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| Shortstop Starlin Castro |
If there's one thing for sure about this infield, it's that the times are a-changin' at Wrigley. None of the four starters on the infield from just two years ago are still in the organization. On Opening Day 2010, Derrek Lee started at first base, Mike Fontenot started at second, Ryan Theriot started at shortstop, and Aramis Ramriez started at third. Lee, Fontenot, and Theriot were all traded midseason; Ramirez played through 2011 before leaving as a free agent and signing with Milwaukee. The starters now are less familiar to the Cubs faithful, a younger group that will work hard all the same.
Starting at first base, for the time being, will be 29-year-old Bryan LaHair, a career minor leaguer who has had very little playing time in the majors. In fact, the only major league action he's seen besides last year's 20-game trial was in 2008 with Seattle.
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| First baseman Bryan LaHair |
LaHair has a chance to prove he should have been in the major leagues all along, however, if he produce with his massive power potential. He has hit at least 25 homers in each of the last three seasons in the minors in AAA, including 38 last year to make him the Pacific Coast League MVP. He also boasted a .331 average and a .405 OBP, rounding out an excellent season overall. This hard work earned him a trip to the major league Cubs, and he didn't disappoint, blasting a huge game-tying home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to ruin Cincinnati pitcher Mike Leake's shutout.
With LaHair, the power potential is there. His defensive and all-around offensive skills, however, remain to be seen at the major league level. He will most definitely have to make adjustments as the season goes on; pitchers aren't going to leave a hitter like this with too many fastballs in the middle of the plate. His key will be hitting breaking pitches; namely curveballs, which he seemed to have some trouble with last season.
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| First baseman Anthony Rizzo |
LaHair is exciting in his own right, but top prospect Anthony Rizzo is waiting in the wings to steal his job. Rizzo was acquired from San Diego for another top prospect in starter Andrew Cashner. Rizzo has monster power potential as well. Last season he hit .331 with 26 homers and 101 RBIs for AAA Tucson in only 93 games. The Theo & Jed brain trust resonate well with Rizzo, as Theo drafted him in Boston, then traded him to Jed in San Diego in the Adrian Gonzalez trade, and now they have gotten him back together.
Some critics point to his major league trial in 2011 and raise red flags on his potential. In 153 at-bats
Rizzo batted only .141 with one home run, and I think all of the hype surrounding himself may have gotten to him. That is not enough playing time for him to be judged on his future. He still has the most polished talent of any prospect in the Cubs' system right now, and he'll make an impact soon. The Cubs brass has said he'll start the season in the minors, but he hopes to change their minds with a strong Spring Training.
At second base, the story one year ago was the battle between Blake DeWitt and Darwin Barney. There was DeWitt, the chronic underachiever in the big leagues who offered little offensive value and not as much effort as you would like on the field, and Barney, the younger option who was unknown offensively. I endorsed Barney, and I'm still glad with that choice. Although Barney isn't a great hitter, he made great contact last year and showed 100% effort all the time, using his superior athleticism.
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| Second baseman Darwin Barney |
I expect Barney's offense to continue to improve after it tailed off at the end of last season. DeWitt's role this season, if there is one for the major league Cubs, remains to be seen. He saw time at second base, third base, and left field last season and should again play numerous positions. His .385 career slugging percentage shows he doesn't have hardly any pop in that bat; if he wants to make himself more valuable to the team, I suggest he become more patient to draw more walks and get on base.
I also like what I've seen and heard about second baseman Adrian Cardenas, who could oust DeWitt for the utility role. Cardenas has never played in the major leagues but did play left field, shortstop, third base, and second base for AAA Sacramento in the Oakland A's system. He is two years younger than DeWitt at 25 and was claimed off waivers from Oakland earlier this month. To make room on the 40-man roster, DeWitt was designated for assignment.
Cardenas has a career .303 average and a .368 OBP in the minors, both good marks for a middle infielder. Overall, if the Cubs are going younger and newer, Cardenas is the guy that should make the roster.
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| Second baseman Adrian Cardenas |
As shortstop, the situation isn't nearly as confusing. The cornerstone of the franchise (for now, at least) is the shortstop Starlin Castro who will be entering just his third season in the major leagues. After a superb, All-Star 2011 season in which he nabbed the NL hits crown, Castro looks to build both offensively and defensively to become an MVP candidate sometime in the future. Despite being super-athletic, agile and speedy, he has a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball.
Offensively, he needs to develop more power to take his game to the next level. If he could reach 20 homers per season, he would be in the same conversation as elite shortstops like Hanley Ramirez. Defensively, he definitely needs to work on his accuracy. He can fire the ball across the diamond like any other raging 22-year-old, but finding the glove is obviously key. If he could even get his arm accuracy into the average range, his wide range at shortstop would make him an elite defender overall. This kid doesn't need too many days off, but Dale Sveum should sit him at least once a month. He was only yanked from a game after starting it once last year and that was in the 12th inning, so I wouldn't expect to see much of that, either.
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| Third baseman Ian Stewart |
At third base, newcomer Ian Stewart will get the bulk majority of the playing time. Stewart replaces the long-standing Aramis Ramirez who spent over eight seasons at the hot corner for the Cubs. Stewart is coming off a horrible 2011 in which he didn't hit any homers in 48 games for Colorado. He was highly-regarded as a prospect in the Rockies system, however, and hit 25 homers for the 2009 Wild Card champion team. In Baseball America's 2005 prospect rankings, Stewart was #4 overall with vast power potential, coming off a 30-homer season in A ball at the age of 19! In that same 2004 season he threw in 19 steals and a .398 OBP, but he hasn't been able to match that success since. He has still been good with home run totals in the high teens, but couldn't recreate that monster season.
Stewart returned to the minors in 2011 for the first time since 2008. He definitely showed that his injuries hadn't erased his talent with 14 homers and 42 RBIs in only 45 games, and he does walk more than most third basemen. If he can unlock his power potential he showed early in his career and in 2009, this 27-year-old could be primed for a career year.
Cardenas and Jeff Baker should provide backup here. I have never been a fan of Baker's because he's such a non-factor offensively, but I do have to admit that he has nice value to give lefties a day off against a lefty starter. Baker has drastic righty-lefty splits, and his numbers against lefties are far more impressive. In his career he's batting .309 against lefties and .239 against righties, while slugging a respectable .526 against lefties but only .364 against righties. Of the 11 home runs he has hit while on the Cubs over two and a half seasons, all but one have come off a southpaw.
Well, there will be a lot of new faces around the infield this summer for the Cubs. Of the seven players mentioned here, three were acquired this winter. It's definitely a younger group, as Baker, 30, is the oldest player out of the entire group. Although losing one of the team's core players over the last decade in Ramirez was a big loss to some, it was the right move in the long run. The team needs to get younger and more athletic to build its own culture. If Ramirez were one of the 'nice guys' of baseball and pledged to help the young kids learn the ropes, we might have a different story. But then again, Carlos Pena is a 'nice guy', and he was let go of anyway. It's up to the 22-year-old Castro to welcome his new teammates in. He should get used to them too, because most of them are here to stay.
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