MLB Daily: Addison Russell Called Up by Cubs; Brewers Season Gets Worse; Hawk is Happy

Welcome to MLB Daily on a Tuesday, a place where we promise not to drop 77 f-bombs on you…

Welcome to the Show: Without as much fanfare — or tedious debates of MLB’s collective bargaining agreement — the Cubs called up uber/mega/super shortstop prospect Addison Russell. Best guess is Russell takes over the black hole at second base at Wrigley currently manned by Arismendy Alcantara. Long term, the Cubs will need to decide if Russell is a shortstop — obviously he’s not going to supplant Kris Bryant (remember him?) at third or Anthony Rizzo at first. That means something will eventually happen with Starlin Castro, especially with Javy Baez waiting to play second base in the minors.

Castro, who’s garnering glowing reviews for his defense this season, figures to be the most-likely player traded. For now the Cubs seem content to roll with a Castro-Russell middle infield, and why not? The team is 7-5 and on schedule to contend.

How good is Russell? By all accounts — aka the people who get paid to grade prospects — Russell, acquired from the A’s in the Jeff Samardzija deal is a Top 5-rated player. Only 21, he’s posted a .301/.377/.520 line across parts of four seasons in the minors. Maybe the best part of Russell’s line is 104 walks compared to 229 strikeouts.

Russell should be good. The question for the Cubs is will all of their highly-touted young players all “come together” at once and propel the woebegone franchise to a World Series? Baseball is a weird sport, mind. Russell, Bryant, Rizzo, Jorge Soler, et al could each post outstanding numbers, but doesn’t guarantee the Cubs anything in the standings.

There isn’t much recent precedent, either, for what the Cubs are doing. Between 2010-2014 Chicago lost at least 87 games, guaranteeing high draft picks — Bryant was the No. 2 overall pick in 2013, for example. My mind immediately thought of the 1995 Cleveland Indians as a team that had a host of young players coming through together and burst onto the scene at once, but that Albert Belle/Carlos Baegra/Kenny Loften core consisted of guys in their mid-20s, with only Manny Ramirez checking in at a “young” 23. For the Cubs Rizzo at 25 is the elder statesman of the new core. The Mets had their so-called Generation K of Bill Pulsipher, Jason Isringhausen and Paul Wilson, but all three pitchers never lived up to their (New York media) hype.

However it shakes out, it’ll be fascinating if these high picks and blue chip prospects all translate not only to good numbers, but wins. If nothing else, this approach seems more viable than some of the Cubs’ past rebuilding efforts, which included throwing big money at Alfonso Soriano and other free agents who didn’t pan out.

Anyways, here’s Kris Bryant “Little League Home Run” vs. the Pirates last night.

How about us? Chicago was the offseason baseball capital of the world thanks to all the Cubs chatter and the White Sox free agent splurge. Maybe in a couple weeks, we’ll look back at Monday as a turning point for both Windy City clubs. Earlier in the day the White Sox called up Carlos Rodon, the No. 3 pick in the 2014 draft. The former NC State pitcher struck out 51 over 34+ minor league innings. Figure he’ll be used as a late-inning weapon initially before joining the rotation.

That news was followed by a stunning four-run bottom of the ninth that saw key hits from Gordon Beckham (!) and the winner driven in by Melky Cabrera, prompting a good ol’ fashioned “you’ve got to be bleeping me” from the Hawk.

Chicago is now 5-7, but trailing both Detroit and Kansas City which are jointly off to the best starts in baseball at 11-2 and 10-3 respectively.

More bad news, Brewers: If it wasn’t already bad enough for the 2-11 Brewers, the team lost Scooter Gennett to a freak shower injury and now All-Star catcher Jonathan Lucroy to a broken toe. Yes it’s a long season and maybe the Brewers can pull a reverse of 2014 and play better in the second half, but they’re already seven games behind the Cardinals. Big picture they’re chasing St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Chicago in the division over the next couple years.

Kyle Lohse and Francisco Rodriguez are probably already on the block, but it’s doubtful GM Doug Melvin is going to find any takers for Matt Garza and the three years left on his contract. If Milwaukee wants to tear it down completely and start over, maybe they’ll see how much they can get for Carlos Gomez, who is a free agent after 2016 with a very attractive $9 million deal.

Oh Twins: This is not how you play defense:

Last rites: Presented sans comment:

This & That: The only team above .500 in the American League West? The Houston Astros! … Royals Brazlian-born outfielder Paulo Orlando has seven hits — five are triples. … Miguel Cabrera hit into a pair of GIDPs off CC Sabathia last night. He also grounded out 6-4-3 on a non-double play. Watch here if you want. Speed is not the Big Man’s game. … MLB Network will debut it’s “Stat Cast” tonight in the Cards-Nationals game. It could be cool, so long as it doesn’t feel like a gimmick in practice. … Fortunately, it sounds like the fan struck by a foul tip off the bat of Starlin Castro last night at PNC Park is okay. There’s a good nugget in that link between A.J. Burnett and umpire Joe West worth reading about how they feel about fans. … The Angels reportedly have a plan in place to bring back Josh Hamilton in early June once he’s recovered from his shoudler injury, but methinks it won’t be as cut and dried as that.

Memory Lane: In honor of Bryan Price’s outburst with the media yesterday, here’s Hal McRae flipping out circa 1993 in the manager’s office at Kauffman Stadium:

[Yodwerk]