Thursday, September 4, 2014

JORGE SOLER - A treasure



Soler Drives in Two More Runs as Cubs Beat Brewers
CHICAGO — Sep 3, 2014, 11:33 PM ET
By JACK CASSIDY Associated Press
Associated Press

Rookie Jorge Soler had a two-run double to become the second player in Cubs history with as many as 10 RBIs in his first seven games as Chicago beat Milwaukee 6-2 on Wednesday night.

Soler joined Mandy Brooks, who had 12 RBIs in 1925, as the only Chicago players to accomplish that feat.

Kyle Hendricks pitched five-plus innings to hear his fifth straight win. Hendricks (6-1) allowed two runs on nine hits in 5 2-3 innings. The right-hander did not walk or strike out a batter.

With five rookies in the lineup, the Cubs completed their first three-game sweep of the Brewers since Aug. 23-25, 2004.

Milwaukee concluded a 1-8 road trip with its eighth straight loss to fall three games behind St. Louis in the NL Central race.

Chicago never trailed after Chris Valaika hit a two-run homer off ex-Cub Matt Garza to put it ahead 2-1 in the second. The blast to deep left field followed Logan Watkins' two-out single.

In his first start in 31 days, Garza (7-8) failed to get past the third inning. The right-hander allowed six runs on eight hits and one walk. He had been on the disabled list since Aug. 4 because of a strained left oblique.

The Cubs batted around in the third, when they scored four times to take a 6-1 lead.

Soler began the onslaught with a two-run double, his ninth and 10 RBIs of the season. Welington Castillo followed with a run-scoring, ground-rule double, and one out later, Watkins hit an RBI single to cap the rally.

Milwaukee took an early lead in the second, when Khris Davis singled, advanced on a groundout and scored on Logan Schafer's two-out base hit.

The Brewers scored their final run on Valaika's error at first base in the sixth.

Milwaukee was missing Ryan Braun, who was with his wife Larisa in Milwaukee, where she was expecting their first child.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Brewers: OF Carlos Gomez will not take part in physical activity until Sunday at the earliest. He sat out his third straight game because of a sprained left wrist and could be out of action until until mid-September. INF Mark Reynolds and Jason Rogers were available to play in the outfield if necessary.

Cubs: Results of X-rays and an MRI revealed SS Starlin Castro suffered a high ankle sprain on a slide into home during a 7-1 win against the Brewers on Tuesday night. General manager Jed Hoyer said Castro hoped to beat the 4-week prognosis to return but his season was likely over. ... 1B Anthony Rizzo remains out indefinitely with a strained lower back. ... 3b Mike Olt began a two-game rehab assignment with Class-A Kane County on Wednesday night. ... OF Ryan Sweeney (strained left hamstring) was transferred to the 60-day disabled list, which effectively ended his season. The contract of OF Ryan Kalish was selected from the Triple-A club.

UP NEXT

The Brewers return home to meet St. Louis in a crucial four-game series. RHP Wily Peralta (15-9, 3.82) and Cardinals RHP Michael Wacha (5-5, 2.79) are the scheduled starters Thursday night. After an open date, the Cubs will send LHP Tsuyoshi Wada (4-2, 2.79) to the mound against Pittsburgh RHP Vance Worley (6-4, 3.01) in the first game of a three-game set on Friday afternoon.

........

So, the Cubs suck. They are in last place in the NL Central, are 12 games under .500, and traded away their ace back in July. But! I am here to tell you that over these last few weeks of the season, you should consider watching a few Cubs games, because you might see some cool shit.

For example, take a look a this play from last night's game between the Cubs and Brewers:

That's Jorge Soler, the Cubs' 22-year-old Cuban prospect who was regarded as a better prospect than Yasiel Puig not too long ago, doing some Yasiel Puig shit. I know it's reductive to compare the two players simply because they are both young and Cuban, but it's hard to think of another player who could muscle a 94-mph fastball that was headed toward his back elbow into an open patch of grass, and then stretch his hit into a double with a ballsy bit of base running.

Soler was called up a week ago and has played in just seven games, but in those seven games he's 12-for-26 with three homers and five doubles. This is what he did in his first career at-bat:

Two days later, he did this:
Yeah, yeah, it's just a few games and all that, but those are three impressive, booming home runs, and you should be excited about any rookie who can do that in his first week on the job.

Speaking of young players who can hit the guts out of a baseball, Javy Baez, who is just 21, is also playing for the Cubs every day. We've already extolled his power few times before, and over the weekend he showed that he can also play a little defense:

Baez is a natural shortstop, but was moved to second this year so that he could fit alongside Starlin Castro with the big club. Castro's going to be out with an injury for the rest of the year, though, so Baez will be the team's primary shortstop going forward. That's good news for people who like to see fancy defensive plays.

The only bummer about this month is that it could have been even better if the Cubs had decided to also call up Kris Bryant, who hit .325/.438/.661 with 34 doubles and 43 homers across Double-A and Triple-A this year. But whatever, for now Cubs fans (and you!) will just have to settle for watching a guy who looks like version 2.0 of the most exciting player in baseball and Gary Sheffield if he'd actually been able to play shortstop. And with Bryant due to come up in 2015, bandwagoning Chicagoans may want to buy next year's tickets early.

[Chris Berman sits behind an over-sized Mahogany desk in a large, lamp-lit office, reading glasses perched just below the bridge of his nose, writing and crossing out words in a Moleskine notebook with a Meisterstück 149 fountain pen. There is a steaming San Francisco 49ers coffee mug resting on a cork coaster beside his left hand. Berman wears a frost-colored silk bathrobe and matching slippers. He coughs several times. A fleece Buffalo Bills throw is draped over an Eames Lounge in the corner of the room. It is well past midnight.]

[Berman writes feverishly in a Moleskine notebook.]

[Writes.]

That one went Soler.

[Scratches out the previous sentence.]

[Writes.]

Say Soler-ong to that one!

[Scratches out the previous sentence.]

[Writes.]

Solerong, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye!

[Scratches out the previous sentence.]

[Writes.]

Back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back moon shot! Into the Soler System!

[Speaks.]

"You still got it, baby!"

...


Soler, Cubs promise a fun September
Hey, why wait for next year when Wrigley youth movement is on display right now?

Updated: September 2, 2014, 10:31 AM ET
By Jon Greenberg | ESPNChicago.com

CHICAGO -- Those kids you've been talking about were at Wrigley Field on Monday morning, the first day of September, and there was a special buzz in the air.

Yes, the plucky Little League finalists from Jackie Robinson West visited the Friendly Confines to share their U.S. championship experience with the promising youngsters of the last-place (but getting better!) Chicago Cubs.

Could this town be big enough for two contending teams and the White Sox?
Phil Velasquez/Getty ImagesOutfielder Jorge Soler doubled twice and scored a run Monday in his Wrigley Field debut.

I get chills just thinking about it.

In related news, the Cubs' newest kid in the spotlight, Jorge Soler -- think of him as a bigger Trey Hondras -- made his home debut and, ho hum, hit a pair of doubles in their 4-2 victory over Milwaukee.

The 22-year-old Cuban outfielder has at least one extra-base hit in each of his first five games, making him the first National Leaguer to do that since Enos Slaughter back in 1938.

That gives him a slugging percentage of "Holy Cow" through his first five games. His wRC+ (weighted runs created plus) is 391, which, if I understand this statistic correctly, means he's creating 291 percent more runs than the league average.

I'll speak for Cubs fans when I say that's not due to a small sample size. Soler is just that good.

With Anthony Rizzo sidelined with a pesky back injury, Soler is unofficially the second-best hitter in Chicago -- and the second-best Cuban hitter, following White Sox star Jose Abreu.

Coming up a few weeks after Javier Baez's debut, Soler is now -- excuse the pun attempt -- the Cubs' newest bright, shining star and one of a few reasons to watch this team over the season's final 28 days.

No reasonable person on either end of town expected the Cubs or White Sox to be playing meaningful games this month, but, yes, there a few reasons to pay attention to baseball during Bears season.

Now, I'm not saying you have to watch all the games, but you can follow me on Twitter. I'll let you know when the beat writers let me know when Baez and Soler are hitting.

The Cubs are letting Baez and Soler sow their royal oats this month, letting them test their promise against a host of contending teams. No, Kris Bryant isn't coming up this month, and it has nothing to do with contractual reasons or his agent, Scott Boras.

Nope, not all. It's totally because he's not ready yet ... even though he is, as former Cubs skipper Dale Sveum would say, the best player in the minor leagues, pretty much.

Waiting is not an issue on the South Side, where the Sox are expected to bring up this year's first-round draft pick, pitcher Carlos Rodon, this month.

While they stumble through a second consecutive lost season, a future rotation of Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and Rodon is very promising, and, like the Cubs, the White Sox don't have much salary committed to 2015. Abreu is an absolute bargain, earning less than $9 million this season and next in a backloaded contract, and outfielder Avisail Garcia is a cornerstone, not to mention a fast healer.

The Sox wisely bade farewell to failed veterans Gordon Beckham, Alejandro De Aza and Adam Dunn in the past two weeks, with none having a spot on 2015's team.

Dunn, a first-ballot man's man, was an abject disappointment since signing as a free agent in the winter of 2010. Dunn admitted as much when he was traded to the Oakland A's on Sunday. He'll be missed in the clubhouse, but not by a dwindling, uninterested fan base that needs to see some forward progress.
[+] EnlargeJavier Baez
AP Photo/Charles Rex ArbogastJavier Baez is striking out at a high rate, but you wouldn't sense any struggles from his demeanor.

Beckham, a 2008 first-round pick, showed the danger in rushing a player to the majors. Of course, Sale shows the flip side: Some guys are too good to stay down on the farm.

Such as Soler, for instance, who got only 206 plate appearances in Double- and Triple-A this season, or 387 fewer than Bryant. Which brings us back to Monday.

I went to Wrigley on Labor Day to make sure Soler was a real person and not some 3-D hologram. After all, he looks too good on TV to be true. How many defensive ends can hit a baseball like that?

So far, Soler is 10-for-19 with four doubles and three home runs. He's struck out only four times and plays a capable outfield.

Naturally, reporters camped out Monday morning at his locker (Jeff Samardzija's old digs, right next to the showers) waiting to talk to him.

Speaking through an interpreter, Soler communicated all of what you'd expect: He's happy to be here, he'll keep working hard. He said he was a little surprised at how quickly he started but that he believes more than ever his words to Cubs president Theo Epstein when he came off the disabled list: It's his time.

"I stand by it," Soler said. "I accepted the challenge. I wanted to be the Jorge Soler I'm showing I am right now."

While reporters talked to Soler, on the other side of the clubhouse door was Baez, who quietly dressed for the game with no media fuss.

Could the future star be yesterday's news? Not quite, though he's certainly been eclipsed until further notice.

Through 28 games, Baez is hitting .181 with seven homers, four doubles and 50 strikeouts. Ugly numbers, but not really alarming.

Baez is already Internet famous for slow starts, and the Cubs expect him to be a boom-and-bust-and-boom-again kind of player as he grows into a more mature hitter. The talent is evident -- and frightening; he just needs at-bats.
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It's hard to tell if Baez is struggling with struggling. He's very even-keeled, something he has in common with the Cubs' other rookies, such as pitcher Kyle Hendricks and outfielder Arismendy Alcantara.

I tried talking to him, one-on-one, and he offered brief, hushed platitudes, such as, "I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and try to get better every day."

So I changed the mood of my questions, smiled and asked, "Aren't you excited about what's going on? Soler's up and September's in front of you. Strikeouts or not, this is what you dream of. The future is now." Stuff like that.

"I am, I am," Baez said, showing the hint of a smile. "I just don't show too much. But I am, and I'm ready for next year."

Waiting for next year is so last year (and like 104 before that). It's September of this year, and I'm ready to see how Baez and Soler hit right now.

After all, Jackie Robinson West's season is over. We need some fun baseball to watch.

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