushed a 468-foot home run Wednesday that went over the 32-foot-high batter’s eye in center field in Tempe Diablo Stadium. Ohtani said the home run would “lead to a lot of confidence” but added “there was wind.”

Quotable

“I love all my children unconditionally. As you can imagine, that’s a very hurtful thing to see, so to deal with it publicly is hurtful.” — Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona after his son, Nick, accused him of “covering up” the reported accusations of wrongdoing against former pitching coach Mickey Callaway

This Day in Cubs/Sox History

March 5, 1969: White Sox manager Al Lopez blasted the new “designated pinch hitter” rule being used in spring training on an experimental basis.

“They lowered the mound and cut the strike zone,” Lopez told the Tribune’s Richard Dozer before a Grapefruit League game against the Boston Red Sox in Sarasota, Fla. “That ought to be enough.”

Called “wild cards,” the pinch hitters were used only in spring games for pitchers’ at-bats.

“I’ll probably use the wild-card thing most of the time,” Lopez conceded, adding his pitchers needed at-bats because they would have to bat during the regular season.

MLB also experimented with designated pinch runners and issuing intentional walks without throwing any pitches. In 1969, baseball instituted new rules that lowered the mound from 15 to 10 inches while eliminating shoulder-high strikes, hoping to add offense after the “Year of the Pitcher” in 1968.

“There are just too many things coming at once,” Lopez said. “Let them try them in the minors and then give them to us one at a time.”

The “wild-card thing” eventually was adopted as the DH in the American League in 1973. The National League used it in 2020, but a universal DH rule has yet to be adopted. The intentional walk rule was instituted in 2017.

Looking ahead

White Sox at Indians, 2:05 p.m. Saturday in Goodyear, Ariz.","type":"text