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[5412]

Hi,

We went to Beloit to watch the Peoria Cubs and Jorge Soler today. It is probably unrealistic; but with the hype you expect to see a player dominate and that did not happen. Couple next to us is season ticket holders and said Soler really hit the ball hard last night for the grand slam.

It was obvious they were pitching around him as he saw a lot of breaking balls and I was surprised at his patience. They preach for the kids to swing at strikes but the umpiring was so bad that it is no wonder they expand the strike zone, there was no consistency.

Soler was fifth in the order and went 1-3 and a walk. In his first two at bats he worked the count well. Both his hits were ground outs and I never really saw him square up on the ball today. Tomorrow is another day and he may crush things tomorrow night.

On one fly ball he totally misjudged it in right field as it sliced away from him. I was not impressed with his nonchalant drifting over to catch another fly ball to end an inning. I wanted to see him throw and got my chance in the 6^th inning. A guy hit a sacrifice fly to right field, he caught it properly and made a decent (but not eye popping) throw to the plate that was a lot more accurate than some of the guy on the big Cubs.

Couple other tidbits. The Chiefs have a CF named Chin who is 6-1” and 160# and was signed as a free agent. He went 1-3 with two walks but he surprised all of us when he raced back to the wall (380 sign), picked up the ball with his back to the infield and rifled a one hop strike to second base that was right on the line. Need to feed that kid a bit.

The second baseman, Zeke DeVoss is out of Miami and was a 3^rd round pick in 2011. He was 2-4 with a walk and looked impressive. He did struggle in the filed on a couple of plays.

I told my wife on the drive back, the Cubs paid a lot of money for Soler’s potential. This is one case where the term “player development” should hopefully come into play; starting with the team dietician and strength coach.

Guy next to me was a Cub fan and said that Baez looked a lot better to him than Soler has so far. I will be surprised if Soler does not start in Peoria next year unless he really comes around.

regards,
5412

PS: A thought just occured to me. You pay a kid like Soler $30 million, then how do you expect him to play like he is hungry? One more reason I like the money slotting for draft picks, now those who make the money actually have to earn it.