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In the Sox lineup tonight
Why is this in the Extend Schwarber thread?
By Sahadev Sharma 6h ago 26 <snip>“I think that’s the grace that a 162-game season (affords),” Schwarber said. “Even this year I started off slow. I don’t know the numbers, but I know I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. But I was able to pick things up as the season progressed. I made the adjustments and made some changes.”The changes Schwarber speaks of began over the winter when Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long came to work with the team’s latest addition.“In 2020 I was just way too upright,” Schwarber said. “I was not in my legs at all and was jumping out to the front side. I told (Long) what I wanted to do and he had ideas. We were able to kind of mix those ideas together and come up with a plan.”It didn’t click right away, as the numbers show. But slowly Schwarber started to find his rhythm as he continued to tweak and figure out what would work.“I was really squatting to start spring training and into the season,” Schwarber said. “As time passed, you feel the things you want to feel, I was searching for it a little bit more and I just progressively came up a little bit and I found a happy medium. Just to be able to feel like you’re not all the way down and stuck versus being too upright and now you’re not in your legs. That was what we worked on as the season went along.”Schwarber went on an absolute tear in the month of June, putting up a 183 wRC+ while slugging 16 homers. For a period of time, he was the talk of baseball and the hottest hitter on the planet. It wasn’t too dissimilar, results-wise, from how he looked at points with the Cubs, but Schwarber believes this was years of work finally clicking at once.“There are definitely differences,” Schwarber said of what he’s doing now compared with the 2019 stretch when he posted a 153 wRC+ over his final 253 plate appearances. “There’s still the same qualities and the stance is right. But just a little bit more mechanically sound from ’19 to now. It just kind of got out of whack in (2020) and I tried to make the adjustment and it just didn’t click.”Early in July as the Nationals continued to struggle, Schwarber went down with a hamstring injury. During the month, he kept tabs on if he’d be traded while also following his old team from afar. While at the All-Star Game in Denver, Schwarber joked that Nationals reporters barely talked to him while Chicago media surrounded him to try to get his reaction to his former team’s potential teardown. <snip>
At 6 feet tall and 229 pounds, Schwarber is built more for the home run derby than the Boston Marathon. He has never stolen a base for the Red Sox. Originally a catcher and mostly a left fielder, he was so clumsy around first base in the division series that he raised his arms in triumph after making a routine play.Schwarber does have a high on-base percentage — .343 for his career, one point better than Ellsbury’s — but that is not the reason the Red Sox bat him first.“It’s not analytics, it’s not a hunch,” Manager Alex Cora said after Game 3, when Schwarber’s grand slam powered Boston to a two-games-to-one series lead. “It’s just out of necessity, to be honest with you. It feels really good right now with this lineup.”In eight playoff games, that lineup has produced 57 runs and clubbed 20 homers while batting .317. Schwarber has led off in six of those games (he bats second against left-handers), part of a chain reaction after J.D. Martinez sprained his ankle during the final game of the regular season.A leadoff hitter is only guaranteed to lead off once during the game. In Game 3 of the A.L.C.S., Kyle Schwarber came up seventh in the second inning. The bases were loaded, right up until he swung. Cora had been using the left-handed Rafael Devers in the cleanup spot, with the dangerous Martinez behind him. Without Martinez for the wild-card game, Cora moved Devers to third and protected him with Xander Bogaerts, the slugging shortstop, at cleanup.In that configuration, though, Schwarber could not bat second, because Cora wanted to split up his left-handed hitters. So Schwarber went up top, Kiké Hernández hit second, and everything seemed to fit.“He’s a complete hitter,” catcher Christian Vázquez said of Schwarber. “He gets walks, he grinds at-bats. He gets a lot of pitches in the at-bat, and I think that helps us to see more, and get more information on the starter or the reliever. And he can go deep. A perfect pickup for us.”Kyle Schwarber’s mammoth blasts made him a fan favorite for the curse-breaking Cubs. For the Red Sox, he has picked up right where he left off.Schwarber was recovering from a hamstring injury when the Red Sox acquired him from the Washington Nationals for a Class A pitcher on July 29. He spent two more weeks on the injured list before his Boston debut.
Eh, Schwarber pulling his hammy bungled the trade.
Exactly. I was kind of shocked to get anyone for a guy who could play for 2 weeks, especially from a team that needed some regular season help.On the other hand, if he didn't pull his hammy, we may have still been in it at the trade deadline and rode what we had to a second place finish in the division.
Tyler Kepner of the NY Times meditates on the novelty of Schwarber as a lead off hitter. Alex Cora says he stumbled into the idea -- it was not from analytics and not from a hunch. And not from our Davey?(Suggesting that Rizzo bungled the Schwarber trade?)https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/sports/baseball/kyle-schwarber-red-sox.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Sports
I posted this on October 6 in the completed trade deadline deals. And I don't care what Slate thinks or posts.
So we should have held onto him for six weeks of play to get nothing when he walks at the end of the year? I don’t understand that.
In return for Schwarber, the Red Sox gave up one of their top pitching prospects, right-hander Aldo Ramirez. Ramirez is currently eighth in the SoxProspects Rankings, holding steady for the season, even though he is currently on the disabled list with right-elbow tendonitis. For the year, the 20-year-old Ramirez has a 2.03 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 31 innings with Low-A Salem. He has 32 strikeouts and only 8 walks and opponents are hitting .221/.269/.311 against him. Ramirez signed out of Mexico in April 2018 and made his debut in the DSL that summer. He participated in the Fall Instructional League after the 2018 season and moved up to Lowell in 2019, where he really impressed striking out 63 and walking only 19 in 61.2 innings. After the 2020 season was canceled, Ramirez again participated in the Fall Instructional League. He showed increased velocity, really impressing opposing scouts who identified him as the top pitching prospect there. Here is Ramirez's full scouting report. <snip>Career Notes: Red Sox purchased his rights from Aguascalientes in the Mexican League for $550,000 in April 2018. Showed advanced control for his age in the DSL in 2018. Participated in the 2018 and 2020 Fall Instructional League. Was identified by scouts as one of the top pitchers at the 2020 Fall Instructional League.Summation: Potential back-end starter. Ceiling of a mid-rotation starter. Very interesting young arm with a strong track record of performance in the low minors against age-advanced competition. Has advanced feel for his age and has a solid chance to remain a starter. Has always thrown strikes and shows the early makings of a three-pitch mix, all with at least average potential. Does not stand out physically, but still young enough that he could grow some more. One of the more intriguing low minors arms in the system, but has a long way to go between what he is now and what he could be in the future.
We don't know what other offers were on the table if any. I just don't think we got enough and my thinking is it is easier to re-sign a player that is already on the team than get into a bidding war. We did re-sign two FA'a over the last two years ( Harrison and Escobar) within weeks of the season ending. Schwarber resurrected his career here as did Harrison and Escobar. I'm not saying that he would have signed on the cheap but he would give the Nats every opportunity to retain him for at least one year. Remember he was a late addition to the team IIRC.
We likely would have given him a qualifying offer if we kept him, no?
Don’t think it works that way when you trade for someone. And he has a player option for 2022.
We didnt trade for him, we signed him. He would have declined the mutual option, after which, Rizzo would have given him a QO.
From a Red Sox site that evaluated the trade:Most of the article is about Schwarber. Seems to be a risky trade: a power-hitter who has shown that he can be a very good major leaguer, traded for a 20 year-old pitching prospect with elbow tendonitis, a pitcher with a "[c]eiling of a mid-rotation starter". I guess the Red Sox might not have traded a AA potential mid-rotation pitcher, and a AAA guy like that would already be pitching in the majors. http://news.soxprospects.com/2021/07/trade-analysis-scouting-aldo-ramirez.html
