Chicago Cubs: Javier Baez must seize momentum, make the leap

Chicago Cubs star second baseman Javier Baez has been on a tear in his last two games. Now, the Cubs need him to keep it up for a whole season.

I’m not even a Chicago Cubs fan by trade, but it’s hard not to love watching Javier Baez play baseball.

Yeah, sometimes he shows off a bit too much flair and needs a talking-to about his on-field mannerisms. I get that.

Being an excessively fun-loving, passionate baseball player will yield a few of those moments. And that’s fine as long as it doesn’t cost his team games or (overly) show up the competition.

But when Baez is on, he’s simply a special ballplayer. And over the last three games, he’s been on.

https://twitter.com/Cubs_Live/status/984233076682313728

As a Chicago sports fans, few things excite me more than seeing Baez hit a baseball and know he got every bit of it. And his four home runs in two days have given me more than enough eye candy from that standpoint.

More than that, though, it continues to remind us of what Baez’s capabilities as a player.

Sure, he gave fans a wonderful taste of it last season when he hit .273 with 23 home runs and 75 RBIs in 145 games.

But his plate discipline needed a ton of work (144 Ks in 2017) and still does (10 Ks in 43 plate appearances in 2018). And for a guy with his talent and base-running ability, he needs to be getting on base more (.317 OBP in 2017), which he has done to an extent early in 2018 (.372 OBP so far).

And even in this season, though it’s still early and sample sizes are small, he’s hardly blown the doors off aside from these last two games.

Coming into yesterday’s game, he was hitting just .194; now, he’s up to .229.

Even he knows he needs to be in better control, though he also doesn’t intend to change his game too much. Here’s what he said to The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney:

"I’m going to swing hard most of the time, but it’s something I don’t control, in a way. I try to stay under control, but it’s really hard for me. As long as I stay under control, I’ll be really good.”"

That he can be. Now, it’s time to do it.

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He’s not going to be perfect, and he’ll likely never be an extraordinarily disciplined hitter. He’s going to swing out of his shoes sometimes, Cubs fans. Just accept that now, and your Javier Baez experience will go that much smoother.

Joe Maddon even joked about Baez reaching base on a dropped third strike yesterday, saying he had his “John Daly” going. Yeah, I suppose it does look like that sometimes.

But his manager also knows he can be special if he refines his approach even a little bit.

"“His whole game is spectacular,” Maddon said. “Now as he matures as a hitter, I have no idea what he’s going to do, because he is one of the more exciting players in the game right now.”"

Next: Too early yet for White Sox panic

No kidding. And if his bat starts catching up to his potential this season, he could be one of the biggest difference-makers on this Chicago Cubs team.