Javy’s Playing Small Ball and it’s Beautiful
The slugger coils, silently torquing the internal spring that drives the mechanism from which his prodigious power issues forth. In the past, the movement was broad and sweeping, like an impatient minute hand unwilling to abide by the confining strictures of time. But as much as fans would have liked to speed the Cubs’ clock, Javy Baez’s all-or-nothing approach just wasn’t getting it done.
Tick, tick…
Even a broken clock is right twice and day, but Javy — despite looking like a Rolex when things clicked — had a broken timing mechanism that undermined both his reliability and value. The Cubs knew there was still something there though, so they sent him back to the shop in the hopes that he’d be able to correct some of the issues that had kept his nearly limitless potential manifesting itself early.
Tick, tick…
So he went back to the farm and worked. Worked through the death of his beloved sister, Noely. Worked through a broken finger that perhaps led to him being passed over for promotion. Worked through whispers that he’d be dealt because the Cubs’ infield was already full. And so the young man who homered in his first major league game had to bide his time in Des Moines while the parent club began to put things together.
Tick, tick…
Baez came back to Chicago when rosters expanded on September 1st and was immediately inserted into the starting lineup, going 0-4. He got into the next game and was hitless in his lone at-bat. But looking at the 0-5 only tells part of the story. Absent context, being happy about a guy striking out once once in his first 5 trips to the plate would seem a bit strange. But when that guy whiffed at a 41.5% clip in 2014, 1 in 5 is a victory.
Tick, tick…
What’s more, Javy has struck out only 6 times in 25 at-bats through 7 games back up with the Cubs and only once has he gone down on strikes multiple times in a game. Through 7 games in 2014, Baez had posted 4 multi-K games and had racked up 13 total strikeouts. It was feast or famine, but he wasn’t eating enough to sustain himself when the food was scarce.
Tick, tick…
Through 52 games against major-league pitching in 2014, Baez managed only 6 multi-hit games. Already in 2015, he has 3 such efforts. The kid known for his huge, looping swing has had only 3 extra-base hits among 8 total knocks, but it’s not the power that is most impressive. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still nothing better than seeing Baez really get into one, but something I saw Wednesday afternoon illustrated just how much work Baez has put in.
Tick, tick…
The slugger coils, silently torquing the internal spring that drives the mechanism from which his prodigious power issues forth. In the past, he was nearly powerless in an 0-2 count, the tension required to power his bat dialed up too high to adjust to anything other than a mistake. But when Carlos Martinez bent an 87 mph curveball inside, Javy did a curious thing: he waited. Keeping his hands in, Baez sat back on the breaking ball and inside-outed a soft liner over the second-baseman’s head and into right for a single.
Tick, tick…
Yes, I just wrote “Baez,” “inside-outed,” and “soft liner” in the same sentence. Sans irony. Rather than selling out for power and praying for mistakes, Baez is preying on mistakes and buying the idea that he can just be a good hitter and let the power come. He’s already shown a great deal of value in the field and on the basepaths too, but Javy with a more complete hit tool? Yeah, that’s nice.
Tick, tick…
Maybe you think it’s silly to wax poetic about a 7-game sample, but I’m seeing things in the hyped hitter that I never have before. He’s really starting to get it, to put together the puzzle of hitting at this level. I have no doubt the power will come in earnest too. And when it does…
Tick, tick…
Boom!