January 25, 2016 • Chicago Sun-Times, Can Cubs
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January 25, 2016 Chicago Sun-Times, Can Cubs' Kyle Schwarber do more than hit – and how long will it matter? http://chicago.suntimes.com/baseball/7/71/1272600/can-cubs-kyle-schwarber-hit-long-will-matter Daily Herald, Imrem: DH needs to stay out of NL http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20160124/sports/160129369/ Cubs.com, Bryant, Arrieta brave snow for BBWAA honors http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/162697684/kris-bryant-jake-arrieta-receive-bbwaa-awards Cubs.com, Whoo boy, it's Brickhouse's 100th birthday (Sunday) http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/162718020/jack-brickhouse-would-have-been-100-on-sunday CSNChicago.com, Adam Warren brings 'World Series or die' mentality from Yankees to Cubs http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/adam-warren-brings-world-series-or-die-mentality-yankees-cubs Chicago Tribune, New TV arrangement at forefront of Cubs' business decisions http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-tv-network-spt-0125-20160124-story.html Chicago Tribune, Change may be coming to National League, even if unnecessary and unwanted http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-dh-for-nl-sullivan-baseball-spt-0124-20160123- story.html -- Chicago Sun-Times Can Cubs' Kyle Schwarber do more than hit – and how long will it matter? By Gordon Wittenmyer After Cubs Convention, Kyle Schwarber headed back to Tampa, Fla., to continue an intense off-season conditioning program the Cubs hope will help transform him into an adequate enough major-league left fielder to keep his powerful bat in the lineup most days this season. Meanwhile four hours down the road in Coral Gables, Fla., baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, speaking to media during quarterly owners’ meetings, suggested the possibility of an even better way to keep Schwarber’s bat in the Cubs’ lineup: Adding the designated hitter to the National League – an idea often floated casually but rarely considered a realistic possibility by MLB powers, until now. “Twenty years ago, when you talked to National League owners about the DH, you’d think you were talking some sort of heretical comment,” Manfred, the second-year commissioner, said Thursday. “But we have a newer group. There has been turnover, and I think our owners in general have demonstrated a willingness to change the game in ways that we think would be good for fans, always respecting the history and traditions of the sport.” The comments came less than a week after Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak – whose team owner, Bill DeWitt Jr., is one of the most powerful owners in MLB – suggested momentum could be shifting toward the DH. And they came as baseball prepares to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement that would take effect in 2017. The players union has long supported the DH in both leagues, along with the presumably bigger contracts for those added lineup regulars. And with offensive numbers across baseball in recent seasons lower than at any time since the early 70s, the competitive climate is similar to when the DH was added in the AL in 1973. The Cubs already are considered by some the favorites to win the World Series this year, and to ride their wave of impressive young hitters through a lengthy run at contending. To be able to accommodate one more hitter in their lineup – one who could better handle Schwarber’s would-be position in the field – could make the DH a boon for the Cubs like no other team. “Obviously, we’re a team that has a lot of bats, and having another position to put one of those bats wouldn’t be a bad thing,” general manager Jed Hoyer said. “But this is more of an idea that’s being bandied about right now [by others]. Certainly, there’s no planning going on right now. Our planning is about improving [Schwarber’s] defense in left field, and getting him reps at catcher if we can do that. If that changes we’ll adjust.” Schwarber, who debuted last June during a week of interleague games with the DH, has been working this week at The Performance Compound in Tampa, a training facility that specializes in sport-specific programs for professional athletes. He’s also been doing yoga this off-season, he said, to increase flexibility. And he’s worked on footwork and routes in the outfield. “I’m focusing on just getting a better first step, being more explosive, getting more flexible, being agile, things like that,” said Schwarber, who looks the part of the all-state linebacker he was in high school. Schwarber, who was drafted as a catcher, is especially raw behind the plate. But he is sneaky fast and athletic enough to suggest competence in left with experience, something he already has been trying to enhance by picking the brain of Gold Glove newcomer Jason Heyward. “This kid is unbelievably athletic,” Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez said during Cubs Convention. “He comes up to me all the time and says, `Hey, let me steal, let me steal.’ I say, `Relax, baby steps.’ “But this guy is a team player. He’ll do anything we ask him to do. OF course, he wants to do both. He thinks he can catch and play the outfield.” As much raw power as Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant has, Schwarber’s tape-measure shots from the left side into the river in Pittsburgh and onto the right-field video board in October inspire visions of a bat that could become the most feared in a lineup teeming with strong, young hitters. But getting him full-time at-bats could be mad-scientist manager Joe Maddon’s biggest trick of the 2016 season, between matchups, left field and catching assignments that will go nowhere near the vicinity of top-three rotation horses Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester or John Lackey. “I feel right now I have to get better at both positions, for me to continue on, to help this team win,” Schwarber said. “Whatever it is, whatever they want me to do, I’m all in, I’m all for it.” -- Daily Herald Imrem: DH needs to stay out of NL By Mike Imrem Uh-oh, better hide all the women, children and baseball traditionalists indoors. Trouble is a-brewin' again. Reports last week indicated that the designated hitter is threatening to come to a National League ballpark near you. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred dropped a hint and raised a trial balloon: NL owners might be weakening in their distaste for the DH. Two things are assumed about the news. First, Chicago Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber is the player who would benefit the most if the NL adopted the DH rule. Second, Schwarber is the player who would dislike it the most if the NL adopted the same DH rule that the AL has had since 1973. OK, maybe each of those is more a guess than a fact. First, maybe other players in Major League Baseball would be more suited than Schwarber to be designated hitters. Second, maybe Schwarber would prefer becoming a one-dimensional player who could spend most of a game in the clubhouse smoking cigarettes, chowing down on doughnuts and phoning his stock broker. Under the DH rule, Schwarber would be out of sight except for those 4 at-bats and 15 minutes -- that long only if he reached base at least once -- he would be on the field. But the impression that Schwarber left us with after his 2015 rookie season was that he is the kind of athlete who would want to be more than a 15-minutes-of-fame-per-game kind of guy. All of which magnifies one of the many problems with the designated hitter rule: The DH turns select players -- whether they like it or not -- into half-athletes. Baseball players have a hard enough time being categorized with players in football, basketball and hockey. Some pitchers look like big tubs of guts on the mound. Some left fielders look like they haven't moved a muscle all season. Some second basemen look like they could use a bowl of steroids for breakfast. Seriously, sometimes some baseball players are more like golfers who can perform with a little bit of a belly after pouring a big bit of beer into themselves the night before. But for a century or so, even those baseball players had to figure out how to play both sides of the ball if they wanted to be big-leaguers. As great as some Hall of Famers were as hitters, before the DH they had to play a position on defense to be more than a pinch hitter at an advanced age. If they were outfielders, catchers or third basemen, they might have moved to first base to prolong their careers. Then the American League instituted the designated hitter in 1973 and, say, a Frank Thomas was allowed to become one-sided. Thomas could have continued to be a full-time first baseman. But he declined out of fear of embarrassing himself in the field, and the DH gave him a way out. Schwarber -- a big, stocky, powerful man built like a linebacker -- doesn't seem to be similarly inclined. For now, Schwarber is working his rock-solid butt off to earn the privilege of cracking the Cubs' lineup as a catcher or left fielder. Schwarber is a good enough athlete with a good enough work ethic to eventually succeed on defense. My goodness, what a shame it would be if Schwarber in his early 20s was converted to designated hitter. It would be like telling Elton John that he can sing but he might as well stop practicing on the piano.