Big cuts are made

@GDubCub: Baez optioned to AAA, Bryant reassigned to minor league camp. Russell also sent out. 15 healthy position players left in camp. (13 spots).


Not that anyone should be surprise by this...

Bryant gonna get some PT in LF for 3 weeks...

Baez will work on making contact. ..

I think a part of Baez going down besides not making much contact this Spring is the fact their going to go with 3 Catchers til they move Castillo and a log jam in OF with Szczur and Lake having a good Spring....

Alcantara and La Stella will get 2B duties for now

With all the hype about this bullshit, it makes sense when you think about it. Bryant did struggle his last couple games, including some backwords K's. He also needs more time in LF, not necessarily cuz his 3B play was bad, but to get a better lineup for the Cubs to win by another player playing 3B.

Baez with the 3 K's yesterday didn't help his cause any, either, and Russell wasn't supposed to make the roster. But the biggest thing is the Cubs will get some more time to evaluate the other players that could help them win, like La Stella, etc. Maddon will get some real game looks at the veterans to see what players he wants to keep for the long haul.

So sending Bryant down is strictly a move to keep him for going F/A until 2021 ?

Not surprising, Baez could always go either way. Bryant is for the an extra year of control.

It's hard for the PU to criticize the Cubs when they send Baez down as well since this is something they brought up quite a bit. Like I said, it also gives the Cubs time to evaluate some other players in the meantime. I think everyone knew Bryant was going to be sent down for the extra year of control.

Out of this group of kids, Baez is the one I thought could run into problems. You had to figure it wouldn't take MLB pitchers long to find holes in that big swing of his. What do you do with a kid like that? He's got a ton of potential but what happens if he tones that swing down to make better contact? He might get worse. I hope he figures it out...not too many
guys out there that the ball jumps off the bat like his does.

He wouldn't get worse, imho. He just couldn't go straight to the box with the big change. I expected to see simplified movements when he came to ST. It didn't happen.

Diehardfan said:

Out of this group of kids, Baez is the one I thought could run into problems. You had to figure it wouldn't take MLB pitchers long to find holes in that big swing of his. What do you do with a kid like that? He's got a ton of potential but what happens if he tones that swing down to make better contact? He might get worse. I hope he figures it out...not too many
guys out there that the ball jumps off the bat like his does.

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His swing is really not the issue. I dont know why people still say that. The Cubs even said they do not want to change his swing. They are working on his timing and his pitch recognition. He has made strides in the cage, but when it comes to the game he sometimes falls right back to the beginning. Its why so many coaches said he is so close. It just has to get more consistent. Look at his second strikeout the other day. The ump made a bad call for strike 2. You could see Baez was visibly frustrated. Next pitch, the pitcher buries one and he swangs for the fences. I have no doubt in my mind in his frustrations he decided to swing before he ever recognized the pitch. Thats being young and frustrated and not staying to his adjustments. He has to be early. He has been starting to late with his swing. If you are early, you can adjust. Baez is late so he hasnt been able to adjust. Everything I read says he is performing well in the cage but will fall back into bad habits in the game.

Ahh, but it is the swing. The bigger the swing, the more time you need to recognize a pitch. That's precisely why so many big swingers strike out a lot.

No surprises.

All business with Bryant. Cant wait to see him bend Theo over the negotiating table 3-4 years down the road if Theo tries to make a deal to avoid a hopefully steep arbitration.

Baez has to fix his bat.

Russell from what I gathered wasn't planned to get his swings at the MLB level till June-July at the earliest.

At least Theo delayed getting bent over by a year

Diehardfan said:

Ahh, but it is the swing. The bigger the swing, the more time you need to recognize a pitch. That's precisely why so many big swingers strike out a lot.

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I'd have to agree it's more timing than the swing. Technically, Javi has great bat speed, and when you have good bat speed, a hitter should be able to hold off the swing until the last minute. Good hitters will plant the left foot and hold off the swing on the last moment. That's how you lay off bad pitches.

To me, he just has a difficult time recognizing strikes and balls. When he can do this better, the bat speed will really help him. What I would try with him, is just have him almost half swing to try to make contact.

Before you laugh, as a ball player, when I first started to play golf, I swung really hard. I could hit it 350 yards, but I couldn't control the ball at all. A pro friend of mine made me swing at half speed and not worry about distance at all.

This helped me feel the ball much better and consequently learn how to hit the ball properly. Once that happened, I could start hitting the ball harder and harder with touch. For you golfers, the other my buddy helped me with was closing my wrist, but so much for golf....

I'd like to see Javi plain just not swing hard. Quit trying to hit the ball hard at all. Go back to hitting off a tee if he has to, or just hit balls into the net, if you know what I mean. I'd like to see him try to hit singles through the infield.

Work on going to right and slapping the ball more. Imo, this will help the eye contact and timing. Get to where he is hitting ropes through the infield. Then gradually bring back the bat speed as his timing and pitch recognition improve.

For the life of me, I don't know why they keep letting him swing so hard. He's off balance and commits to early or late. He has no feel fo a good at bat, imo. He's way to hurky jerky. When you watch Bryant, it's almost like a machine. It's a smooth leg plant, hip swivel, and swing. Baez looks like he's having a spasm to me.

If it were me, I'd break down his swing and build it back up. I have a hard time believing the Cubs haven't tried this stuff, so I'm starting to think it'a all mental with Javi.

SilenceS said:

His swing is really not the issue. I dont know why people still say that. The Cubs even said they do not want to change his swing. They are working on his timing and his pitch recognition. He has made strides in the cage, but when it comes to the game he sometimes falls right back to the beginning. Its why so many coaches said he is so close. It just has to get more consistent. Look at his second strikeout the other day. The ump made a bad call for strike 2. You could see Baez was visibly frustrated. Next pitch, the pitcher buries one and he swangs for the fences. I have no doubt in my mind in his frustrations he decided to swing before he ever recognized the pitch. Thats being young and frustrated and not staying to his adjustments. He has to be early. He has been starting to late with his swing. If you are early, you can adjust. Baez is late so he hasnt been able to adjust. Everything I read says he is performing well in the cage but will fall back into bad habits in the game.

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Well you know I'm not one to speak about something I'm not confident in which this obviously is but I know for a fact they did adjust where his hand start. It's not exactly his "swing" but it's something. From my memory his right elbow was almost at a 45 degree angle last season to start his swing which was pretty high and they've moved that down some.

He is starting too late and is depending on bat speed to catch up. He needs to start earlier and slow down his swing mechanics so he can focus more on recon and adjusting his swing in motion. They have talked about it some but it all comes down to is he is starting late and has no time to readjust.

Bryant was a no brainer.

I'm hoping they use Alcantara at 2B full time now jitting #9 with LaStella as the UI. I want to see Olt at 3B to build up value.

Bryant they need to push him to LF. Just get it over with early and move Russell over to 3B at AAA.

beckdawg said:

Well you know I'm not one to speak about something I'm not confident in which this obviously is but I know for a fact they did adjust where his hand start. It's not exactly his "swing" but it's something. From my memory his right elbow was almost at a 45 degree angle last season to start his swing which was pretty high and they've moved that down some.

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There were little things they are trying to cut down but hs swing is not what they are going after. His bat speeds makes up for his long swing. Its his timing. From what I read, his cage sessions have been great but he is falling back to the late swing in real game. He is close. He just has to be smart. Soler has a long swing a lot of time but his discipline with bat speed makes up for it. I truly dont believe Baez will be down for more then half of a year. If he doesnt fix it by then, then we are looking at a bust.

A good example of what might be screwing up Javy is right on this page.

1, work on making contact
2, Tone down that swing
3, simplify your swing
4, it's your timing
5, it's your pitch recognition
6, you have to be early, your starting too late.
7, it is your swing
8, its not your swing
9, hold off your swing until the last minute
10, plant your left foot
11, take half swings to make contact
12, don't swing hard
13, try to hit singles
14, try going to right
15, slap the ball
16, your off balance
17, your hurky jerky
18, it's all mental
19, move your elbow down
20, your starting too late
21, slow down your mechanics

Alright kid, get to work on that.

Grizzly said:

A good example of what might be screwing up Javy is right on this page.

1, work on making contact
2, Tone down that swing
3, simplify your swing
4, it's your timing
5, it's your pitch recognition
6, you have to be early, your starting too late.
7, it is your swing
8, its not your swing
9, hold off your swing until the last minute
10, plant your left foot
11, take half swings to make contact
12, don't swing hard
13, try to hit singles
14, try going to right
15, slap the ball
16, your off balance
17, your hurky jerky
18, it's all mental
19, move your elbow down
20, your starting too late
21, slow down your mechanics

Alright kid, get to work on that.

Click to expand...

He's only hearing one thing from the Cubs. That's all that matters.

beckdawg said:

Well you know I'm not one to speak about something I'm not confident in which this obviously is but I know for a fact they did adjust where his hand start. It's not exactly his "swing" but it's something. From my memory his right elbow was almost at a 45 degree angle last season to start his swing which was pretty high and they've moved that down some.

Click to expand...

That's physically highly improbable and has more to do with the plane of the shoulders than the "angle" of the back elbow.

Like I said it's not my area of expertise I just read they messed with his initial hand placement. Basically they were talking about how his bat was at a sharper angle last season than this season. Maybe I did a poor job wording it.

Here's a pic from last year


Here's a HR from this ST


Do what you want with them. I'm just relaying what I've read.

They have made minor adjustments to his swing. The noise about overhauling his swing has been chatter from outside the organization many of whom don't believe minor adjustments are enough and that at 22 he's still young enough for an overhaul. It's clear the Cubs brass do not agree but the small changes they have tried to make haven't stuck past the batting cage which is probably more of a function of muscle memory than unwillingness to learn. He gets to the plate and adrenaline takes over. People are so worried about the K's but if he were to get his K rate to the 27%-30% range, with that bat speed all anyone would be saying is what a stud this kid is. Now let's see if he can get there.