Kyle Schwarber has hit 87 home runs as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. For comparison's sake, John Kruk hit 62 home runs as a Phillie, and that took him the full six years. This is just two years of work for Schwarber. Granted, it took striking out 400 times, but with Schwarber that's what you sign up for.
This season especially it's been hard to classify Schwarber as a good player, solely because he's bad in the outfield, he's not good as a contact guy, he strikes out 200 times a year, and all he can do really well is hit home runs. But as a perk, that is a hell of a perk, and he's surpassed 40 for the second year in a row. Remember, he didn't surpass 40 home runs as a member of the Cubs, or even during his incredible 2021, split between Washington and Boston. This is just...something he was immediately able to do starting the second he landed in Philadelphia. I knew he'd be a good fit here, and even if he's not a multi-faceted kind of player, the fans love him. I've been lucky enough to see him go yard on a couple occasions, it's always incredible because there's no doubt. Similar to Stanton, he just tattooes it. And I love that there's certain parks, like Petco Park and, well, Citizens Bank Park, where he's more lethal. Having an NCLS split between both of them was a deadly combination, and it's no wonder that he cracked 3 homers in that series.
That's the other fun stat with Schwarber, he tied his Cubs-tenure postseason HR total in just one season in Philly. And he's still going, and possibly on the postseason roster for the Phils for another ride.
The Phillies, even with a more one-dimensional Schwarber, are still doing so much correctly right now. Turner and Harper are both hot and carrying the team, much like we all thought they would. Stott, Bohm and Marsh are all excellent youth pieces who can hit like hell, and Stott is a hell of a defensive piece as well. Both Johan Rojas and Cristian Pache are excellent defensive substitutions, as Castellanos and Schwarber's outfield play is still one of the flaws of this team. Walker, Wheeler, Suarez, Nola and Sanchez are still in great shape and having great seasons, which means it's alright that Michael Lorenzen's still a little shaken up after going all 9 last month. Somehow Edmundo Sosa is the corner talent we thought we'd lost when Bohm got the starting job.
So much of this team looks awesome, and so much is going well even as we go into combat with the still-hot Marlins. The Wild Card spot looks to remain ours, and having a cushion between them and the D-Backs is a helpful perk as they deal with some teams that could beat them. As unlikely as a WS repeat is for this team, I'd love to see how far they go, and I'd love to see what damage they can do on October this year now that they've got a fuller team.
Plus...imagine how many Schwarber'll hit out this year.
Coming Tonight: I think the third rookie Guardians pitcher I've posted in the last month or so.
He'll always be missed in Chicago, probably the only one from the Championship team that's still playing reasonably well.
ReplyDelete