Imrem: Taking a wild swing at Baez-Cubs situation

The Cubs sent three notable prospects to the minors Monday, including the free-flailing Javier Baez.

The real surprise about Baez is that he was in the Cubs' big-league plans this year for as long as he was.

I already expressed disappointment that the Cubs were intent on dispatching Bryant to the minor-league camp.

Club president of baseball operations Theo Epstein insists that Bryant was sent down for baseball reasons rather than business reasons.

That's hard to believe, but it doesn't really matter.

Addison Russell, who looks like a real player, also is in minor league camp now, and he does need more seasoning.

So that takes care of Bryant and Russell, but Baez's situation begs more discussion.

The power-swinging middle infielder was promoted to Chicago last summer. This spring he had the second-base job to lose before he lost it.

Two questions: Did Baez ever look like a major-league hitter in 2014? Or like a major-league starter this spring?

Actually a third question is most relevant: What did the Cubs' developmental staff do with Baez during his four seasons in the minor leagues?

I know as much about dousing oil fires in the Gulf of Mexico as I do about hitting, but one look at Baez in the batter's box was enough to conclude that he couldn't get the bat to the ball with any regularity.

Baez's swing has so much movement that the bat looks like a baton and he looks like he's conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Still, Baez kept hitting home runs to the point the Cubs brought him to Wrigley Field to see whether big-league pitchers would expose him as a strikeout machine … which they did, of course.

Seriously, didn't any batting instructor in the minor leagues try to do anything about Baez's wild swing?

Maybe that's a cheap shot. Maybe they did work a lot on Baez's approach and mechanics.

If they did, though, and the results are what we saw, why was he rewarded with a promotion to the majors in the first place?

Apparently I don't understand the dynamics of player development.

This spring the Cubs reportedly attempted to get Baez to quit swinging at pitches that landed two counties away.

Still, Baez remained a whiff waiting to happen. Epstein says that the 22-year-old also remains a part of the Cubs' future, but that future looks a ways away.

Trust me, this isn't meant as a condemnation of the Cubs exclusively because it's a baseball epidemic. Young players on rosters from Boston to Anaheim and Miami to Seattle look like they never saw a fundamental they couldn't ignore.

During one of his final pregame media briefings in 2014, former Cubs manager Ricky Renteria said he would emphasize baserunning this spring. Sort of made you wonder how players could get to the majors without already knowing the basics of baserunning.

I was reminded of a conversation last decade when Brian Anderson was a hot outfield prospect with the White Sox. Anderson struggled with the bat, and a Sox coach told me they were working on eliminating some of his bad habits.

Silly me, I asked why that wasn't done when Anderson was coming up through the minors. The answer was that the Sox didn't want to give him too much to think about down there.

My response was the same then as it is now: Huh?

Anyway, wasn't the Cubs Way supposed to address issues like Javier Baez's swing before he reached the majors?

Just curious, that's all.

mimrem@dailyherald.com