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One of baseball’s top prospects Kris Bryant is set to make his major league debut as the Chicago Cubs call up the promising young slugger Friday, originally reported by ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.

Mike Olt’s move to the disabled list after a hairline fracture in his wrist paved the way for Bryant’s move, Rogers said.

Most call-ups do not generate the same amount of buzz surrounding the 23-year-old third baseman’s promotion. The news has Cubs fans anxious leading up to the team’s day game against the San Diego Padres.

The University of San Diego product hit the ground running in 2014, earning Minor League Player of the Year honors from both USA Today and Baseball America.

Bryant started the year in Double-A with a .355 batting average adding 22 home runs and 58 RBI in 68 games before moving up the latter. For the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, he racked 21 more home runs and 52 RBI with a .295 average in 70 games, according to milb.com.

This performance excited scouts and moved Bryant up reporters’ lists of potential stars. ESPN Insider Keith Law ranked the Nevada native as his top overall prospect heading into the 2015 season.

The hype continued this spring as the 6’5″ third baseman led both the Grapefruit and Cactus League in home runs with nine home runs, including this two-run bomb against the Angels.

Following a phenomenal 2014 season and showing promise in spring training, why did Bryant find himself on the outside looking in at the Cubs’ Opening Day roster? The answer: a bazaar rule in Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement.

The rule states that a player needs to be on a MLB roster for 172 days of the 183-day season for it to qualify as a season of service. If the player is on the roster for less time, then the team gets an additional year at the end of the player’s contract.

The decision to call up Bryant now is not only due to the injury needs, as Friday marks the 171th day of the season, qualifying the Cubs for this loophole. Experts around the country, including Yahoo Sports national baseball writer Tim Brown, think the timing of the promotion is predictably convenient.

Bryant thought he deserved a call-up toward the end of the 2014 season and talked to Rogers back in September about his opinion on the contract manipulation in MLB.

It’s kind of funny, all the rules. Coming into professional baseball, I had no clue. I didn’t pay any attention to it in college, either. At the end of my first season, I kind of know the lingo about all this stuff. I guess the system works in some ways, and in some ways there are some flaws. I can’t focus on that. I’ve always been high on avoiding the distractions.

Bryant continued to ignore distractions and make it tough for the Chicago front office to deny the young talent a call-up with his play this season in Iowa. He hit his third dinger of the early season Thursday night to go along with his .321 batting average before finding out about his promotion.

Not only Cubs supporters, but also baseball fanatics across the country, will watch with anticipation as Bryant steps into the batter’s box for the first time against the Padres.

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The beginning of April means millions of fans tune in for MLB Opening Day 2015, but what did we learn from the first day of meaningful baseball?

Some teams came out of the gate firing like the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics. Both teams crushed their opponents, Philadelphia Phillies and Texas Rangers, with an eight-run shutout performance.

While some teams launched bombs over the outfield walls, others relied on their Aces paired with their bullpens to carry them to opening-day victory. Six teams successfully threw Opening Day shutouts this year.

Both Felix Hernandez and Johnny Cueto struck out 10 batters as their teams won their first game of the season.

Although the above mentions put in solid performances they were not the whole story. Lets take a look at the good, the bad and the funny from Opening Day. 

Trout vs. King Felix Part Two

Reigning MVP Mike Trout began the season just the way people expected, but the rest of his team did not follow suit as they fell 4-1 to the Seattle Mariners.

The 23-year-old star hit a home run to center field off Felix Hernandez in his first at-bat of the season Monday.

If this sounds familiar, that is because it is. Trout tagged King Felix for a home run last year in the outfielder’s first at-bat to jump-start his MVP season.

On top of the quick start at the plate, Trout also provided one of his vintage defensive plays by robbing Mariner’s first baseman Logan Morrison of a homer.

However, Hernandez had the last laugh on the day as Trout finished 1-4 from the plate with three strikeouts. The Mariners did not surrender another run on the day and Hernandez only gave up one more hit in his seven innings.

Return of Baseball’s Villain

After missing the entire 2014 season due to suspension, Alex Rodriguez returned to the New York Yankees as the biggest villain in baseball.

Villain? Apparently nobody told Yankees fans about the player’s past transgressions. Rodriguez enjoyed a strong ovation as he stepped up to the plate for his first at-bat of the season.

Rodriguez’s on-field performance was nothing to laud as he earned a single and a walk in his three plate appearances.

As the current face of steroids in baseball, his performances will be scrutinized all season, and he will be polarizing wherever the Yankees play.

Some Yankees fans held up signs spelling out “#Forg1v3” during his first at-bat since 2013, but opposing fans may not be so welcoming. 

Sometimes You Just Can’t Hold It

The start of the Major League Baseball season officially kicked off with the game between St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs on Sunday night, but the Cubs defeat was not the only bad part about the night for Chicago fans. 

The Cardinals won 3-0 over the Cubs behind a routinely strong pitching performance by Adam Wainwright, but the renovations to Wrigley Field took the main stage. The new construction is not complete, leaving the bathroom situation at the stadium pretty dire.

The lines for the restrooms left fans waiting 30 minutes or more, and this wait appeared to lower the standard for what qualifies as a toilet.

Some fans opted to relieve themselves at their own convenience through the use of plastic cups. Then these cups were left in corners of the concourse.

There will be plenty of 3-0 games this season, but the Cubs will hope the organization and sanitation failure of Opening Day does not repeat themselves. In order to prevent this, there will be portable toilets installed at the stadium to help make up for the lost amenities until the renovations are finished in late May, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune.

The 2015 Opening Day churned out major headlines all day, bypassing both the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals. Not often does conversation of the previous World Series champs title defense fall by the wayside.

If the rest of the regular season serves to be just as entertaining as the Opening Day, it should be an entertaining season.

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