Kyle Schwarber clobbers Johnny Cueto’s offering 470 feet (Video)
By John Buhler
Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber can rake. Here he is taking a worthless offering from San Francisco Giants’ Johnny Cueto 470 feet over the fence.
The Chicago Cubs are definitely feeling the World Series hangover. They find themselves at 22-21 through their first 43 games of 2017. The Kyle Schwarber experiment of hitting leadoff has not worked out so well. He is hitting only .184 with a .307 on-base percentage this season.
Whatever. Schwarber can still rake. We may never be entirely sure what position Schwarber will play for the Cubs, maybe left field, but he does his best work at the plate. After a lengthy rain delay at home against the San Francisco Giants, Schwarber turns on a lazy pitch from right-hander Johnny Cueto.
That Cueto offering was so lackluster that it should come as no surprise that Schwarber pulverized it. Schwarber got all of that pitch, crushing it 470 feet over the right field wall at Wrigley Field and well on to Sheffield Avenue.
Many expected both the Cubs and the Giants to be in the mix for big things in the Senior Circuit in 2017. Chicago can still definitely find itself, as the Cubs are only 2.5 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers at 25-19 in the National League Central.
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However, the same sort of optimism cannot be said for the Giants. San Francisco is in fourth place in the National League West. The Giants find themselves 9.5 games back of the best team in the National League in the Colorado Rockies at 29-17. With the Rockies, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in playoff positioning, it could be a lost year for Cueto’s Giants.
Getting Schwarber back to good at the plate would be huge for the Cubs. Catching Milwaukee is doable, as is the arch rival St. Louis Cardinals. The NL Central looks to be the most competitive of the three division in the National League. May the best team win.