Hi, I'm Kyle Schwarber and I hit bombs!

Detts

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They have had all year to try JDM at first and have not done it. He is older and they clearly don’t want to change his routine. Schwarber was a catcher in college and I think he would have been a first baseman from the start if he went to a team without Rizzo. At least the catcher part makes me think he has decent hands and will get his body in the way of the ball. The report of him being moved off catcher was because of his arm strength not being good enough.
IU grad. Schwarber was a catcher because his bat was huge but he couldn’t crack any defensive positions. Those IU teams were loaded.
 

cantor44

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I think this is the right perspective. We should enjoy the rest of this season--whatever it brings--while being realistic about our chances. No reason to jump off the Tobin if the Rays or even Yankees overtake us.

We've done a lot better than almost anyone expected, and the future is-as you say--looking bright indeed. Four World Series titles should earn management some fan patience.
But maybe we misinterpreted the team going into the season. Yes, they were terrible in 2020. And the loss of Betts felt apocalyptic. But ... JD and Devers were bound to rebound. And Bloom was super crafty getting support players who would collectively produce (in this sense he reminded me of Epstein 2003/04 and Cherington 2013).

Everything in sports (ah, in life!) is about adjustment no?

Team in first, with five players having all-star seasons (maybe only Barnes as a surprise all star) and Sale on his way back ....maybe the adjustment is not shrug and say "we did better than what I perceived to be our talent level in the preseason" but "shit - we could win it all, this team is legit with some soft spots ... let's press the gas a little and improve the team ..."

The crazy thing is, the team IS very very good ... except first base and starting pitching ....maybe the additions of Sale, Houck, and Schwarber will be enough, though I fear they're still an arm shy and a couple weeks late ... they might be enough ...we'll see!
 
Sep 1, 2019
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Everything in sports (ah, in life!) is about adjustment no?
Absolutely--and I think Chaim's philosophy is to strike a flexible balance between the near- and long-term.

If acquisition costs had not been so extreme, I think we would have seen more substantial deadline activity.
 

Sin Duda

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So what do we have in Mr. Schwarber? Born in Middletown, Ohio in 1993, Kyle played his college ball at Indiana and was drafted 1-4 by the Cubs in 2014.

His career/season stats are Avg: .233/.253, OBA: .337/.340, SLG: .491/.570, OPS: .828/.910, OPS+ 117/149, HR rate: 6.1%/8.3%, K rate: 28.2%/29.0%, BB rate: 12.7%/10.2%. This is the first year he was selected an all-star. He appears to be a below average baserunner based on steal volume and rate, and XB rate, and he is not a good fielder at any position he plays.

I recall him going off in the playoffs his rookie year after returning from injury late in the 2015 season. The stats show he hit 5 HRs and batted .333 over 9 games. Can a Cubs fan affirm/correct my memory?

What else should we know about "Schwarbs"?

p.s. The Cubs won 97 games in 2015 and finished third in the NL Central.

p.p.s. This is my first post as a Member after almost 20 years as a non-contributor then a Lurker. I feel like Jimmy Morris (Dennis Quaid) getting that first call from the bullpen in The Rookie.
 
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allmanbro

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I recall him going off in the playoffs his rookie year after returning from injury late in the 2015 season. The stats show he hit 5 HRs and batted .333 over 9 games. Can a Cubs fan affirm/correct my memory?

What else should we know about "Schwarbs"?
Not a Cubs fan, but I remember him absolutely crushing his home runs that postseason, and looking that up led me to this fun compilation: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0E4yXUuYUQ


Looks like he's hit a couple this year that would have made the list (which you can find here)
 

grimshaw

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He hits them like he's playing softball and he's only allowed to hit one over the fence per game so he's making it count.
 

Zososoxfan

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Not a Cubs fan, but I remember him absolutely crushing his home runs that postseason, and looking that up led me to this fun compilation: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0E4yXUuYUQ


Looks like he's hit a couple this year that would have made the list (which you can find here)
Pretty good mix of locations, although it seems he likes em high. Tickles to see one of those bombs come off Arroyo in a Cincy shirt.
 

mfried

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Pretty good mix of locations, although it seems he likes em high. Tickles to see one of those bombs come off Arroyo in a Cincy shirt.
His stroke is short and direct. Red Sox should watch this video before tonight’s game if they need a lift.
 

Rovin Romine

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Two questions:

1) For future use, should we retitle the thread, or petition a kindly mod break the recent Schwarber posts out into another thread? I expect we'll want to revisit our early impressions at some point.

2) Do we have a solid ETA for him?
 

Stanley Steamer

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They need him yesterday. Any idea when that day will come? The Sox were fairly quiet at the trade deadline, and their impact players, Schwarber and Sale, still aren't in a position to help. It's no wonder that it coincides with a slump.
 

Lowrielicious

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Pretty good mix of locations, although it seems he likes em high. Tickles to see one of those bombs come off Arroyo in a Cincy shirt.
There was some speculation that his recent (pre hamstring blowout) HR binge was at least partly attributed to the sticky crackdown. That high fastballs were especially affected by high spin rates so caused high fastball hitters more problems that most.
I don't know how much truth there is to that but sounds intriguing.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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They need him yesterday. Any idea when that day will come? The Sox were fairly quiet at the trade deadline, and their impact players, Schwarber and Sale, still aren't in a position to help. It's no wonder that it coincides with a slump.
Any idea how long a rehab takes?

I am not sure how not getting Sale and Schwarber added to a team should coincide with a slump. Unless it’s the loss of Chavis that is to blame.

as Billy Preston originally wrote, “nothing from something leaves something”


side note, my autocorrect changes Schwarber to Schwarzenegger
 

YTF

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Any idea how long a rehab takes?

I am not sure how not getting Sale and Schwarber added to a team should coincide with a slump. Unless it’s the loss of Chavis that is to blame.

as Billy Preston originally wrote, “nothing from something leaves something”


side note, my autocorrect changes Schwarber to Schwarzenegger
He'll be back, hopefully sooner than originally thought. While he's not running yet he he is taking BP and reportedly taking grounders at 1B yesterday.
 

allmanbro

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This might be a fluke (no idea how you assess sample sizes on something like this), but it's easy to imagine a guy who takes hacks like Schwarber having an especially hard time on fastballs with a lot of "rise" and feasting on those that don't. If so, maybe he is a beneficiary of the sticky crackdown.

"On high 4-seamers in the StatCast era.

MLB avg vs. 2100-2300 RPM = .274 wOBA
MLB avg vs. 2300-2500 RPM = .256 wOBA

Schwarber avg vs. 2100-2300 RPM = .457 wOBA
Schwarber avg vs. 2300-2500 RPM = .216 wOBA

Need many more searches than that, but still kinda interesting. "

View: https://twitter.com/FoolishBB/status/1408207544187822082
 

Marciano490

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Schwarber ran the bases in Detroit this afternoon. Now he's taking groundballs and doing some work around the 1B bag. Seems like he's getting close and he's all in on playing 1B.

View: https://twitter.com/PeteAbe/status/1422989692266483714

View: https://twitter.com/PeteAbe/status/1422991921631334402
How can they tell for sure he wasn’t running at full speed?

I love this guy’s swing. Short and compact but still looks like he’s throwing his whole body into it at the last second.
 

Humphrey

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What are the odds on JD opting out and Schwarber taking over that role? I don't like how JD looks the same as he did almost exactly a year ago, terrible.
 

EvilEmpire

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Low, because Schwarber’s mutual option for 2022 likely gets exercised if he doesn’t see the field again in 2021.
I think being closer to having a universal DH might impact his calculus on that mutual option more than finishing the season on the injured list after what he's already shown offensively this year.

It will be interesting to see how it all works out.
 

absintheofmalaise

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Kike at 1B? When Arroyo rejoins the team there are a few possible line ups to make the most of the actual bats on the team. Schwarber/Arroyo at 1B. Kike in CF with Verdugo and Renfroe in LF and RF with JD at DH. Schwarber at 1B with Arroyo at 2B. Etc.
 

geoduck no quahog

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It's too bad that JDM can't play 1B. That would put the best defense on the field (Kike in CF, Arroyo at 2B), help keep Schwarber from getting re-injured (at DH) and take Cordreck out of the lineup.

Why wouldn't they try having Martinez do some workouts at first?
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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I would assume it’s not something JD wants to do, especially at this point in his career?

Regarding Schwarber, don’t we only really need him to play 1b vs RH? Dalbec still is useful against lefties.

I think there is an opportunity for him to DH or play LF vs LHP (in a perfect world, Verdugo sits once in a while, but I think you’d want him over Duran, obviously).

Kike or Arroyo at first against RHP solves a lot of problems and doesn’t require Schwarber to play there.
 
Kike at 1B? When Arroyo rejoins the team there are a few possible line ups to make the most of the actual bats on the team. Schwarber/Arroyo at 1B. Kike in CF with Verdugo and Renfroe in LF and RF with JD at DH. Schwarber at 1B with Arroyo at 2B. Etc.
Definitely a lot to be excited about here. Have there been any rumblings about Arroyo at all? I can't find any injury updates or news anywhere.
 

reggiecleveland

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I have to think JD doesn't want to play 1st, or he is bad at grounders, etc. Because if anybody runs like a 1b it's him. He could bring a lot of relief to a team if he could play 1b 20 times a year.
 

chawson

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We’re putting Kiké at first base why again? So we can accommodate Duran? Kiké is an exceptional center fielder. Duran is not, and he’s posted a .215 expected wOBA since his callup. Cordero, while not good, has been much better at .271.

I’m sure there’ll be a lot of configurations but I don’t think we need to play our best defensive outfielder fielder several notches down the spectrum for Duran’s sake.
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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We’re putting Kiké at first base why again? So we can accommodate Duran? Kiké is an exceptional center fielder. Duran is not, and he’s posted a .215 expected wOBA since his callup. Cordero, while not good, has been much better at .271.

I’m sure there’ll be a lot of configurations but I don’t think we need to play our best defensive outfielder fielder several notches down the spectrum for Duran’s sake.
Kike at first allows JD/Schwarber to play LF/DH and Verdugo to play CF (with Arroyo at 2b). Really isn’t ideal defensively and only makes sense if Schwarber can’t play first at all (even if he’s mediocre, seems like the bar has been set pretty low by this team).
 

Harry Hooper

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I heard the Cora interview on WEEI. Sounds like he'll keep working out at 1B, but Cora plans to use KS at DH.

Also, rehab stints for Arroyo and Santana are imminent.
 
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Rovin Romine

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As a data point, Schwarber just last night was supposed to appear in his first rehab assignment, with indications his stay at Worcester will be a short one. It was, however, rained out, and there will be a doubleheader today. Game 1 at 4:35pm, and Game 2 sometime after.

Schwarber hasn't played a game since July 2.

The trade deadline was July 30th. 105 games had been played by the Sox at the end of that day. 57 games remained.

By today's end 13 more games will been played with 44 remaining. Schwarber will have missed 22% of the post-deadline games.

In the 12 games resolved since the trade deadline the Sox have gone 3-9. 3 of the losses were decided by 2 runs or less. In those:
Bobby Dalbec went 0 for 1 with a walk.
Cordero/Dalbec (PH) went for 1 for 3 with a K. 2 LOB.
Dalbec/Durran (PH) went 0 for 3 with a walk and 3Ks. 3 LOB.

Note: Schwarber will be batting higher in the order.
 

Al Zarilla

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I heard the Cora interview on WEEI. Sounds like he'll keep working out at 1B, but Cora plans to use KS at DH.

Also, rehab stints for Arroyo and Santana are imminent.
Schwarber is a LHH, so if there's a platoon with JD, I imagine JD would DH mostly against LHP's, which are about 1/3 of the pitching population. So, does JD play a ton more games in left to keep his (necessary) bat in the lineup?