The Bigger They Are...

The Cubs on Thursday sent Kyle Schwarber, their 235-pound struggling leadoff batter (!), to Triple A Iowa to regain his swing.  Schwarber leaves with a .171 batting average on the year and .207 for his career.

If we were to apply the thinking on Gordon Beckham to Schwarber, the Cubs shouldn’t have brought up their prospect so soon, barely a year after drafting him in 2014.  But they did, and Schwarber proceeded to hit five homeruns over the course of the next two postseasons.  There weren’t any homeruns in the 2016 World Series, but Schwarber still managed to go 7 for 17, this after missing all but two games of the regular season to a knee injury.

Again, going back to Beckham, you could say that Schwarber didn’t get a chance to fail in the minors, which would better prepare him for adversity in the majors.  Only that’s gibberish.  Schwarber was everything a contending team could want as a midseason call-up and a hero in not one but two straight postseasons.  The ability to handle the pressure that goes with trying to break a 108-year drought of World Series championships has to count for something.

Personally, I lay a good deal of the blame at the feet of Joe “The Genius” Maddon, who left Schwarber in the leadoff spot way too long.  Oh, and he never should have been there in the first place.  (The same goes for the new leadoff batter, Anthony Rizzo.)  A good manager would have started the season with Schwarber in the middle of the lineup and then moved him down in the order once he started to slump.  But I’m not a genius, or a Cubs’ fan.

With luck and discipline, Schwarber should figure it out in Iowa.  For what it’s worth, I like his stance with feet wide apart and slightly open; to me, a big left-handed hitter with his front foot already pointed to first has a needed advantage propelling himself out of the box to first. Somebody suggested to me that Schwarber swings like Adam Dunn, but I don’t see it.  Dunn is the only ballplayer I ever saw with a mope in his swing; Schwarber is fast and fairly compact.  His problem is pitch selection.  If he can fix that, he’ll be up hitting balls off of scoreboards in no time.