Kyle Schwarber Watch has officially begun.
With Kris Bryant and Addison Russell playing every day in Chicago, Schwarber is the top prospect remaining in the Cubs system.
And he's playing like it.
[SHOP: Gear up, Cubs fans]
The 22-year-old slugger is hitting .322/.440/.585 (1.025 OPS) with 13 homers, 39 RBI and a 39:46 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 54 games with Double-A Tennessee.
That actually put him slightly ahead of Bryant's pace at the level. Through the first 45 games at Double-A, Bryant posted a 1.054 OPS with 12 homers while Schwarber also hit 12 homers, but posted a 1.087 OPS.
With the hot start to the season, Schwarber now has 31 homers, 92 RBI and a 1.046 OPS in the last calendar year - 126 games of professional baseball since the Cubs selected him fourth overall in last June's MLB Draft.
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What's his secret?
"It just goes back to what my approach is at the plate, just trying to keep it simple," Schwarber told Smokies broadcaster Mick Gillispie. "Getting my pitch and when I do get my pitch, take advantage of it.
"When things do get bad, that's when you have to really lock in and go back to your approach - keep it simple and keep it stupid and just do what you do best. It's just baseball."
Schwarber was named the Cubs' minor league player of the month for May and has been hitting so well, many thought he would be called up to serve as the big-league's designated hitter during a stretch of games in American League parks starting this week.
Schwarber hasn't been called up (yet), but he insists he's not concerned with his timeline or when the next promotion may come. He's just keeping his head down and playing baseball, focusing on the task at hand.
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On the final day of the 2015 Draft Wednesday, the Cubs took a pair of Schwarber's former battery mates at Indiana in back-to-back rounds (Jake Kelzer and Scott Effross in Rounds 14 and 15).
When the Cubs drafted Schwarber a year ago out of IU, there were major questions about whether he could stick at catcher or not. Schwarber insists he can hang at the position and the Cubs are giving him every chance to prove it, as he's only played catcher or DH so far this season.
The questions about Schwarber's defense behind the plate haven't gone away and the slugger knows he has plenty to learn, even if his bat is close to being big-league ready.
"Everything behind the plate is all a challenge," Schwarber told Gillispie. "You're always trying to think along with your pitcher, you're always trying to think what the best pitch is or what count to get this guy out or what are we going to do to set this guy up.
"Controlling the baserunning game - that's a big emphasis I want to improve on. Receiving, blocking, everything about that position is vital and it translates to the game, so you have to be really clean in all parts of that position."
Check out more from Schwarber's interview with Gillispie in the video above.