Burke finds groove

It's a nine-hour trip from Peoria, Ill., where he spent much of the spring and all of the summer, to Chattanooga, but the trip flew by for Kyler Burke.

"I was ready to get home and was going to drive through the night," Burke said.

He might as well have been on a jet, because time flew after he got a call from the Chicago Cubs front office to notify him that he had been selected as the organization's minor league player of the year.

"I was surprised. You hear about those awards, but you don't talk or even think about them," Burke said. "It was a good thing to hear. It let me know I'm on their radar. There are a lot of great players in the organization that had great years, so to be recognized like that is a neat thing."

There were times when he wondered if he'd made the right decision when he spurned a Vanderbilt scholarship to sign a professional baseball contract. The money that accompanies first-round draft selection aside, Burke worried that he might have been helped by three or four years of college life before assuming the life of a paid-to-play athlete.

He struggled in his first three years, hitting no better than .261 after being a high-average and homer-hitting outfielder and heat-throwing left-handed pitcher at Ooltewah High School.

"The first two seasons I would like to have done well, but in the long run think it will help," Burke said. "I struggled and then had some success. I feel like I'm where I need to be."

He's home now but will head to spring training in February knowing that at worst he'll be with the Cubs' high-A team in Daytona, Fla., and that he might go to their AA affiliate in Kodak, Tenn., near Sevierville.

"They have talked to me about skipping a level, and my goal is to make Double-A coming out of spring," Burke said, "but it's a numbers game. I could start out in Daytona and move up."

Burke earned the promotion with career highs at Peoria. He batted .303 with 15 home runs, 43 doubles, three triples, 89 RBIs, 93 runs scored and 14 stolen bases in 132 games. He had a .405 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .505.

The biggest change was maturity, learning to handle being on his own and how to handle the two- or three-game stretches when he didn't get a hit.

"My thought process changed on how I played and my confidence," he said. "The first two seasons, confidence was something I lacked."

Last season he didn't allow himself to get too high or fall too low.

"I might go a couple of games without a hit, and I didn't let it bother me. I figured out that six or seven at-bats doesn't mean much in the long run," he said. "I began to realize that I belong in pro baseball. It helped that I started hitting from the start of the season and kept it going most of the year."

Burke, who turned 21 in April, has learned a lesson that some players never learn, but there will be less pressure this year when he goes to spring training.

"I had a good year in low A, but I still have to work and do what I was doing last year," he said. "I can't be too relaxed. There is a short window, and you only have so many years to prove yourself."