By all rights, the biggest star on the field during Thursday's exhibition between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels should have been the guy who played Ron Burgundy, Ricky Bobby and Lord Business.
Instead, Will Ferrell found himself playing second fiddle. Maybe even third fiddle. Or even fourth fiddle. Apparently, that can happen when you get the Cubs' three best prospects on the same field.
Yes, the Cubs did lose 10-9 to the Angels, running their spring training record to 1-7-1. But they didn't have to settle for Ferrell spending time at first base and in the third base coach's box as the highlight of their day. Not when they had Kris Bryant, Jorge Soler and Addison Russell doing what they did.
Bryant? He went 3-for-4 with a double and two home runs. And while neither of those home runs was a fence-scraper, there are few (any?) fences in the world that could have stopped the first of the two:
Soler? He also had a couple of hits Thursday afternoon. Included among them was a dinger of his own, and it also was no fence-scraper.
Because watching dingers is fun, let's watch that one too:
Russell? Sadly, he did not send a baseball into orbit. But he did collect three hits in three of his trips to the plate, driving in a run in the process.
So, in all, not a bad day for three guys who are at or near the top of virtually every ranking of baseball's top-100 prospects. And while we're on the topic, we might as well take it a step further.
Never mind a good day. These three guys are having darn good springs.
With Thursday's performance in the bag, Bryant is now hitting an even .500 with four home runs in only six games. Soler, meanwhile, pushed his spring average over .400 and is now sitting on two home runs in four games. Russell has also played in four games and pushed his average over .400.
If you've been waiting for it, here's the obligatory caveat: Yes, it is spring training. We're not going to take these numbers and try to make projections with them. That would be silliness upon silliness.
But we're going to give credit where credit is due. In this case, we have to hand it to Bryant, Soler and Russell for so far managing to do the seemingly impossible.
They're not just living up to the hype so far this spring. They're surpassing it.
If you look at MLB.com's top-100 prospects, you'll find Bryant, Soler and Russell all within the top 23. Bryant tops all other third basemen, and Soler tops all other right fielders. Only Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa top Russell among shortstops, but Baseball Prospectus' top 101 will beg to differ there.
No matter which way you slice it, these three guys are the big reason why the Cubs farm system is viewed as baseball's best. Among those who have it ranked No. 1 is ESPN.com's Keith Law, who wrote that the Cubs have "the strongest collection of top-shelf hitting prospects I can remember since I started working in baseball."
Given what we've seen, it's easy to consider all this now and just day, "Duh."
But coming into spring training, big hype like this meant big pressure—by spring training standards, anyway. Had Bryant, Soler and Russell come in and looked overmatched, at least a few somebodies out there would have been wringing their hands at the thought that maybe it was all too much too soon.
Nope. Thanks to what they've done so far, this is a rare moment where we get to sit back and appreciate some prospect buzz for being eerily and most-welcoming-ly accurate.
In the wake of Bryant's 1.098 OPS+, 43-homer season in the minors last year, we heard a lot about how easily he makes hard contact and how his home run power was of the booming variety. Every ball he's hit this spring has proved these points, and I'm obliged to tip my hat to Harry Pavlidis of Baseball Prospectus for speaking the truth about Bryant's dingers:
Not only is Bryant a flat-out stud on the field, but he also has a good head on his shoulders off it, according to new Cubs manager Joe Maddon in a chat with Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago:
The thing that I like is how he is (as a person). That's, to me, the difference. If he had a different personality, if he didn't quite get it, I would be thrilled about his tools. But maybe not as thrilled about what he might be able to do in our game.
But you combine how he is and who he is with that skill level, then you get really excited.
As for Soler, he actually provided a taste of what he could do with what they all said was elite bat speed plus raw power. He came up to the majors last September and hit .292 with a .903 OPS+ and five home runs in 24 games.
What he's done this spring is effectively pick up right where he left off, signaling that the Cubs were right to take for granted that he was ready to play right field in 2015.
With Bryant and Soler hogging the attention, it's no wonder that Russell has managed to fly under the radar. But his minor league batting line of .295/.350/.508 is no joke by shortstop standards, and that was largely a product of, in MLB.com's words, "explosive bat speed" and "a knack for barreling the ball."
You know, like this:
It's one thing to read about what these guys can do. It's another thing entirely to see it. If nothing else, their early spring dominance has at least been good for that.
And for now, it probably will be just that. Exciting though it's been, Chicago's plans presumably haven't changed.
We know Soler has a job waiting for him in right field at the end of spring training, but Bryant and Russell are more than likely going to have to wait. Starlin Castro is blocking Russell at shortstop, and he's not really involved in the battle for second base. As hard as it is to argue against the idea of the Cubs opening 2015 with Bryant at the hot corner, Grantland's Michael Baumann can tell you all about how MLB's service time rules are a word that rhymes with "pitch."
But for anyone who feels like it, times like these make it OK to dream big.
If all goes well, before long the Cubs will have Bryant at third, Russell at short and Soler in right field and in the middle of their lineup next to Anthony Rizzo. If they're lucky, Javier Baez will cut down on his whiffs and reclaim his former prospect hype as the Cubs' starting second baseman. A year or two down the line, Albert Almora could join them in center field.
That sounds like a scary team. It probably will be a scary team. Certainly, it will be the kind of team the Cubs haven't had in a while: one worth watching.
And the best part? We'll be able to say we first knew it would happen on a day when one of the biggest movie stars on the planet could only be a side act.
Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference unless otherwise noted/linked.
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