Ode To Ryan Schimpf
One that got away?
Ode To Ryan Schimpf
I love to hate on Joey Gallo.
Nothing personal, of course. It’s just hard for me to accept that a player who has struggled to hit for .200 for most of his career winds up receiving so much praise for his power hitting.
Yes, I know his defense is good, and I know that he’s a great hitter when he makes contact. It’s still fun to meme off him and poke a little bit of fun at his situation.
Looking into Gallo got me wondering, though. Of all hitters in baseball history, which one has had the highest ratio of home runs among his base hits?
HR/H
A quick Google search brought me my answer.
That’s right — a Google search. Unlike what you may have heard from some of my sparring partners on Twitter, I actually do know how to use Google. I’m also not opposed to esoteric or interesting baseball statistics, like this one:
This comes courtesy of Jeff’s Bespoke Baseball Stats, a website that I consider criminally underrated.
Now, a quick glance at this list will show you how ridiculous the concept is. Carlos Zambrano’s 2006 season saw 54.5% of his hits go for home runs. Zambrano had 11 hits that season; 6 of those were for home runs. I remember his Strat-O-Matic card; in fact, if memory serves well, there was talk among draft league players about creating some sort of house rule to prevent overuse of his card.
There are a few other surprises here. Some players were pitchers (Andy Benes, obviously); others were extremely obscure part time players (ever heard of KEVIN roberson). McGwire is on the list, as is Bonds and Big Hurt. Babe Ruth made the list as well, though only his abbreviated 1935 season: so much for the rumors of Ruth being a fat guy who struck out most of the time and sometimes hit home runs.
But there’s one name that stands out for its consistency, one obscure player that managed to make all 3 lists, one player that stands out as more Joey Gallo than Gallo himself.
That would be Ryan Schimpf.
Schimpf
Schimpf was a great power hitter.
There’s simply no way around it. Take a look at his minor league stats before 2016:
Schimpf was able to consistently slug at just about every level, only seeing a dip in his slugging ability during the few games he had at AAA. And even then he hit a disproportionate number of home runs per hit: 9 home runs out of 40 hits for Buffalo in 2014 (in only 246 plate appearances), followed by 3 home runs in 22 hits for the same team in 2015 (this time in only 122 plate appearances).
His slugging percentage was consistently high, leading to a consistently high OPS. Baseball Reference doesn’t show me his minor league OPS statistics or any sort of major league equivalency ratings. My feeling is that his ability to go deep would have translated very well to the major league level, especially if he were given the time to settle down.
For whatever reason, the Toronto Blue Jays (he was in the Blue Jays organization) decided to let him become a free agent in 2016. Schimpf signed with the Padres organization, went to El Paso, and did everything right: a .355 batting average, with 59 hits in 190 plate appearances. Of those 59 hits, 15 were home runs: a remarkable ratio no matter how you slice it.
He went up to San Diego midway through the 2016 season. And that’s where things get kind of confusing.
This is what Schimpf’s major league record looks like:
Yep — Schimpf hit 20 home runs in half a season with the Padres in 2016. 20 of his 60 hits were home runs. That 132 OPS+ doesn’t lie.
And yet, for some reason, he didn’t become a regular starter.
His average tailed off in 2017, but the power didn’t slump at all. An incredible 14 of his 26 hits in the 1/3 season he played were home runs.
And then, with the Angels in 2018, his career came to a screeching halt. Never mind the fact that his only hit, a home run (naturally), came in his first of two starts that season. He was apparently washed up at age 30, a slugger who, for some arbitrary reason, was not good enough.
Want to compare him to somebody? Here’s Joey Gallo’s major league career to date:
Yes, I know that this reveals the day I wrote this article. Get over it.
I’m telling you, Schimpf was more Gallo than Gallo. Gallo had his 1 HR in 2 hits performance in an abbreviated 2016 season. At the same time, Schimpf was lighting up National League pitching, driving the ball all over the park to that 132 OPS+ — extremely impressive for a rookie.
Yes, I know, Gallo is a good defender. Schimpf played second and third, positions that are undoubtedly important defensively. Baseball Reference places his defense slightly above replacement level:
Fangraphs is a bit more pessimistic — but this still isn’t horrid:
So what gives? I mean, he clearly wasn’t a horrible failure as a fielder, and certainly had a rare ability as a hitter.
It could be his age. He didn’t come up until he was 28 years old, which is old for a rookie in any era.
The Blue Jays had Aaron Hill at 2B from 2009 to 2011, as well as Brett Lawrie at 3B. And yet both players were long before Schimpf was even given a chance at the major league level — and with another team, no less.
I mean, did nobody in Toronto’s player development division realize that Schrimpf was tearing the cover off the ball at every level? I’m particularly surprised that the Blue Jays didn’t at least give him a chance in 2012. After all, he hit quite well in AA that season — as I understand it, usually the pipeline for young players to jump straight to the majors — and almost certainly would have been better offensively than Kelly Johnson as a second baseman, or than Lawrie as a third baseman. What gives?
I suspect that he was held down due to his inability to hit for average.
And, honestly, I think it’s horrible. I’ve got a feeling that Schimpf had the raw talent needed to thrive at the highest level. I mean, he was able to do it in half a season with the Padres in 2016. What could he have done if he had come up 5 years earlier?
He’s another one of those “what if” players, the kind who seem to never really have gotten a fair shake. Is it because he went to college, because he was “only” a 5th round draft pick, because he wasn’t deemed a golden boy from the start?
The End
Schimpf’s career ended with a sad whimper with the Angels in 2018.
Here’s his game log:
He had a pinch hitting appearance on April 7th, in which he struck out. He played very well on April 8th, going 1 for 2 with (you guessed it) a home run, and scoring 2 runs in the process. He did all of this despite hitting 9th, which is ridiculous considering his raw talent.
He started the game on April 9th, struck out once, drove in a run in the 4th with one of those productive ground balls with the bases loaded (the kind that traditionalists love and sabermetricans loathe), and was taken out in the 4th. Oh — and he was playing left field that day, for some stupid reason.
He finished 2 games defensively after that: April 10th, when he played right field (apparently it was more important to get more defensive innings out of Zach Cozart and Luis Valbuena at second base), and May 2, when he played at second for a single inning.
And that was the end.
Sadly, the only broadcast of his last game freely available on YouTube comes from the Orioles side. I could find no mention of any injury or issue with Schimpf in that 9th inning. You can watch it for yourself:
Note that the date on YouTube is wrong. This is the May 2, 2018 game.
Of course, if you really want to see Schimpf in action, you’ve got to check out that April 8 game:
His final hit — his final home run — comes at the 2:05:00 mark.
So what does all of this mean?
Well, if you’re playing with a game like OOTP — a game with minor league stats and equivalencies — look out for Ryan Schimpf. I believe he never got a fair shake in the game. Perhaps you can right the historical wrong.