Cubs watch Patterson's return closely
Patterson was recalled on Tuesday from Triple-A Iowa, where the Cubs hoped he'd get back on track after hitting .232 in 83 games with the big-league club. He was sent to Iowa on July 7.
"It was getting back to concentrating on playing baseball," Patterson said Tuesday. "It's the same thing I'm going to do up here is what I was doing down there, and that's it."
Patterson, who turns 26 on Saturday, hit .297 in 24 games for Iowa with four doubles, five homers and 12 RBIs. He was 3-for-3 with two home runs and four RBIs on Monday against Tucson and finished his Minor League stint with a six-game hitting streak, going 12-for-22.
Chicago optioned shortstop Ronny Cedeno to Iowa to make room on the roster for Patterson. Cedeno saw limited playing time with the Cubs and will play every day at Iowa, where he was batting .371 with 12 doubles, one triple and seven home runs in 52 games before getting called up.
Patterson's return will be watched closely. The Cubs want to see if he's able to regain the swing that resulted in a .298 average in 2003.
"I know what's there," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "We've seen very good, good, fair, not so good. We know what's in there. We hope his brief hiatus to Triple-A helped him.
"I urged him to start his season over again. If you start from where you left off, it's a little downer. Let's see how good he does these last six, seven weeks."
Patterson batted second at Iowa but was seventh in Tuesday's lineup against the Cincinnati Reds.
Patterson worked with Minor League hitting instructor Dave Keller and Iowa hitting coach Pat Listach, who reported every other day to Cubs hitting coach Gene Clines on the outfielder's progress. Baker checked in when Patterson was first assigned to Iowa, then left him alone.
"We kind of wanted to leave him alone, let him do his own thing, let him grow," Baker said.
"I think by the time he landed, Corey was over the initial disappointment that anyone would have who played the last two, three years in the big leagues of going down," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry added.
"I think he took it exactly for what it was. It wasn't a punishment; it wasn't, 'Oh, you're failing, so we're going to send you out.' It was done for the long haul for his own good. We didn't think he could get out of the funk that he was in up here, even if he was playing part-time or working hard or sitting a few days out."
The Cubs wanted Patterson to lower his hands and be more flexible in his stance. They want him to make better contact and reduce his strikeouts.
Patterson said he didn't expect to be called up when center fielder Jerry Hairston was injured. Hairston was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Friday with a torn ligament in his left elbow.
"I didn't think anything," Patterson said. "I was so focused on what I was doing down there. I felt bad for Jerry because he's been doing well, but I didn't think one way or the other."
Asked if his confidence was back, Patterson said he had no comment.
"I'm here to do what I was doing, and that's it," he said.
"Whenever you're adjusting things and trying to find things, it's not an overnight process," Baker said. "It's a rebuilding process, and that's exactly what that means. When you're rebuilding something, it takes a while. When you're remodeling, it takes time, too. The No. 1 thing is, we need his defense in center field, and hopefully he'll contribute a whole lot offensively."
Hairston had made the majority of starts in center until he was hurt, and the Cubs tried Jose Macias and Jeromy Burnitz there.
Baker said Matt Williams benefited from a trip to the Minors when he was with the San Francisco Giants. Was this a good experience for Patterson?
"I really have no comment on that," Patterson said. "I just went down there and focused on getting into a routine, and I'll take what I did down there back up here."
Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com.