The Cubs were anticipating good things from Javier Baez, who was ranked the No. 8 prospect in all of baseball by ESPN's Keith Law. Despite striking out three times in six at-bats last night against the Colorado Rockies, Baez came through when it mattered.
Trailing by two in the top of the seventh inning, the Cubs scored three runs off of Rockies reliever Tommy Kahnle to take a one-run lead. But the Rockies answered back in the bottom half of the inning and tied the game 4-4 with a home run from third baseman Nolan Arenado. The game went into extras and both teams scored in the 11th to make it 5-5, but an 0-for-5 Javier Baez would soon make his mark in the 12th inning.
Leading off the top of the 12th, Baez faced off against Colorado reliever Boone Logan. On the tenth pitch of the at-bat, the Cubs prospect took a Logan fastball deep to right field and gave the Cubs a 6-5 lead, which would end up being the final score. Baez's first major league hit was a game-winning opposite field home run on the road. Check it out in the video below, courtesy of MLB.com.
Baez's clutch piece of hitting has now raised speculation about the Cubs calling up their top prospect, as well as the MLB's top prospect, third baseman Kris Bryant. Bryant played with Baez at Triple-A Iowa for much of this season. He was promoted from Double-A Tennessee after batting a ridiculous .355 with 22 home runs and 58 RBIs in just 68 games. His numbers are just as dominant in Triple-A, as he has compiled a .321 average and .427 on base percentage with 14 home runs and 36 RBIs in 46 games. With the Cubs completely out of postseason contention, it's likely Bryant will be called up at some point before the season ends.
"We'll continue to add potential impact talent to our big-league club," said Epstein in a conference call with reporters. "That's ultimately what it's all about. We're not here to top the standings of the prospect rankings. We want to top the National League Central standings, and ultimately have a lot of opportunity in October and a lot of success in October."
The Cubs currently have Luis Valbuena at third base, who is batting .252 with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs. Valbuena is only being paid $1.71 million this year and is eligible for arbitration in 2015 and 2016, so the Cubs won't be losing much if they call up Bryant to take his spot at third base. However, the organization has also been mulling a position switch for Bryant to right field, but they're still unsure what they'll do with him.
You can read more about Javier Baez's MLB debut in this ESPN article.
