Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly intrigued by watching Isaac Paredes

New Cubs third baseman Isaac Paredes has a unique hitting profile. Entering Saturday’s game against the Cardinals, Paredes had struck out only 15.9% of the time with just a 29.7% groundball rate. A dead pull hitter, he was hitting the ball to left or center field at an 86.1% clip, with all 16 of his home runs going to left.

Hitting coach Dustin Kelly is looking forward to working more with Paredes, who was acquired Sunday from the Rays for a package headlined by Christopher Morel.

“You’re kind of intrigued, how does this guy do this at this high of a level?” Kelly said. “You think it’s kind of one-dimensional but then you watch his at-bats.”

Though it wasn’t successful, one Paredes plate appearance Friday stood out to Kelly.

Facing Erick Fedde in the first inning, Paredes fell behind 1-2 before fouling off eight straight pitches. Though he did strike out when he swung through a 92.7 sinker, Paredes made Fedde work during the 12-pitch at-bat and showed off his approach at the plate.

“You see the bat-to-ball skills but then you also see there’s an attack that he has, and he has a presence in the box that if you make a mistake, he’s going to hit it hard to the pull side,” Kelly said. “I’m just excited to watch him compete.”

This and that
Keegan Thompson (right rib fracture) was scheduled to pitch Saturday at Triple-A Iowa. Thompson was placed on the 15-day injured list June 28 (retroactive to June 27).

Jordan Wicks (right oblique strain) threw live batting practice Friday, and the team said the session went “great.” Wicks has been on the IL since June 15.

- Pete Crow-Armstrong stole his 21st base Friday and hasn’t been caught. He tied the Tigers’ Quintin Berry in 2012 for the second-most consecutive successful stolen base attempts by a rookie to begin a season since 1951.

Oakland’s Mitchell Page stole 26 in a row to begin 1977.