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I guess Baez played a little better with Maddon watching. It's nice to see the coach doing his thing right away. However, Baez is still struggling. Hopefully Maddon can get through to him.
He is changing the timing of his swing and his approach. It takes time. Its probably why he will start in AAA unless he makes big strides on it in spring training.
I would rather give the playing time to Alcantara now that Fowler is in CF. My opinion is Olt is more ready as a hitter than Baez is right now. Olt went through the process Baez is going through and made some adjustments. Baez still needs to perfect what he has learned.
Now they may still use LaStella at 2B and utilize Alcantara as a sub. If they do this it would be for LaStella's OBA potential as a #2 hitter. That is not a bad option also.
But I agree that Baez most likely starts in AAA. ST numbers mean little as pitchers are working on stuff still and any production should be taken with a grain of salt.
He very well may start in AAA or he might be given a short leash in the majors. One option is to bring him up for the 9 games that Bryant stays down and swap the spots on the roster if he hasn't shown progress. I really like that Maddon went down to Puerto Rico though. Showed Baez that he is supported and that the organization wants him to succeed. Classy and smart.
As far as Alcantara I think they've telegraphed pretty well, without actually confirming, that they want him to be their super sub. Now that takes some mental gymnastics to pull off so they're going to have to see how he reacts to that but my guess is that's what he does for the Cubs in 2015 seeing time at 2B, CF, LF, RF, 3B and SS, with the latter two only in the case of injury or the odd day off.
I don't agree with the swap part. He is not a sub type so he needs to be ready to stick and I'm doubting he is. We saw this with Rizzo. He bottomed out with the Pads. Stayed in AAA for 2 months. Had a trying year following then the following year he broke out. I would not expect Baez to just skip the process of adjustment.
Alcantara came up as a SS. 3B is the in question spot for him.
Fair enough. It's a thought, especially if he does extremely well in ST. I think he most likely needs work in AAA and I think the Cubs do too, I also think they're hoping he doesn't. He needs to work counts better and control the strike zone but this is a player who projects to probably never have a K rate of under 28%. At some point you're going to have to see if he's a major league player.
its good to see maddon take the hands on approach and try to be there for his future player.
Any chance Maddon will visit Jay Cutler?