CHICAGO -- With the fourth pick overall in the 2014 First-Year Player Draft, the Cubs selected Indiana catcher Kyle Schwarber.
It's the third straight year the Cubs have taken a position player in the first round. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein chose outfielder Albert Almora in 2012 and third baseman Kris Bryant in 2013.
One of three finalists for the Johnny Bench Award, presented to the top Division I catcher in the country, Schwarber batted .358 with 14 home runs, 48 RBIs and a .659 slugging percentage in his junior year. In his final eight games for the Hoosiers, he batted .469 with four home runs, 12 RBIs and a .938 slugging percentage.
He was named the Big Ten tournament's Most Outstanding Player and selected to the all-tournament team at the NCAA Bloomington Regional.
A native of Middletown, Ohio, Schwarber is majoring in recreational sports management. In high school he was a four-time MVP and second-team All-Ohio linebacker.
"I was 8 or 10, and I was a catcher," Schwarber told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "and my grandmother said to me, 'I want you to be like Johnny Bench.' I said, 'Who's Johnny Bench?' She said, 'The best catcher to ever play the game.' She told me all about him."
Schwarber did meet Bench during a national tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., and had a picture taken with the Hall of Famer.
Schwarber was not drafted out of high school.
"In football, the middle linebacker is the field captain, and it's the same for a catcher in baseball -- you're the field manager," he told the Enquirer. "You control the staff -- they trust you, and you trust them -- and you have to know where everyone's playing. You direct. It's a big responsibility. I love it."
Hoosiers baseball coach Tracy Smith's wife, Jamie, is from Middletown, and urged her husband to look at Schwarber.
"It's still amazing when I think back to recruiting him," Smith told the Indianapolis Star last year. "It wasn't like we had to beat out a bunch of people to get him. He was a relatively unknown player, thank goodness."
Whether Schwarber will be a catcher in the big leagues remains to be seen. He loves the role.
"Catching is what I really want to be doing," he said. "There's no other position I want to play. I like catching because it's down and dirty and gritty. It's an awesome position."
In 2013 he was selected the best catcher in the country by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. He actually became a catcher because of his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, he said he couldn't focus at any other position.
"I was the kid who was all over the place, left and right," he said.
The Draft continues on Friday with Rounds 3-10. The MLB.com pregame show begins at 11:30 a.m. CT, with exclusive coverage of Rounds 3-10 beginning at noon CT.
Former big leaguers Ted Lilly and Darnell McDonald, who recently joined the front office as special assistants, were both in the Cubs' war room at Wrigley Field on Thursday.
