Kyle Schwarber returned to the place where he made his big league debut yesterday as the Cubs faced the Cleveland Indians for the first time since they won the World Series in 2016. Schwarber belted two home runs in the 10-2 win, including a f*cking missile that left his bat at 117 mph.
Gone faster than you can read this caption. pic.twitter.com/sm6dL5njZ1
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 24, 2018
He finished 2-5 with another home run and pushed his slash line to .302/.413/.635 which has to make the “Kyle Schwarber is overrated” contingent extra salty.
There must be something about playing in his home state that gets Schwarber amped up. If you recall, his MLB debut was also in Cleveland in 2015 and he had himself a day by going 4-5 with a triple and three singles.
You also have to realize that Schwarber is lucky enough to get to be in the same division as the Cincinnati Reds which allows him to hit at Great American Ballpark yearly to take BP off the Reds pitching staff. When you combine his numbers from hitting in Cleveland with his numbers in Cincinnati, he’s hitting .283 with six home runs and fourteen RBIs.
Kyle Schwarber in Ohio is better than your favorite player in his hometown.
More from @TonyAndracki23: https://t.co/IRYEhiUuEy pic.twitter.com/OWm3AkKam8
— NBC Sports Chicago (@NBCSChicago) April 25, 2018
Throughout his career, Schwarber has thrived in Ohio. Whether it was the game his senior year at Middletown where he hit three bombs against Oak Hills or the three game set at Ohio State his junior year at Indiana where he batted .500, Schwarber loves hitting in his home state, specifically in the city of Cleveland.
In 7 career games at Progressive Field (including 4 World Series games), Schwarber is:
15-for-31 (.484), w/
3 HR
1 3B
1 BB
6 RBI"Obviously, he sees the ball well here." — Maddon
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) April 25, 2018
And while it’s also a weird thing to note here, Schwarber is now the Cubs all-time leader in home runs as a DH with seven.
Seems Like Yesterday
While it’s great to see Schwarber’s success so far this season, let’s not forget that it was only a little over two years ago that his career was up in the air.
After bursting on the scene with the Chicago Cubs in 2015, Schwarber saw the bulk of his 2016 season cut short due to a torn ACL which he suffered in early April that year. It seems like just yesterday, I wrote an article to the Cubs fan base explaining that Schwarber was the type of guy who would put the work in to get back bigger and stronger than before but even I did not envision him getting back in the lineup that same season, let alone resurface in the goddamned World Series.
I reached out to his high school coach, Jason Cave, and got his insight about Schwarber’s return in 2016. Cave was one of the few people who was not surprised to see Schwarber make his return so quickly and he gave a great reason why.
“Kyle’s positive attitude, strong work ethic, and team first mentality played a vital role in getting back to the Cubs so quickly.”
Even with a great attitude, there were still doubts if the knee would hold up — along with a thousand other questions going through Cubs fans minds before that famous Game 1 in Cleveland.
How would he respond to big league pitching? Is this hurting him in the long term? Should he even be playing?
Schwarber gave zero f*cks about the doubters and proceeded to have himself a monster World Series. He slashed .412/.500/.471 and had an OPS of .971 which is even more impressive when you factor in he had knee surgery a little over six months before the World Series began.
The Reemergence
Now that the disappointing 2017 is in the rear view mirror, Schwarber appears to be back and better than ever. Besides the fact that he absolutely rakes in his home state of Ohio, there is one other major change that I noticed this year — he’s not pulling the ball as much.
I’ll be the first to admit when teams put the pull shift on Schwarber, the first thought that comes into my mind is, “Hit the ball over the damn shift and out of the park,” but that mentality is what got him in trouble last season.
If you look at his spray chart of ground balls and line drives from last year to this year, you’ll see a significant difference.
When you pull nearly every single ground ball, you become very predictable. You are also easy to align a defense against, especially when you are a lefty. Here are the spray heatmaps of Schwarber on ground balls & line drives for last year and then this year: pic.twitter.com/zcp8eMk9rv
— Aaron Kennelly (@aaron_kennelly) April 21, 2018
Defenses will more than likely continue to use the pull shift on Schwarber but will have to at least acknowledge the fact that he’s now hitting the ball to all fields with authority. I’m realistic in the fact that I know Schwarber cannot keep up this torrid pace all season but when you look at how far he’s come from since April 2016, what he’s doing now is nothing short of incredible.
He has another shot tonight at 6:10 to add on to his already ridiculous numbers hitting in Cleveland.
