The Angels have acquired infielder Ryan Schimpf from the Braves for catcher Carlos Perez, according to an announcement from Los Angeles. Schimpf will head to Triple-A, per the Angels.
Injuries likely played a part in this deal for both teams. The Angels sent second baseman Ian Kinsler to the disabled list on Saturday, while Braves catcher Tyler Flowers was already on the DL with an oblique strain. Flowers’ backup, Kurt Suzuki, took a pitch off the hand during an at-bat on Friday, though he won’t need a DL stint, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports. Nevertheless, that injury scare was all the more reason for the Braves to add depth in the wake of Flowers’ loss.
Schimpf, 29, lasted less than a month with the Braves, who acquired him from the Rays on March 5. He’s best known for a solid 2016 campaign in San Diego, where he batted .217/.336/.533 (130 wRC+) with 20 home runs in 330 plate appearances. Schimpf’s success that year (his rookie season) came thanks in part to both a 64.9 percent fly ball rate and a 12.7 percent walk rate. At the same time, Schimpf struck out in nearly 32 percent of PAs. His swing-and-miss tendencies carried into 2017, when he fanned 35.5 percent of the time and saw his overall production plummet. Across 197 PAs, Schimpf hit .158/.284/.424 (88 wRC+) with 14 HRs, but he continued to rack up fly balls (63.9 percent) and walks (13.7 percent).
The 27-year-old Perez lost his spot on the Angels when they designated him for assignment earlier this week to make room for Shohei Ohtani’s promotion. Perez amassed upward of 280 PAs with the Angels in both the 2015 and ’16 campaigns, but the addition of Martin Maldonado last year helped limit him to just 21 big league trips to the plate. Over 595 PAs with the Angels, Perez batted .224/.267/.332 (64 wRC+). On the defensive side, Perez threw out an impressive 38 percent of would-be base stealers (far above the 30 percent league average) during his Angels tenure, though he did draw minus pitch-framing marks from 2015-16. With no options remaining, Perez will have to go through waivers if the Braves attempt to demote him to the minors.
First blockbuster of the season….
Perez wasn’t going to get any play time with Maldonado and Rivera on the roster. Might as well swap him for some infield depth with Kinsler on the DL.
That’s what they did genius
lol
Schimpf isn’t depth, he’s garbage
He’s probably the best offer for a player with no options remaining.
Ryan has options
Reading comprehension is hard
Not only wasn’t he going to get any time, he was out of options.
Good fielder I like it
Fills a need for both organizations.
A win-win move for both sides, but a very minor one at that.
Don’t the Angels already have enough infielders who can’t hit 200? Hell Cowart could fill in.
“He’s best known for a solid 2016 campaign in San Diego, where he batted .217”
Lmfao
you left the important part of the slash line that makes it decent stats….got on base 33% of the time and had decent slugging. if he can get his K’s down and put more balls in play the average should level out a bit
Pshhh still garbage. Couldve filled that slot w someone from our own farm.
If we needed a 200 hitter we could’ve kept Pennington and had something better to complain about.
Could Pennington hit 34 HR’s in 142 career games though?
and for league minimum? who knows, maybe he is figuring out this new launch angle thing and will be the next Odor.
Exactly, and for league min to boot. Love this move!
2.5 WAR in 2016 while hitting only .217. Now why is that?
The .336 OBP and .533 slugging %
It is actually pitiful that, in today’s age, we can still always count on a couple fools whining about Batting Average – one of the more meaningless stats in the game
The 130 wRC+ Schimpf put up in 2016 tied him with the likes of Carlos Santana, Adrian Beltre and Manny Machado. His .533 SLG was good enough for 22nd best of guys with 300+ PAs, tied with again Machado, Trumbo and Cano. His ISO of .315 actually led baseball, easily topping the second place .305 of David Ortiz
…yes, that is an extremely noteworthy performance
Yeah so discredit the batting average but the stat lines that put him in the company of star players is what is important you sabermetric guys kill me with what is now important and what isn’t. He sucks no matter which way you look at it and he sucks just as much in 2016 as he does now the only difference is the Padres had the opening to give him a chance to play consistently
Explain how getting on base and hitting for power doesn’t matter, then? Schimpf isn’t a great player by any means but if you want to look at any hitting stats that matter, focus on things that win ballgames – getting on base and hitting with power. Schimpf created a lot of runs and value in that 2016 season, regardless of the batting average.
Ok focus on what wins games the Padres won 68 games in 2016 so I guess they were really lucky to have him on that team cause he alone probably prevented them from losing 100 games. He sucked then and he sucks now.
Schimpf wasn’t the reason the Padres were bad that year. You’re really reaching here. This is like arguing If Ben Roethlisberger is so good, how come the Steelers don’t win the Super Bowl every year” or some such nonsense. Just because you don’ like the idea of a player with a low batting average having value, the fact is that they do and generally teams are coming around on this.
Its pretty dang simple, and I’m rather shocked you can’t figure it out
Getting on base (OBP) = important
Getting around the bases (SLG) = important
High rate of singles (BA) = not important
So if you could never figure out why a guy like Wilton Guerrero couldn’t find a ML job despite that career .282 BA, now you know – a .282 BA is meaningless when you can’t draw a walk (3.6 BB%) or hit the ball out of the infield (.087 ISO) otherwise (all of it combining for a beyond pitiful career .282/.308/.369 line, and lack of a job for Wilton)
And
.294/.343/.533, .366 wOBA, 130 wRC+
.217/.336/.533, .362 wOBA, 130 wRC+
Obviously the second is Schimpf from 2016, and the other is Manny Machado that very same year. So your position is Machado sucked that season? Or does the fact he got so many singles to raise that BA so high up magically take him from “suck” to “awesome” despite otherwise ending up a Schimpf clone at the plate?
Lastly,
Schimpf 16 – 330 PA, 48 R, 51 RBI
That rate carried over to 676 PA would have been 98.3 R and 104.5 RBI …or a combined 202.8 Runs he would have been involved in. In 676 PA, Anthony Rizzo similarly managed to be involved in 203 Runs
…now are you beginning to grasp why OBP and SLG are important while BA is rather meaningless? Schimpf, despite being on the Padres and having a .217 BA, was producing Runs at a Rizzo rate because he was producing near identical to Machado in the stats that matter.
Or is all that still just too far over your head, and you’ll continue to grasp tightly to that 1880s stat you apparently love so much?
10-15 meaningless walks over the course of a season in which there were probably a bunch of blow outs and he seen a bunch of relievers in mop up duty with terrible command and having an even bigger bum batting behind him means just as little as the 10-15 meaningless base hits you speak of. I can care less about batting average as well but 1 day you number crunchers are gonna have to start actually watching games to have an opinion on a players value. He is a bum who got a hold of a couple balls over the course of a season on an extremely bad team. Now he has been exposed and has no value to anybody. When Atlanta got him in the spring & I looked at his numbers I was excited thought maybe he could get a look at 3rd and have a power threat in the line up we desperately need and then I actually watch this guy play and he was horrendous. Glad he is gone and we got a guy who can catch the young guys in AAA now
So what if he does that on the 2016 Cubs? Does it count as a good season for Schimpf if it’s in meaningful games? Does Joey Votto actually suck since the Reds have sucked for a few years? Saying Schimpf was bad in 2016 is wrong, and there’s only one stat that people realize is very flawed that would back you up.
This trade doesn’t make sense for the Angels. When Kinsler comes off the DL, this guy will be on waivers again. He is out of minor league options. Marte is out of minor league options. Atlanta is getting a gold glove caliber catcher. The Angels get a guy for two weeks. Who can’t hit. Spare me your bs. He has similar numbers to Danny Espinosa. Where is he now? Singles aren’t important? Man what ever you are smoking, you need to quit. A team down by 3 in the 9th inning, with runner on first. A single puts them in the better chance to tie the game. A homer won’t mean anything unless the next guy hits one.
Singles are important, but if all you do is hit singles, then you are less valuable. Schimpf gets on base, and hits for power.
You left the more important stat
His 2017 numbers that sealed his fate in the majors
Well said
I’m not a General Manager but if i have a choice between Machado and Schimpf , ill take Machado
I don’t think your in the minority if that’s who you pick
@steelerbravenation,
You’ve now basically admitted your argument here boils down to “I hate him, I hate him, I hate him” in a total emotional breakdown – which was pretty obvious prior even to your admittance, if we are honest. But it makes it curious why you would expect anyone to take your posts seriously, as emotional meltdowns are not a serious communication style.
However, I do want to address one line:
“He is a bum who got a hold of a couple balls over the course of a season”
It wasn’t one season, it was both; and he actually increased his HR rate in his followup
7.2% HR/AB – 2016 (20 HR/276 AB)
8.5% HR/AB – 2017 (14 HR/197 AB)
It makes him one of the best HR hitters in the history of the game. And that is not hyperbolic, as his being 6th all-time (min 300PA) in ISO shows:
.348 – Ruth
.325 – McGuire
.315 – Judge
.309 – Bonds
.309 – Bellinger
.297 – Schimpf
…and that is why people are intrigued by Schimpf
(Taking it a step further, his total hitting game visible from his career line is nearly identical to that of Joey Gallo so far, with the big difference being Schimpf plays 2B instead of 1st)
And even if his true talent level lay merely right between his absolutely amazing 2016 and poor 2017 followup (a pretty good bet based off his BABIP splits) he is a top-10 hitting 2B in the game (as his being 8th in wRC+ for the position from 16-17 shows) – again, something which is intriguing
Of course he’s also 30 now and will be declining over the coming seasons. But as the game switches more and more to his launch-angle approach, Schimpf will be studied throughly as his ML showing is the poster child for what can go very right and where the issues may lay (he is already showing us BAbip on liners might be the key, with that being the glaring difference between his 16 & 17 seasons)
Dismissing batting average is foolish. Schimpf is the textbook case for why its not meaningless. Without batting average, the other stats are unsustainable. Power fluctuates more among those who can’t sustain their average. The slugging percentage of an out is zero.
You have that backwards; Schimpf is actually the textbook case for why BA is meaningless. He has specifically designed his entire career off not bothering to get hits and yet has produced bat value at a rate that is +14% better than Average over his career doing that.
He is also a chunk of the reason why you see so many guys adjusting their approach these days as they try to imitate his FB-theory approach; something he truly is in a league of his own in:
– All-time highest FB% at 64.6
(next highest is just 58.6, while third is almost 10% less at 54.9% and fewer than 20 are above 50% for their career)
– All-time lowest GB% at 19.6%
(next lowest is 25.6, and only 9 guys total have been under 30%)
Those two anti-BA extremes have resulted in a career .340 wOBA and 114 wRC+
…and when you can be 14% better than average while hitting below the Mendoza-Line, it proves beyond doubt how meaningless BA truly is
And as far as consistency, the difference between his two seasons can mostly be tracked back to a BAbip fluctuation on Line Drives (he was .852 in 2016, .313 in 2017; while League Average is around .675. All his other numbers were very consistent)
Well said. Batting average is and will always be the least valuable part of a slash line. 2016 Schimpf shows how it is a bad stat
He will not pan out whether you agree with “fools” who have different opinions than, you or not. You keep on pretending you know your stuff though…
Another idiot who looks at BA and doesn’t understand the more important stats
He’s best known for a solid 2016 campaign in San Diego, where he batted .217/.336/.533 (130 wRC+)
Since you obviously don’t know, that 130 WRC+? That means 30% above league average. Idiot
How was his 2017?
1st, the conversation was: Did he have a “solid 2016 campaign in San Diego?” …so I assume you can grasp how meaningless 2017 is to the conversation
2nd, as I told you in the post above, 2017 was seemingly luck regression with his overall career numbers likely being his true talent level.
And what are his overall numbers?
14% better than average hitter despite a BA below the Mendoza-line
That is all consistent with what he did for years in the minors as well, making him a pioneer and case-study for the changes taking place in the game at this time. If you don’t like his game, boy are you going to hate the future with so many hitters now trying to imitate it
Looks like Suzuki needs a DL stint.
Damn 4 teams in 6 months. Decent pop but horrible avg. To many other players like that but i guess with Kinsler hurt they felt they needed depth
Hey, what is being said in Atlanta about the Phillies after this series? Kapler is being strung up on a lamp post by the Phillies postgame show team.
There’s not too much being said about him by the announcers and postgame team, but among Braves fans and writers, we’re just as confused by him as you all are. Especially bizarre was tonight’s Hoby Milner situation, not only bringing him in AGAIN to face Freeman the third straight time this series, but also the controversy with using him in the first place. You all are probably skewing him much more than we are, but he’s not finding much support here. Of course, we’ve also been focused on our own manager’s shortcomings as well this week…
Kapler stated in his postgame comments that the Phillies “would make the postseason in 2018”
The reaction from Ricky Botallico was memorable. The postgame crew usually is the last to turn on the manager. They are actually questioning Kapler’s mental state.
Kapler looked like he was fighting a horrific anxiety attack or is in the middle of a manic episode. The contrast between Kapler and Pete Mackanin could not be more stark. Mackanin would be sitting at a desk talking calmly until there were no more questions.
I don’t see how Matt Klentek survives this if Kapler goes up in flames and right now Kapler is smoking to the point of bursting into a raging inferno.
If Gabe hadn’t been bailed out by the umps letting Milner warm us as much as he needed before throwing a pitch — a clear violation of the new pace-of-play rules — it would have made Kapler look even more out of his depth. Still, using 10 pitchers in a 15-3 blowout won’t score many points with the locals in Philly.
On the postgame Ben Davis said that Pedro Florimon actually worked on being a pitcher in spring training. The other two guys on the panel just gave guffawing laughs and Davis with a look of bewilderment said “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
Ben Davis lol
“I was a member of the 1998 padres”
Lol, you were called up for a few September games
LOL wtf is your problem w/ Snit now?
I swear, fans are never happy bc they’re unable to look at the long-term picture of a situation. Instant instant instant.
gabe is special and unique
The Phillies have nothing to do with this article? Why do you always have to bring The Phillies into a discussion about The Braves and Angels?
Much better trade than I expected for Perez due to him being on waivers. Probably a better return than Atlanta expected, too.
Hope it works out for all involved.
I think that Kapler made basic mistakes in the first game of taking his starting pitcher out at 68 pitches while he had a fine game going and not playing his best outfielder because Kapler thought that there would be few fly balls.If this will be typical it shows that he relies on statistics too much instead of just using baseball common sense.There needs to be judicious use of both.Otherwise you could get a robot to run the game.
He also thinks that any good athlete can play anywhere on the diamond with little experience.It is good to have players who are flexible but they need experience which cannot come during the ML season if they want to win games.
There is an important place for statistical analysis in MLB.It amazed me that Ruben Amaro Jr from Stanford University was so slow in adopting it.I believe that he was told to sign Ryan Howard to that extension when he did but he should have embraced analytics which he never did.
Sounds so much like Matheny of the Cards when he started managing. He’s not much better now as well !
Fantastic trade for the braves. Get that toxic awful player out of our system any way possible. It would have been a fantastic deal if the angels sent us toilet paper instead of an actual player. Schimpf can’t hit and can’t field. If I were the angels, I would have tried putting a rock as a backup before playing Schimpf.
Dumb dumb he isn’t toxic
Kemp is toxic
Ryan is a nice guy that send good energy out there
Do you have ANY evidence that he is a toxic player? From what I’ve read, people love the guy.
As for Schimpf. I do feel a little sorry for the guy. 4 teams in the last couple most moving from one side of the country to the other then back. Takes a toll
Have never understood why fans label BA as “a bunch of singles”, when BA’s biggest flaw is that it doesn’t know the difference between a single and a grand slam.
Useless? Far from it. BA is generally 80% or more of a players OBP. Is 80% of OBP useless?
Yes we’ve moved on to newer more detailed stats, but there are good reasons BA has stood the test of time. It is a necessary building block of the slash line.
Nicely stated.
He was 0-30 this spring… I’ll throw up a stat to u…. that’s 0 home runs which means 0 grand slams lol. Avg has some value buddy boy. U can’t hit only home runs with no avg but and u can’t hit high avg with zero home runs
Alex Sanchez – career .296 BA, career 87 wRC+ for a (-)28.5 offense overall (1651 PA)
Ryan Schimpf – career .195 BA, career 114 wRC+ for a 15.3 offense overall (527 PA)
There is a 27% gap between those players batting value, with the sub-200 BA guy being 27% better than the 300 hitter
BA itself is pointless and gives absolutely no indication of your value at the plate. It is a truly meaningless stat which could go away completely and nothing at all would change (well, calculating ISO would be a slightly more complex process, but that’s it)
Getting on base (OBP) is important – how you got there (BA) is not
I agree OBP is important. But the guy is a toxic hitter. I want someone who shows they can hit the ball often, with authority (power), and can get on base also. In an ideal world right?.. but you people cherry picking stats to make this god awful player sound like he’s the next babe Ruth in just insane. I’m not advocate I hate him cause of his avg. I never said that. I’m saying the guy flat sucks and has no place on the braves roster. His approach is straight toxic and awful. Listen, he’s 0-30 this spring. He has zero hr and .000 avg. so y’all argument to me that avg doesn’t mean anything is not valid in this guys case at the moment cause he has tanked.
And it is labeled as an indication of how many Singles you hit because that is basically all it tells you when presented with OBP and SLG (while it tells you nothing without those two)
Case in point.
.290/.368/.351 – everyone can look at that and recognize Luis Castillo as a singles hitter (1608 over 6510 AB to be exact)
.252/.339/.472 – everyone can look at that and recognize Curtis Granderson as a slugger with low single rates (specifically 943 over 6582 AB)
Singles is really all it indicates
…and if someone merely said “Castillo hits 290, Granderson hits 252” it tells you absolutely nothing at all
BA by design shows the % of hits, all hits, including extra base hits. It does exactly what it is intended to do.
That % is the majority of OBP, hence “building block”.
You anti avg peeps… can someone find a stat of hall of fame players that batted .200 with a bunch of HR’s???
Hall of fame players are outliers in every sense of the word. This isn’t advocating for Schimpf or Gallo or whoever as a hall-of-famer, because almost no players in history have become hall of famers. That’s reserved for guys that do everything well, as it should be. I’m advocating that Schimpf is a useful player, not a hall-of-famer. That’s a huge difference. Most teams playing in 2018 – or any season – have zero future Hall of Famers on their roster. Most teams need useful players.
Hall of famers are useful players. #fact #ifyouwanttobesuccessfuldowhatsuccesfulpeopledo
Look, typically high avg players generally have some pop in their game. Not all, but they have a skill of being able to put the bat on the ball successfully often. That’s what I want. Yes chicks dig the long ball and it’s “useful.” But going up to the play with poor eye hand coordination and swinging for the fence every AB is doing no one any good.
Btw I’m more playing devils advocate more than anything. I do agree with the stances a lot of people if with players like Schimpf. But my god using him as your primary argument is just bad. The guy sucks and is awful. I’m sorry but he is. Cherry picking stats to make him look good is just lazy
Or cherry picking stats to make him look bad.