Three of the Chicago Cubs UBER-Prospects, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Addison Russell, will begin the 2015 season in the minor leagues. Baez was a huge disappointment last season (.169 batting average, 95 strikeouts in 52 games, 213 at bats) and he followed that up with a strikeout ridden, disastrous spring training.
In other words, the first of the Cubs many super-prospects to get a chance at the big league level bombed out. At age 22, his story is yet to be written and he has plenty of time to re-write it, but the cultist flock of Beazsus followers have now converted to Bryantism.
(We’ve covered the current statuses of all four of these prospects in more detail: Bryant here, Russell here, Soler here and Baez here)
2015 is a HUGE season for Javier Baez. ESPN MLB analysts Curt Schilling and John Kruk (Sunday Night Baseball) participated in ESPN’s MLB Opening Night/Opening Day media conference call earlier today. ESPN will nationally televise the Cubs season opener, at home versus the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, April 5, at 7 p.m. CST.
Said Kruk: “I think with Javier Baez, I think it’s just a matter of can he make enough contact to stay in the Big Leagues or get back to the Big Leagues and stay there. It’s completely up to him.”
“You can’t strike out as much as he does and expect to stay in the Big Leagues unless you’re going to hit 40 or 50 homers. He has the power potential, but he doesn’t make enough contact to do it,” Kruk continued.
Javier Baez began his Major League Baseball career in stunningly dramatic fashion- hitting a walk-off homer in the 12th inning. He started hot- hitting five homers in his first 14 games, but then he only went yard 4 more times in his other 38 games. Considering that power is his main attribute; those numbers were very unacceptable.
“The Cubs want him in the Big Leagues because of what he can supply offensively, but they can’t put him in the Big Leagues if he’s going to strike out 250, 300 times in a year,” said Kruk.
Curt Schilling sees the future of Baez with the Cubs as murky.
“If the Cubs are going to make a move in the next year to bring in a pitcher, I think they need Baez to get as much value for himself as he can, and then I think he’s one of the guys that they move.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. You can read Banks’ feature stories and op-eds in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and hear his regular guest spots on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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