Sept. 09--During his 36 years as a teacher, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon noticed that some players have been able to improve their defense through extra work.
"It's a matter of work and technique," Maddon said Wednesday.
And then there is Javier Baez, who made three exceptional plays Tuesday night in his second start at third base and has displayed his defensive prowess at shortstop -- his natural position -- and second base.
"He falls out of bed and can play defense," Maddon said. "It's incredible to watch how smooth he is and how comfortable he is at all these different positions. His arm, how smooth he is -- he's just different. I don't know if we've had anyone quite that comfortable on the infield, especially at that age (22).''
Although shortstop is Baez's natural position, Maddon said there haven't been any plans to move Addison Russell back to second, where he excelled for 3 1/2 months before replacing Starlin Castro at shortstop.
"I really like (Russell) at shortstop," Maddon said. "I like Javy's ability to move around. I really like him to give (Russell) a day off, but we have not spoken at all about doing anything differently.
"But Javy is showing he's capable of doing all that. I'm certain he'd be a good outfielder too. But when a guy can play that kind of game on the dirt, you want to keep him there.''
