Bang bang:

Salisbury first, though Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark mentioned this link earlier, if we’re keeping track here. Trying to give credit where it’s due.

Schwarber is a big bat, lefty. He’s a winner, too. That’s a nice lineup of Harper, Schwarber, Hoskins, and Realmuto.

Schwarber was an All Star last season, playing for the Nationals and Red Sox. He finished with a .928 OPS while hitting 32 home runs and knocking in 71 runs.

Left field and lead off is probably what we’re looking at here. He can DH. They’ve now added Schwarber, Jeurys Familia, Brad Hand, Corey Knebel, and Odubel Herrera, and no clue if that makes them a NL East contender, but at least they snagged one of the Bryant/Castellanos/Schwarber trio.


Here’s a take from Anthony:

“Kyle Schwarber will do well in CBP because all he does is hit home runs, walk, or strikeout. Seriously, he’s got massive power. And he’s got a great eye. He’s an unconventional leadoff hitter (led off in both Chicago and Washington) because he has a great eye. But, he’s a swing for the fences or nothing type, which is why he strikes out so much too. There’s no two-strike adjustment to his game. He had 51 extra base hits last year and 55 singles. But he’s frustrating because he takes so many pitches. Of his 471 plate appearances last year, 271 of them went to a two-strike count. That’s too many – it only led to 34 walks (and 44 hits). He needs to be more aggressive. And, well, the Phillies were a bad defensive team last year and just got worse. Dude can’t field in left field. He’s terrible. His Defensive Runs Saved (according to Fangraphs) was minus-5. That’s no bueno.”

“Schwarber will improve the Phillies lineup as he adds more left handed power and will lengthen it a bit because he does get on base, but will all the strikeouts and inability to move runners and an uninspiring .231 batting average with two outs and runners in scoring position combined with the subpar defense be more of a detriment to this group than a benefit? It just might.”