NEWSLETTER
Where to start? It was a huge day for the Chicago Cubs yesterday, up and down the system, with many fun things to check out.
How about Javier Baez’s seventh home run (seriously, he already has seven homers):
The was the kind of laser to hard right that he was doing all year at Iowa, and we’ve been waiting to see in the bigs. He had a couple homers in Colorado that were close, but not quite like this. Clearly, the LED board is fortified with titanium.
Baez now has the seventh most homers on the Cubs, which is actually further down than I thought he’d be (he’s still a couple behind Junior Lake). Not that it isn’t impressive in just 19 games.
Speaking of tons of homers, Kyle Schwarber hit TWO more yesterday as part of a doubleheader for the Daytona Cubs. That’s five in his last seven games, and his slash line is now .308/.411/.571, which blows away everyone else in the Florida State League. Indeed, that’s the third highest batting average, the highest OBP (by 15 points), and the highest SLG (by 69 points).
Dan Vogelbach also homered twice yesterday, raising his line to .270/.358/.431. That might not look impressive next to Schwarber’s numbers, but it’s excellent for the FSL – among qualifiers, he’s seventh in the league in OPS.
Kris Bryant yesterday hit his 20th homer in the PCL and 42nd overall:
I know it’s in Reno, but still: that’s 440+ feet the opposite way with a smooth, easy swing. Over 130 games between AA and AAA, Kris Bryant has sustained an unbelievable .335/.445/.683 line.
Speaking of unbelievable lines, Jorge Soler came to the plate six times for the I-Cubs last night, and he reached base all six times. He had a triple, a double, three singles, and a walk. That’ll help that bad BABIP luck he was having, and raised his Iowa line back up to .262/.356/.563.
Here’s Soler’s 5th hit of the night. Check out his wide base:
Strong dude.
Albert Almora went deep for the Tennessee Smokies last night, and he’s heating up, too:
Albert Almora's two-run bomb for Tennessee (via http://t.co/qT4woXCKZc). https://t.co/BCIz7JNX0g
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) August 24, 2014
He had a double and a single in the game, too, and also added an unbelievable catch in center:
At first, you’re like: how in the world did he catch that without hurting himself? And then, you’re like: oh.
He indicated that he was OK, but did end up leaving the game (it was the 9th inning of a blowout). Hopefully it was nothing serious.
