For most of the early part of the 2015 season, outfielder Albert Almora Jr. was flying high. His father, Albert Sr., was in remission from his prostate cancer diagnosis and surgery from the year before and the younger Almora, with his mind clear, was making a jump for the Double-A Tennessee Smokies and showing why the Chicago Cubs picked him with the sixth pick of the 2012 MLB Draft back in 2012.
“I felt so comfortable,” Almora Jr. said. “My mind was at ease. Things at home were great. It made it a lot easier. When you come to the field and just have to worry about the field work and not have to check your phone to make sure nothing is going on at home.”
Albert Almora Jr. at-bats 5.28.2015: http://t.co/6W3OddJDVH via @YouTube
— CubsProspectWatch (@CubsFutures) June 1, 2015
But lately Almora Jr. has taken a step backward with an average that was plummeting before the All-Star break, from a high of nearly .300 in the first month of the season to .241 right before mid-summer vacation.
Almora Jr. has proven he could face adversity before. In fact, that’s what he did for most of the final month of last season when he was first called up to Double-A.
“To be honest, I had a lot going on last year,” Almora Jr. said. “On the field and off the field. I changed my swing half-way through last year. It was a lot. I thought it was one of my best years as a pro, because of what I had to go through on and off the field. I had to find myself off the field, then come back and try to perform. It was tough. I thought I did a really good job of handling myself. It was a positive year and I came back with a positive mentality.”
Almora Jr. worked on his approach, his stance, pretty much his entire offensive gameplan before spring training. Once teams were assigned, Smokies manager Buddy Bailey knew that the No. 7-ranked preseason prospect was due for a bounce-back season.
Albert Almora Jr. went 2-for-4 with a dinger tonight. #Cubs @smokiesbaseball Nice to see him back in the lineup.
— Born on Third (@BornOnThirdCubs) May 28, 2015
“He (Almora Jr.) is swinging the bat a lot better,” Bailey said back in April. “He had a lot better spring. The most at-bats he had going into last year was right around 300. Between Daytona and finishing the year here, he got over 500. I don’t think people, until you’ve done it, how demanding that is on your body and your mind, to double your plate appearances. Hitting has so much to do with your mental approach. He came in fresh and had a little bit of a different gameplan. He’s using more of the field.”
Almora Jr.’s stumbles might already be behind him. In the first game back from the All-Star break, he went’ 2-for-4 with an RBI against the Mobile BayBears, moving his average up to .245.
Drafted in the first round by the Cubs out of Mater Academy Charter School in Hialeah, Fla., Almora Jr. has glided though the Cubs’ minor league system with just the stumble at the end of last season. The pressure is on now to bring that average back up and get back on the national prospect radar. Almora Jr. can do it, because he’s already faced down worse, trying to play while his father battled cancer.
E5: Albert Almora Jr. clubs his second home run of the season to put Tennessee back in front. #PhatAlbert
Smokies 2, BayBears 1. #MOBvsTNS
— Smokies on Radio (@SmokiesOnRadio) May 28, 2015
“You’ve got to move forward,” Almora Jr. said. “I’m not making an excuse for myself, but it was something that was personal and difficult to go through. I got through that. Anything in life I can get through it. It’s part of the process for me. I’m ready to keep going.”
Prospect watch
Frank Batista’s time in Tennessee ended right after the All-Star game as the Cubs promoted him, his 7-2 record and his 1.70 ERA to the Triple-A Iowa Cubs on June 25. With Batista gone, right-hander Zach Cates was called up from High-A Myrtle Beach to get another shot at Double-A batters. Cates was 2-1 for the Pelicans with a 1.50 ERA.
With Kyle Schwarber gone, catcher Willson Contreras hasn’t slowed down at all. He’s still batting .327 and has a base hit in three of his last four game appearances and he pinch hit in the game he didn’t record a hit, so it barely should count.
