Top Cubs prospect Torres continues tear

When Gleyber Torres struggled at the plate in April, it was a case of a 19-year-old getting too eager.

"He doesn't even know the potential he has," Class A Advanced Myrtle Beach hitting coach Mariano Duncan said. "These young kids, sometimes they can get excited, and he tried to pull the ball too much."

The Cubs' top prospect was coached out of that habit at the beginning of May, and the results speak for themselves.

Torres went 3-for-5 with a homer and two stolen bases on Wednesday, helping the Pelicans beat the Mudcats, 6-2, and giving him a .322 average for the month, compared to a .179 mark in April.

"Our hitting coordinators, Andy Haines and Tommy Beyers, came to Myrtle Beach and we made a little change with Gleyber to get him hitting to the middle of the field," Duncan said. "He's a player who can hit to the opposite field for power and hit in the middle of the field. We worked with him on that, and so far it's paid off. That kid, I'm very satisfied with the way he's hitting the ball."

Torres, MLB.com's No. 24 overall prospect, has recorded nine multi-hit games this month, including four with three knocks. He's also had six hitless games, which Duncan believes is because pitching staffs have made successful adjustments to their game plans against him.

"Sometimes you face some good pitchers. When I used to play and also now that I'm coaching, I don't give too much credit to pitchers, but sometimes you have to," the former Major League infielder said. "Those pitchers in this league have done a good job against him. He gets two or three hits one day and the next day the pitcher locates the pitch in the right way against him and he goes 0-for-3, 0-for-4. You have to give those pitchers some credit."

The Venezuelan-born shortstop was serving as the Pelicans' designated hitter and batting out of the No. 2 spot. He went yard to left field off Carolina starter Zach Quintana in his first at-bat, giving him five homers on the season.

"Today, when we walked to the cage, I got all the hitters together because yesterday we played 14 innings and scored three runs. I told everybody, including him, 'Look for No. 1. If you can't hit a fastball, you can't play at any level. Look for a fastball and make an adjustment for a breaking ball,'" Duncan said. "Some of these young guys, as soon as the pitcher throws the first breaking ball, they change their approach and start looking for a breaking ball. You have to look for a fastball the whole at-bat. That's my whole philosophy about hitting.

"Gleyber was looking for a fastball and he got a breaking ball, and he hit it out so easy. He came up to me after, 'Hey, that's so true what you said -- I wasn't looking for a changeup and I still hit it out.'"

Torres had an infield hit in the seventh and lined another single to left in the ninth. His coaches said they were pleased to see him put together competitive at-bats from the start of the game through the finish.

"That's the one thing that me and Buddy Bailey, our manager, just talked about today," Duncan said. "I talked to Gleyber, because sometimes in his first two at-bats he gets hits and then he goes 0-for-3 for the rest of the game. If you're 2-for-2, you have to try to be 3-for-3. You have to get it in your mind that you're going to get a hit every at-bat. But you've got to realize he's only 19 years old. He doesn't show everything yet, but he's going to be an unbelievable player."

The hitting coach dismissed the notion that Torres, who's batting .256/.324/.435, would find it easier to focus on his at-bats as a designated hitter than as a shortstop.

"Not at all, because he doesn't want to be that kind of player," Duncan said. "What happened today, we try to give him a break sometimes and the manager decided he would DH, and that way somebody else can play shortstop, too. Tomorrow, Ian Happ will be the DH and somebody else will play second base. That's what we do to give them some time off and keep them fresh the whole season."

Happ, the Cubs' third-ranked 3 prospect (No. 71 overall), singled, walked and scored a run. He had three hits on Tuesday and appears to have recovered from an 0-for-15 funk from May 3-7 to boast a .280 batting average and .385 on-base percentage.

"He's got to stay positive. That kid, one thing that I like about Ian Happ, he hits for power from both sides of the plate, gap to gap. A switch-hitter like that, that's very special," Duncan said. "His mom and dad did an unbelievable job raising that kid because he comes to the ballpark every single day prepared to play. You're going to see him play a long time. He's a baseball player. He has the potential to hit for average and to hit for power."

Braxton Davidson, the Braves' No. 15 prospect, was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and a run scored for the Mudcats.