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Usually, when players are sent from the major leagues to the minor leagues, they have 72 hours to report to the minor-league club.
Kyle Schwarber, who was optioned to Triple-A Iowa Thursday, isn’t just any random player heading to the minors, and according to Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register, Kyle’s going to get some extra time to report:
Players have 72 hours to report to the minors after a demotion. But Schwarber is getting some extra time and won’t be joining Iowa, which is in the middle of a series at Round Rock.
Iowa begins a homestand at Principal Park on Monday and Schwarber is expected to be with the team then.
This makes sense. It’ll give Kyle some time to find a place in Des Moines, and maybe give him a bit of time to “reset” himself from what has been a rough season for him offensively.
Iowa’s homestand lasts seven games, then they head to Oklahoma City for a three-game series, then they’re back in Des Moines for three more before the Pacific Coast League takes its All-Star break. (I still can’t quite get used to a team in the middle of Iowa being in the “Pacific Coast League,” but there it is.)
It could be that Schwarber will rejoin the Cubs in Baltimore after the All-Star break; that’s a series in which he could serve as the Cubs’ DH. I was reminded yesterday of Joe Maddon’s “Tommy Tutone” lineup with the Rays in 2014 in which he ordered the first seven hitters (DH = 0) in the order of the numbers of the song “867-5309”:
Jenny, @RaysJoeMaddon's got your number. Tonight's #Rays batting order (by position) starts 867-5309: pic.twitter.com/m87PirbvKM
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) July 3, 2014
You know, if Joe wanted to swap Anthony Rizzo out of the No. 1 spot in the lineup for a day, he could do something like this with the Cubs:
Jay CF
Russell SS
Zobrist LF
Bryant 3B
Rizzo 1B
Schwarber DH
Heyward RF
Contreras C
Baez 2B
That’s actually a not bad, workable lineup. I find myself hoping Joe will do it, at least for one game.