Kyle Schwarber’s Unique Power, Every Final Out, and Other Bullets

Oct 25, 2017

The offseason means a number of things in the baseball world and the baseball writing world, but it also means a number of things in the Brett Taylor Logistical World. As you can see by the very late Bullets, I’m still getting back into the swing of an atypical morning – trying to get in family stuff and exercise (since there isn’t the same volume of immediate overnight game analysis/reaction stuff to get to), but keep the normal morning flow going around here. Sorry. Still working on it.

I would have thought there would be more players than this, but then again, 500 PAs is hardly any. So way to go, Kyle Schwarber:

In 2017, Kyle Schwarber became just the 13th MLB player since 2000 to hit 30+ HRs with fewer than 500 PAs. Only six guys did it in less. pic.twitter.com/HW4bNA2wEg
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) October 24, 2017

And I’m not going to take a dang thing away from Schwarber’s feat, but I do think it’s worth pointing out in this Juiced Ball Era: 41(!) players hit at least 30 homers this year. At the height of the Steroid Era in 2001, know how many players hit at least 30 homers? Yup: also 41.

No word just yet on the coaching front, though we know that Jim Hickey was in to interview for the pitching coach gig earlier this week, and Dave Martinez is set to interview with the Nationals about their open managerial job. Bruce Levine adds that hitting coach John Mallee only just had his annual exit interview with the Cubs yesterday.

If you missed it last night, Anthony Rizzo immediately replaced the signed picture that the young fan battling cancer lost (or had stolen by some monster).

The very first out is the very best, but the other 49 are really cool, too:

https://twitter.com/flippingbats/status/922842704479965185

I suspect this post from Jon Jay doesn’t mean anything more than it says – it’s a thank you – but it’s funny that you could read it two completely opposite ways if you were so inclined:

THANK YOU @Cubs and the city of Chicago for welcoming my family and I and making 2017 so memorable. Blessed to spend another year living out my dream ⚾️ #chitown #wrigley #goCubsgo

A post shared by Jon Jay (@jonjayu) on Oct 24, 2017 at 10:54am PDT

Oh, I see what you’re doing, Bryce. Very sneaky:

VERY CLEVER. MORE HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT. #Bryce2018 pic.twitter.com/cbzNe6byN5

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) October 25, 2017

(If you are inclined to become angry about the Harper jokes, by the way – as some folks have been already – I apologize for what figures to be a long year for you. I won’t do it every day, or even every week … but, to me, it’s funny. So, when the mood strikes me, I’ll be doing it.)

Awesome cleats for an awesome cause:

Bid now at https://t.co/6u2LpE03ej to win my #PlayersWeekend cleats! All proceeds go to #WingsForLife Spinal Cord Research. pic.twitter.com/CfzjpLoGMU
— Kris Bryant (@KrisBryant_23) October 24, 2017

An interesting, dense read at BP on how positional adjustments are used in calculating WAR, and how that should probably change. As one example: it’s possible that we are mistakenly treating two guys as equal value when they are both average second basemen, but one has also played some average third base. We *assume* for the purposes of WAR that an average second baseman could also play fine at third base, but should the guy who has actually demonstrated it get a little bump in value? This makes intrinsic sense when you think about a guy like Javy Baez, who we know is more valuable defensively because he can clearly play above-average defense across the infield – and then provided that value to the Cubs by doing so. Shouldn’t he get a bump over a solid defensive second baseman who just sticks at second base?

Over at TYL, Luis has us dreaming about Mitch Trubisky becoming Carson Wentz, and notes that the Bears are currently ranked ahead of the Packers in the latest power rankings (lulz).

Power tools and Crayola dough as Deals of the Day at Amazon means that you could make one heck of a craft.

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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