I don't know who reported it first, but on Bleachernation there is a short article on it, and Len Kasper reported it during tonight's Cubs telecast just a few minutes ago, Kyle Schwarber's dominance, punctuated by another outstanding performance earlier today, has gotten him a quick call up to Kane County. In other Chicago based news, Bears mini-camp started up today, and I'll go over some notes from Windy City Gridiron and give my useless thoughts on them.
First things first. Kyle Schwarber, the "cheap" pick the Cubs made, has been absolutely brutalizing the pitching he's faced so far. In 5 games at Boise, is average wound up being .600 with a slash line of .600/.625/1.350. That's an OPS of 1.975. He got 1 double, 1 triple, and 4 home runs (12 total hits), struck out twice, and walked twice, and was caught stealing during his only SB attempt, scored 7 runs, and drove in 10 runs. So, if we're looking for something to complain about as far as his bat goes, then he clearly isn't much of a base stealer at this point. He played catcher, DH, and I believe, left field (may have been right though). So the worries about him finding a position still have some legs, but when a guy's a short season A ball, you don't worry too much about that. In a year, maybe that will become a real concern.
So after today's beatdown that he gave to Tri-City, Schwarber will be moving up. I'll go ahead and link the Bleachernation article. It's a good read, a short one, but it has some thoughts on it, and Brett's a smart guy who will always be able to throw in some good, but still reasonable thoughts. One thing he mentions there is something every Cubs fan should keep in mind. He says, "Well, you certainly would be quick to say five games don’t mean anything
if Schwarber came out of the gate struggling, so we can’t say the
reverse means a ton." He could not be more right there. Hell, I'm still saying hold up on the Javier Baez struggling stuff, mainly because he did break out of it for a time, then fouled a ball off his face and seemed to fall right back into that funk. Slumps can last for an entire season. Still though, the sample size is extremely small. I still think it was painfully obvious, by looking at the overall numbers and finding out some of the counts and such, that Schwarber was well ahead of his competition in Boise, even more than Kris Bryant in Tennessee.
So there's nothing fun to watch in Boise now, right? Well, wrong. If you were following the box scores on milb.com for Boise while Schwarber was there, have no worries, there are other prospects to keep an eye on. One is Jeffrey Baez, a leadoff hitter with very good speed who seems to be a solid hitter as well. He currently has 5 stolen bases, with 6 hits and 4 walks. He's right at .300 as far as batting average goes, and he also got in on the fun today, hitting his first home run. I really don't know what exactly he projects to be, but it's clear that he can run, and it looks like he can hit and has some patience at the plate as well.
There are plenty of other good hitting prospects, but the other good prospect I'll mention at Boise right now is pitcher Erick Leal. Leal came to the Cubs in the Tony Campana trade. A trade that saw a lot of fans put their hearts in front of their heads. I loved Campana, but the bottom line is that he was a guy with a very weak bat who could run, but nothing else. He took horrible angles on fly balls and had a glass arm. That being said, again, I loved having him on the Cubs, but he just wasn't too good and the Cubs were able to add a long-term piece for him in a trade. Anyway, Leal has only pitched in one game, one that saw him throw 5 innings of 1 run (unearned run) ball, giving up 3 hits and a walk. He just turned 19 a few months ago (almost to the date), so he's still a while away, but he's another guy who might wind up in Kane County if he pitches well this year. He would be way ahead of schedule if he did get there this year though.
Also, let's not forget guys like Gleyber Torres and Eloy Jimenez who were the 1A and 1B international free agent signings last year in all of baseball, and luckily both were signed by the Cubs. They both look like they may even start as high as the Arizona Rookie League (both are 17, Torres born in Dec. of 1996 and Jimenez born in November of 1996), so they're even young for the Arizona Rookie League if they do indeed start there. Of course, even if they do tear apart the rookie league, there's still a chance that the Cubs brass decides to keep them down there. However, saw a picture of Jimenez and Torres next to Manny Ramirez not too long ago (see it here), and Jimenez makes Ramirez look tiny. If players played like they look, Jimenez would be in the bigs already.
Anyway, moving on, another small Cubs note is that Kris Bryant won the AA Southern League home run derby yesterday, and supposedly there wasn't much doubt the whole time. So far in the actual game he's gone 1-3 with a single. He's also on the team with White Sox prospect Trayce Thompson, who is currently 0-1 with a walk. The Midwest League All-Star Game is tonight too, but there are no real Cubs or White Sox notes in that game.
So, switching sports, I'm actually going to make an NBA pit stop here. I think I have my guys for the Bulls in the draft that takes place in about 9 days. I'm going to say that they should go after Jordan Clarkson and James Young. I know that both of them are shooting guards, but #1, I see Butler as more of a 3, and feel like he's played best as a 3. #2, I see Snell as more of a shooting combo wing type of guy, and think he'll wind up being a super reserve, and that's also what I see Clarkson winding up as. I can see him as a guy who can play the 1 or the 2 in a year or two as the main guard sub, allowing the Bulls to have a 3 man rotation there. The other guy I see there is Young, who I think will be an absolute offensive monster. Of course I'm higher than some on him, but I saw him play at Kentucky, and thought that the only thing really holding him back was being stuck behind the Harrisons as far as scoring options go. Either way, he's got a ton of offensive potential, and he's also a pretty good looking defender. He literally does everything well. These guys are my picks, of course, assuming that Hood, McDermott, Gordon, and Stauskas don't fall to the Bulls (obviously I'd love to see Parker/Wiggins/Embiid/Exum fall, but none of them will for sure, and those other 3 guys are highly doubtful to fall to the Bulls).
So now on to the Chicago Bears. Here is a link to an article from Windy City Gridiron on the Bears day 1 of mini camp. Most of what I say from here on out is going to be in reference to that article, so I'd recommend going ahead and giving it a look. Anyway, first thing that surprised me is that I thought this was supposed to be a veterans mini camp, but I noticed that there are rookies there. Vereen and Sutton were both mentioned (although Sutton was mentioned because he was excused for today, but why would he have to be excused if he's a rookie). Also, it looks like from how things are talked about, that Fales was there as well. So I guess it's just a mini camp, the only difference between this and the OTAs being that these are not voluntary.
From what it looks like, Jimmy Clausen has looked good. Hey, maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I just don't have any faith in any Notre Dame quarterback. Other notes worth mentioning is that DJ Williams seems to be the top guy as far as middle linebacker goes right now, Gayle Sayers showed up to say hi, and Martellus Bennett seems to have lost some weight. Outside of that there wasn't a whole lot to mention, but because I'm already posting on other things, I thought this was something that was okay to include.
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