Paul Sullivan: What we’ve learned at Cubs and White Sox camps with 18 days until opening day

With 18 days remaining until opening day, the Chicago Cubs and White Sox are about to enter the dog days of spring training, during which dead arms tend to occur and players start getting antsy for the regular season.

Here’s what we know, and what we suspect we know, about our teams heading toward the start of 2024.

180 is the new 200

In a long lost era, starters went into spring training talking about throwing 300 innings. With the emergence of analytics and strict pitch counts, the number gradually was reduced to 200 innings years ago.

Only three pitchers reached 200 innings in 2023: the San Francisco Giants’ Logan Webb (216 innings), Arizona Diamondbacks’ Zac Gallen (210) and St. Louis Cardinals’ Miles Mikolas (201 1/3). That’s down from eight pitchers in 2022.

In his