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Cubs go outside the box with Kyle Schwarber at leadoff

SAN FRANCISCO — You’re not a prototypical ...

“What are you saying I’m fat?” Kyle Schwarber said, joking around with the reporters at his locker before Wednesday’s big game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon likes to question assumptions and go against convention. So why change now when FanGraphs gives his team a 97.4-percent chance of making the playoffs?

The Cubs put Schwarber in the leadoff position, hoping for a spark from the left-handed power hitter who’s barreled his way into the National League’s Rookie of the Year race.

“I got a green light,” Schwarber said.