CHICAGO – Chicago Cubs catcher Kyle Schwarber is the latest first-year player to steal headlines after bursting onto the major league scene recently. But it wasn’t long ago that three other rookies made their debuts and now are entrenched as starters for the Cubs.

Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant and Addison Russell just completed their first halves, with mixed results. The arrow is pointing up for all three but of course that doesn’t mean there won’t be struggles along the way. All are expecting better second halves with an eye toward helping the Cubs to the postseason.

Soler

Injured for a month this season, it hasn’t completely clicked for him as his strikeout totals continue to climb. He hopes that will change over the final months.

“I’m making some adjustments with my stance and my decisions,” Soler said recently through an interpreter. “I’m doing better with that.”

Since coming back from an ankle injury, Soler’s strikeout to walk ratio is 4 to 1. That’s about the same as it was before the injury. In the minors that ratio was 1.6 to 1. Maybe he’s not walking as much because he’s not hitting home runs -- or vice versa. Showing off a little power can lead to the opposition pitching around you, while taking enough walks can also lead to them eventually throwing some strikes. Soler has just five long balls this season after finally launching one in Atlanta over the weekend for the first time since May 29.

“I know people want to show more power but it’s been harder for me to get balls up in the air this year,” he said. “I can’t explain that. Always trying to swing hard.”

According to ESPN Stats and Information, Soler’s hard-hit average is 16 percent, slightly higher than the league average, and his line-drive percentage is a robust 36 percent. The point is, when he makes contact good things happen, as evidenced by his .367 batting average on balls in play. But his .254 regular batting average and .313 on-base percentage are much less impressive than those interior statistics. His 87 strikeouts have been killer for a guy that makes so much hard contact. Soler has one stated goal for the second half.

“Be more consistent,” he said. "I’ll have a good at-bat, then the next day not so good. I hope to get a better result to help the team.”

Russell

After settling in at second base, Addison Russell wants to do the same at the plate.

“This second half I want to make sure I’m focused pitch-to-pitch and cut down on the strikeouts,” he said. “I want to keep taking walks.”

In six games since the break, Russell has four walks and five strikeouts. He’ll likely live with that ratio, considering he’s 3.4 to 1 strikeouts to walks for the season. He has 17 doubles but the gap power we saw earlier in the season hasn’t shown up as much lately.

“I didn’t have the half that I wanted, but I’d rather have that first half here in the big leagues and then take that failure and have it motivate me and get better for the future,” Russell said.

It all starts with that strikeout-to-walk ratio. The closer it can get to 2 to 1, the better hitter Russell will be.

Bryant

His case is the most interesting. July has not been kind to him as he's hitting just .194 with 23 strikeouts. But he’s still finding ways to contribute, as evidenced by his two-run double off the bench in Wednesday night’s 6-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Before that happened, he struggled with men on base in the first series after the break in Atlanta. Twice he struck out with a man on third and less than two outs.

“I know it’s impossible to sustain that,” Bryant said of his high batting average with men on-base. “You just have to take it for what it is. It’s part of the game. You’re not going to get the runner in every time but that’s what makes the game great.”

Some of his strikeouts have been perplexing because the numbers show Bryant is not expanding his strike zone; instead, he’s missing inside of it. According to ESPN Stats and Information, Bryant’s chase percentage (swings at balls outside the strike zone) this month is just 23.8 percent. That’s his lowest month so far.

But inside the zone Bryant has swung and missed at 27.7 percent of pitches this season, highest in the National League. In July, it’s even higher at 31.4 percent. And more than anything this month, he’s missing on fastballs. From April to June, Bryant missed on 14.9 percent of fastballs in the strike zone. But in July he’s nearly doubled that, missing on 28.1 percent. For perspective, the league average is 12.6 percent. Could he simply be fatigued considering he didn’t get much of an All-Star break? If he is, he thinks it’s only mental, as that’s his stated goal for the second half.

“Being more mentally prepared,” Bryant said. “Staying sharp and not worrying about the past or future too much. I can definitely do that. Stay in the present."