IST: Cubs vs Cardinals

[chibears55]

Pretty much like I said prior to the break. They've always had the bats they needed. Just need people to get going. Pitching has been a lot better with Q now but i'm still slightly leery about it. Hendricks coming back to career norms would make me feel quite a bit better though.

Just a side note to but it's nuts that as bad a year as Schwarber has had the guy still has 15 HRs. Bryant is the reigning MVP and hitting .280 and only has 4 more. Since returning Schwarber was hitting .229/.325/.486 prior to tonight where he went 1-3. He was 8 for 35 now 9 for 38. Not where you'd hope to see but .237 is a lot nicer than the .171/.295/.378 he was hitting prior to being sent down.

Here the thing with Schwarber...

Most (about 2/3) of his hits are Hrs or doubles..
Not a bad thing if the Avg. was decent


Plus he has 260 ABs, so include the strikeouts.. about half his AB are Hrs , Dbs, and strikeouts..


I know the shift has a lot to do with it, which is why I hope if he does stick around, he spends the off season working on hitting balls to left more and more importantly work on a better 2 strike approach instead of swinging from heels most of time..

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[beckdawg]

Here the thing with Schwarber...

Most (about 2/3) of his hits are Hrs or doubles..
Not a bad thing if the Avg. was decent


Plus he has 260 ABs, so include the strikeouts.. about half his AB are Hrs , Dbs, and strikeouts..


I know the shift has a lot to do with it, which is why I hope if he does stick around, he spends the off season working on hitting balls to left more and more importantly work on a better 2 strike approach instead of swinging from heels most of time..

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I look at the doubles/HR as a good thing myself because as mentioned if the average comes around he's even more of an interesting player. The strikeouts don't concern me. First of all they aren't *that* bad. He's at 28.6% on the season. Now that may sound ironic from me considering how much I harped on Baez for it but for one thing Baez was obviously a bigger number and for two, Schwarber wasn't a high strike out guy in the minors. Excluding the super small AAA first stint he wasn't above 20.2% at any stop. And if you look at Bryant(30.6% k rate over his first 650 PAs) and Rizzo(30.1% on his first call up) it's not uncommon to see guys who inevitably strike out a lot in their first stint despite not doing it in the minors.

The shift is likely to be some what of an issue. But to be fair I think it's more than just the shift and it's actually also the way you pitch with the shift. There was a clip I recall from David Ortiz(another big lefty slugger) talking about it. I wanna say this was 2014 which would line up with one of his worst hitting years in quite some time. He essentially said people will comment that just hit away from the shift but the problem is where pitchers throw vs him you can't really do anything with the pitch. Now obviously Schwarber is going to have to make some adjustments to combat that just like all good power hitters do. And in Schwarber's case I'm fairly certain you don't see teams shifting that much in the minors nor do you have pitchers with enough command to execute that sort of pitching game plan. So, it's not surprising that it may take him awhile to come around.

All that being said there's one thing I can guarantee you. Pitchers don't like facing him because if you make a slight mistake he can ruin your day. As for the 2 strike approach I think that's a fools errand. The fact of the matter is basically everyone is bad with 2 strikes. League average with 2 strikes is .176/.249/.281. There's another clip I'm reminded of from Schilling talking about the difference between 2-1 and 1-2 and that essentially being what separates a cy young guy from any normal pitcher. And I think the same applies to hitters. League average after 2-1 is .254/.397/.436. After 1-2 is .174/.226/.278. I think I've mentioned this before but I'd like to see Schwarber be slightly more aggressive so that he's not ending up in 2 strike counts even if it is 3-2 because again league average on full count is .212/.457/.364. Schwarber currently sits #4 in the league at 4.43 pitches per plate appearance behind Jose Bautista(4.46), Curtis Granderson(4.46) and Todd Frazier(4.44). Those 4 players all share something in common. Joey Bats is hitting .222. Granderson is hitting .220. Frazier is hitting .203 and Schwarber is hitting .181.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Here the thing with Schwarber...

Most (about 2/3) of his hits are Hrs or doubles..
Not a bad thing if the Avg. was decent


Plus he has 260 ABs, so include the strikeouts.. about half his AB are Hrs , Dbs, and strikeouts..


I know the shift has a lot to do with it, which is why I hope if he does stick around, he spends the off season working on hitting balls to left more and more importantly work on a better 2 strike approach instead of swinging from heels most of time..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

His approach is much better since his stint in AAA. I think the BA will come but it's hard not consider his .878 OPS, .366 wOBA and 124 wRC+ in July a huge step forward.

 

[Diehardfan]

Average AB's in one MLB reg season is somewhere around 600......Schwarber lifetime reg season AB's 496.

He hasn't even played a full season yet....he's still a rookie and he's still learning.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Average AB's in one MLB reg season is somewhere around 600......Schwarber lifetime reg season AB's 496.

He hasn't even played a full season yet....he's still a rookie and he's still learning.

Yes. that's really important to remember. Plus this July will almost certainly be his best month since his early results in 2015. The BA will definitely come, I still think his hit tool is vastly underrated by fans, but right now the OPS, wOBA and wRC+ numbers are really encouraging. Plus he's having fun out there, despite the ESPN crew constantly discussing his frustration.