Kyle Schwarber

Kyle Schwarber

LF - PHI
Height: 6-0
Weight: 229 lbs
Age: 31
College:
Philadelphia Phillies

Player News

The ScoreSkubal, Tigers to start fast vs. White Sox on Opening Day

Find year-round coverage of betting news and insights for all sports by visiting our Betting section and subscribing to push notifications.Opening Day has finally arrived and all 30 teams will be in action. Let's take a look at a couple of ways to attack a monstrous slate.Tigers (-175) @ White Sox (+150)The White Sox look to be in for another miserable season. Their offense was horrendous a year ago, outscoring only the Athletics on a per-game basis. They made no meaningful additions to improve their attack and are starting with an extremely difficult matchup against dark horse Cy Young candidate Tarik Skubal.Skubal was nothing short of incredible last season, posting a sparkling 2.80 ERA while striking out 102 batters over just 80 innings. His underlying metrics were elite, with Skubal throwing strikes at an extremely high clip while giving up little hard contact.He should have his way with a bad White Sox offense that struggled immensely versus left-handed pitching. Last season, the team ranked 27th in wOBA against lefties and struck out more than 25% of the time, one of the league's highest rates.That doesn't set the White Sox up for success against an efficient strikeout pitcher like Skubal.Garrett Crochet is a very talented kid, but he'll be making his first career start against a Tigers offense featuring a lot of guys who can make life difficult for lefties.Spencer Torkelson hit for a ton of power against left-handed pitching in 2023, Riley Greene hit .280 versus lefties, and left-handed bats Parker Meadows and Kerry Carpenter are certainly capable of doing damage.I think the Tigers will get to Crochet as he navigates his first career start - on Opening Day, at that - while Skubal should have very little trouble mowing down White Sox batters.Look for the Tigers to grind out a lead through five innings.Bet: Tigers F5 -0.5 (-125)Christian Walker: Over 1.5 total basesTo say Walker destroys left-handed pitching would be an understatement. Last season, he posted a .314 ISO and .397 xwOBA against lefties and hit 13 homers. Only Francisco Lindor, Mookie Betts, Kyle Schwarber, and Jorge Soler recorded more.All of the underlying metrics for Walker are insanely good. He posted a barrel rate of 16.2% versus lefties, nearly double the league average. Walker also posted a hard-hit rate 6.8% above average and a fly-ball rate 12% higher.Walker hit the ball hard and consistently put it in the air. Those things lead to increased extra-base hits, and Walker would only need one on Opening Day to get the job done.Walker also finds himself in the best Opening Day matchup he could ask for, squaring off against Kyle Freeland and the Rockies.Freeland allowed a .234 ISO and .383 wOBA versus right-handed bats a year ago, both abysmal numbers.When Freeland is eventually chased from the game, a Rockies bullpen that never seems to be competent will be in for damage control.Walker only needs one good swing to go over this number. He should have no problem generating one against a subpar lefty and an exploitable bullpen.Odds: -110 (playable to -125)Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on X at @ToddCordell.Copyright © 2024 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Source: The Score
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2024

The ScoreScott Boras on ice-cold hot stove, long view for his clients

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - On the day the 2024 Major League Baseball season opened in South Korea, San Francisco Giants staffers hastily arranged a press conference on a quiet, vacant party deck at their spring training home.Chairs were set up for Giants general manager Farhan Zaidi, manager Bob Melvin, agent Scott Boras, and the third Boras client signed by the Giants this offseason: left-handed pitcher Blake Snell.Zaidi opened with a joke about the deals for Snell, Matt Chapman, and Jung Hoo Lee he had negotiated with the sport's most prolific agent:"I actually just got off the phone with the White House. I called to ask if negotiating three deals with Scott Boras in one offseason qualifies you for a Presidential Medal of Freedom. They said they'd get back to me."No one laughed. Seated two chairs down, Snell later said it was difficult to wait so long and that he had annoyed Boras by checking in with him so often early in the process. It was an unusually long wait and an unusually underwhelming deal - two years, $62 million guaranteed - for a player who had just won the National League Cy Young Award, the second of his career.Boras, who usually exceeds public forecasts with the contracts he negotiates, fell short for the third time this offseason, with Snell, Chapman, and Cody Bellinger, who re-signed with the Chicago Cubs.FanGraphs' crowdsourcing efforts before the offseason forecasted Snell, Chapman, and Bellinger to sign deals combining for 15 guaranteed years and $349 million ($23.3 million per year). The trio ended up signing for a guarantee of eight years and $196 million combined ($24.5 million per year). The deals all include short-term opt-outs.Scott Boras (right) with Jung Hoo Lee at his introductory press conference in December Andy Kuno / San Francisco Giants / Getty ImagesOther high-profile Boras clients like Jordan Montgomery and J.D. Martinez remain unsigned.Boras isn't alone in seeing his clients take in fewer dollars this year.Overall, $2.77 billion has been spent on free agents this offseason, according to theScore's analysis of Baseball Cube data, $1 billion less than last offseason ($3.86 billion). And this year's total includes the Los Angeles Dodgers' massive expenditures on Shohei Ohtani ($700 million) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million).After the press conference, theScore spoke with Boras about this unusual offseason not only at the top of the market but at all levels of free agency. We also discussed turmoil in the union and Bellinger's underlying data.theScore: Typically, you beat public expectations for your clients with free-agent deals, but that's not been the case this offseason. What explains the shortfall?Boras: This year, 10 teams decided to lower their budgets from '23. There was a billion dollars taken out of the free-agent market. What I've done with players like Carlos Correa, when the markets are not there, we got him a three-year guarantee for about $100 million (in 2022). He took a contract with optionality (a first-year opt-out). The very next market, they were spending, and there was more demand for his services. He ended up getting a contract for $200 million with a chance to make an additional $70 million. He converted a situation with optionality into something that more than doubled the value (of the 2022 deal).Whenever you do that, you're going to have the media and everyone say, 'Well, Correa was projected to get a lot more.' And my point to them is when you take optionality, there is always less guarantee. But you cannot look at the contract decision in totality until the next comes through, and you see what the player gets. Star Tribune / Getty ImagestheScore: For a number of reasons, the pre-arbitration player class is more and more valued by clubs and now accounts for the majority of playing time. Has it thrown off the balance of player representation, with not enough middle-class, veteran players getting jobs?Boras: I think having veterans in the clubhouse is very important for young players. They create better winning environments because they are more familiar with the league. I think there are players in that age group, 32 or so, they should have a luxury-tax exclusion. An amount of $15 million on down, if you sign a veteran player in that age bracket, they are excluded from your luxury tax. That would put those players in their own category. The prohibition is (because) those players are usually added late, and the owners are saying, 'Because of my tax situation, I am not going to sign this player.'theScore: There were reports this week about a movement among players to change MLBPA leadership with the belief that it isn't focused on the majority of its constituents and that it's too influenced by star players and agents. Is this a fair critique?Boras: I've spent a career making every effort to reward young players at the inception of their careers with the draft bonuses. I've certainly promoted the idea of player-pool money for the non-arbitration-eligible players and understanding that most players are only going to have a three-year career. That group that is lucky enough to have a four- or five-year career, they have arbitration rights. ... All of those rights cover the vast majority of players that aren't star players. Jamie Sabau / Getty ImagestheScore: How much was underlying data working against a player like Cody Bellinger?Boras: A number of these statistics are largely designed to degenerate the value of the players. Only a limited group of players score highly in these categories. This example with hard-hit rates, it's swing-and-miss that is rewarded. The only (batted balls) recorded are the ones you made contact with - those that are hard hit and go far.Players like Kyle Schwarber are going to have tremendous hard-hit rates. Cody's hard-hit rate, everyone said declined, and it did (38% in 2022 to 31% last year), but the reason why is it was part of a plan. The plan was he took his two-strike approach and made it measurably better, more of a contact approach. He raised his two-strike average to the second-highest in the major leagues. He got on base more, scored more runs. And his hard-hit rate early in the count, when he was ahead, was nearly the same.theScore: With the game trending so young, is there a concern about the seniority needed to reach free agency?Boras: With the small numbers of players actually reaching free agency, it's really something we have to consider looking at in the next collective bargaining negotiations. This has been looked at before by the union; it's certainly on their docket. They are fully aware of the issue.Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.Copyright © 2024 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Source: The Score
Thursday, Mar 21, 2024

The ScoreScott Boras on the ice-cold hot stove and the long view for his clients

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - On the day the 2024 Major League Baseball season opened in South Korea, San Francisco Giants staffers hastily arranged a press conference on a quiet, vacant party deck at their spring training home.Chairs were set up for Giants general manager Farhan Zaidi, manager Bob Melvin, agent Scott Boras, and the third Boras client signed by the Giants this offseason: left-handed pitcher Blake Snell.Zaidi opened with a joke about the deals for Snell, Matt Chapman, and Jung Hoo Lee he had negotiated with the sport's most prolific agent:"I actually just got off the phone with the White House. I called to ask if negotiating three deals with Scott Boras in one offseason qualifies you for a Presidential Medal of Freedom. They said they'd get back to me."No one laughed. Seated two chairs down, Snell later said it was difficult to wait so long and that he had annoyed Boras by checking in with him so often early in the process. It was an unusually long wait and an unusually underwhelming deal - two years, $62 million guaranteed - for a player who had just won the National League Cy Young Award, the second of his career.Boras, who usually exceeds public forecasts with the contracts he negotiates, fell short for the third time this offseason, with Snell, Chapman, and Cody Bellinger, who re-signed with the Chicago Cubs.FanGraphs' crowdsourcing efforts before the offseason forecasted Snell, Chapman, and Bellinger to sign deals combining for 15 guaranteed years and $349 million ($23.3 million per year). The trio ended up signing for a guarantee of eight years and $196 million combined ($24.5 million per year). The deals all include short-term opt-outs.Scott Boras (right) with Jung Hoo Lee at his introductory press conference in December Andy Kuno / San Francisco Giants / Getty ImagesOther high-profile Boras clients like Jordan Montgomery and J.D. Martinez remain unsigned.Boras isn't alone in seeing his clients take in fewer dollars this year.Overall, $2.77 billion has been spent on free agents this offseason, according to theScore's analysis of Baseball Cube data, $1 billion less than last offseason ($3.86 billion). And this year's total includes the Los Angeles Dodgers' massive expenditures on Shohei Ohtani ($700 million) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million).After the press conference, theScore spoke with Boras about this unusual offseason not only at the top of the market but at all levels of free agency. We also discussed turmoil in the union and Bellinger's underlying data.theScore: Typically, you beat public expectations for your clients with free-agent deals, but that's not been the case this offseason. What explains the shortfall?Boras: This year, 10 teams decided to lower their budgets from '23. There was a billion dollars taken out of the free-agent market. What I've done with players like Carlos Correa, when the markets are not there, we got him a three-year guarantee for about $100 million (in 2022). He took a contract with optionality (a first-year opt-out). The very next market, they were spending, and there was more demand for his services. He ended up getting a contract for $200 million with a chance to make an additional $70 million. He converted a situation with optionality into something that more than doubled the value (of the 2022 deal).Whenever you do that, you're going to have the media and everyone say, 'Well, Correa was projected to get a lot more.' And my point to them is when you take optionality, there is always less guarantee. But you cannot look at the contract decision in totality until the next comes through, and you see what the player gets. Star Tribune / Getty ImagestheScore: For a number of reasons, the pre-arbitration player class is more and more valued by clubs and now accounts for the majority of playing time. Has it thrown off the balance of player representation, with not enough middle-class, veteran players getting jobs?Boras: I think having veterans in the clubhouse is very important for young players. They create better winning environments because they are more familiar with the league. I think there are players in that age group, 32 or so, they should have a luxury-tax exclusion. An amount of $15 million on down, if you sign a veteran player in that age bracket, they are excluded from your luxury tax. That would put those players in their own category. The prohibition is (because) those players are usually added late, and the owners are saying, 'Because of my tax situation, I am not going to sign this player.'theScore: There were reports this week about a movement among players to change MLBPA leadership with the belief that it isn't focused on the majority of its constituents and that it's too influenced by star players and agents. Is this a fair critique?Boras: I've spent a career making every effort to reward young players at the inception of their careers with the draft bonuses. I've certainly promoted the idea of player-pool money for the non-arbitration-eligible players and understanding that most players are only going to have a three-year career. That group that is lucky enough to have a four- or five-year career, they have arbitration rights. ... All of those rights cover the vast majority of players that aren't star players. Jamie Sabau / Getty ImagestheScore: How much was underlying data working against a player like Cody Bellinger?Boras: A number of these statistics are largely designed to degenerate the value of the players. Only a limited group of players score highly in these categories. This example with hard-hit rates, it's swing-and-miss that is rewarded. The only (batted balls) recorded are the ones you made contact with - those that are hard hit and go far.Players like Kyle Schwarber are going to have tremendous hard-hit rates. Cody's hard-hit rate, everyone said declined, and it did (38% in 2022 to 31% last year), but the reason why is it was part of a plan. The plan was he took his two-strike approach and made it measurably better, more of a contact approach. He raised his two-strike average to the second-highest in the major leagues. He got on base more, scored more runs. And his hard-hit rate early in the count, when he was ahead, was nearly the same.theScore: With the game trending so young, is there a concern about the seniority needed to reach free agency?Boras: With the small numbers of players actually reaching free agency, it's really something we have to consider looking at in the next collective bargaining negotiations. This has been looked at before by the union; it's certainly on their docket. They are fully aware of the issue.Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.Copyright © 2024 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Source: The Score
Thursday, Mar 21, 2024

Yahoo SportsSchwarber still an unconventional leadoff choice, but the data backs it up

Kyle Schwarber in the leadoff spot has been a debate in Philly the last two seasons and remains a hot-button topic as March 28 approaches.

Source: Yahoo Sports
Monday, Mar 18, 2024

RotowireKyle Schwarber: Back in action Thursday

Schwarber (groin) will serve as the Phillies' designated hitter and leadoff batter in Thursday's Grapefruit League game against the Red Sox.

Source: Rotowire
Thursday, Mar 14, 2024


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