Contreras among Cubs prospects opening eyes

CHICAGO — Ben Zobrist isn’t just helping the Cubs, he’s influencing the Minor League system as well.

Zobrist, who celebrated his 35th birthday on Thursday, leads the National League in on-base percentage (.453), and he’s ranked among the top three in batting average (.346). Zobrist has reached safely in his last 31 starts — he went 3-for-5 on Wednesday against the Cardinals — and getting on base is a message Andy Haines, the Cubs’ Minor League hitting coordinator, is trying to emphasize to prospects.

“There’s nobody who’s a bigger fan of Ben than I am,” said Haines, whose brother played against Zobrist. “He’s the definition of what you want Major League Baseball players to be. The Major Leagues are very complicated, and Ben’s not complicated. He’s so simple — you know when you’re around him, he has one goal.

• Cubs’ Top 30 Prospects list

“He gets on base, he’s going to have great at-bats, and that’s our culture offensively of what we want to be — it’s more than getting hits. It’s easy for these kids to think offense is getting their hits. We preach that it’s way more than getting hits. Ben is the prototype for that, no question about it.”

Haines, in his first season with the Cubs’ organization, joined the big league team in St. Louis, and he gave an update on some of the top Minor League prospects.

• Willson Contreras is ranked No. 2 among the Cubs’ top prospects on MLBPipeline.com’s list, and the 24-year-old catcher has lived up to the hype.

“He’s been better than advertised, which is almost impossible,” Haines said of Contreras, who is batting .326 at Triple-A Iowa. “Coming in new to the organization, you’re just anxious to lay your eyes on him and to see if he meets those expectations. He’s so talented.

“He’s one of those guys who doesn’t come around very …

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