Jonathan Schoop plays second base for the Orioles. A 24 year old, the 6’2”, 210 lbs. righty swinger has a power bat, but unless I’m mistaken not much else. Despite that fact, I seem to get attacked every time I say that Schoop isn’t exciting to me. I’m going to have to dig in to this in order to be able to analytically refute, or alternatively support, what folks seem to be thinking.

Here is a link to all the players that have been reviewed in the 2016 Player Profile Series.

MINORS

2010: Played at High-A and Rookie ball appearing in 62 games. Hit .290 with five homers, 35 RBI and a .803 OPS.

2011: Played at Low and High-A ball appearing in 128 games. He hit 13 homers with 71 RBI and 82 runs scored while sniping 12 bases. Batted .290 with a .781 OPS.

2012: Ranked as the 82nd best prospect in baseball by Baseball America and 85th according to Baseball Prospectus coming into the year. Appeared in 124 games at Double-A hitting 14 homers with 56 RBI and 68 runs scored. His average fell to .245 and his OPS to .710.

2013: Played at three levels but spent the majority of his season at Triple-A. In 81 games he hit .278 with a .790 OPS. Socked 14 homers with 52 RBI and 42 runs scored.

2015: Saw action in nine games hitting four bombs with seven RBI.

TOTALS: .268/.334/.412 with 50 HR, 256 RBI and 257 runs in 472 games

MAJORS

2013: Got a cup of coffee appearing in five games.

2014: Appeared in 137 games racking up 481 plate appearances. He hit a solid 16 homers but batted a pathetic .209 with a .598 OPS as one of the worst regulars in baseball.

2015: Saw action in just 86 games batting .279 with 15 homers in just 305 at-bats generating lots of interest. He also spent 78 days on the DL with a knee sprain.

POWER

Granted we’re only talking 817 plate appearances here, a very small sample size, but…

Schoop has a .169 Isolated Power mark as a big leaguer.
Isolated power reports the damage a batter can do (SLG-AVG).
The league average since 2013 is .147.

Schoop has a .407 SLG for his career.
The league average since 2013 is .404.

Schoop has a 1.28 GB/FB ratio for his career.
The league average since 2013 is 1.30.

Schoop has a 36.8 percent fly ball rate for his career.
The league average since he began his career is 34 percent.

You seeing anything there to get at all excited about?

Schoop has a 15.2 percent HR/FB ratio in his career.
The league average HR/FB ratio is about 10 percent.

Finally, something that stands out.

The question is – can he sustain that 15.2 percent rate? Is he the guy that posted a mark of 13.1 percent in 2014? Is he the masher that was up at 17.4 percent in 2015? Well, I’ve got bad news for those of you that think he’s the 2015 slasher. During his minor league career, from 2011-2014, he posted a HR/FB ratio of 13.1 percent which just so happens to be a match for his 2014 rate. This data would suggest that while 20 homers is certainly possible that a run to 25 homers that some people seem to be anticipating seems a bit outlandish despite his success with the long ball last season.

Sorry.

SPEED

He’s stolen four bases in 228 games. He stole 30 bases in 472 minor league games. He is a five steal type of guy.

Yippee.

AVERAGE / OBP

Schoop might be able to lift the ball a bit, but he’s not a very polished hitter.

In 774 at-bats Schoop has hit .238. Remember, he hit a mere .268 in the minors as well.

Schoop owns a .281 BABIP which is below the .290-300 league average.

Schoop owns a 16.1 percent line drive rate which is a cavernous fall from the league average of 20 percent.

He tries to pull everything. For his career 47 percent of his batted balls have been pulled. Obviously that leads to holes in a swing. Speaking of that…

Schoop has struck out 203 times in 817 plate appearances leading to a 24.8 percent strikeout rate. It’s actually way worse than that though. Schoop is the owner of a 15.3 percent swinging strike rate for his career. Of the 141 men who has 502 plate appearances last season only six posted a mark worse than that. Schoop simply makes contact at a rate far less than a league average hitter.

Schoop is also comically walk adverse. His lack of walks is utterly shameful. Schoop has walked 23 times in his career. Cliff Pennington walked 27 times last season and only had 249 plate appearances. Bryce Harper walked more than 23 times in two separate months last season (he had 22 or more walks in four of the six months of the 2015 season). Schoop is nauseating with his approach. His career 0.11 BB/K ratio is roughly one quarter of average. It’s pathetic really.  

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that as bad as things are overall that things are even worse when a lefty is on the hill. In 247 career plate appearances against portsiders Schoop has hit .216 with a .260 OBP and .294 SLG. Two ninety four slugging percentage folks. Wretched doesn’t begin to describe that. Schoop has hit four homers with 12 RBIs in half a season of work against lefties. He can’t be in your lineup when a lefty is on the bump.

COUNTING CATEGORIES: RBI / Runs

If I had to guess, and let’s face it I’m guessing all the time (hopefully in an educated manner), I’d say that Schoop hits in the bottom third of the Orioles lineup in 2016 (last season he appeared 15 times batting 5th, 28 times batting 6th, 18 times batting 7th, 16 times batting 8th and 8 times batting 9th). That isn’t a death blow to his totals in RBI and runs but it certainly ain’t gonna help. With his inability to get on base it’s hard to envision him posting a strong run scored mark even if he plays daily. The Orioles do have a strong lineup though, so perhaps he will be able to maintain a solid RBI total even if he does hit lower in the batting order.

Don’t forget to pick up your copy of the 2016 MLB Draft Guide which includes more than 600 Players Ranked, auction values, rookie reports, hitting and pitching targets as well as all the info you need if you’re ready to start playing DFS.

OUTLOOK

I was right. I just don’t see it with Schoop. If your goal is to find a middle infielder with 20 homer power, Schoop might be your man. If you’re goal is to find a refined hitter – keep moving. If your goal is to find a guy who is likely to break out – find another guy. He can’t hit lefties, doesn’t know what the term walk even means and simply put swings and misses too much to be considered a breakout candidate.

10-team Mixed: Can’t hit lefties, doesn’t steal bases and will be lucky to reach the league average in batting average. I have no interest here.

12-team Mixed: See my comments in the 10-team section.

15-team Mixed: I can start to consider Schoop here, but even so, it would only be as a reserve round add when I looked at my team, felt very strongly about my batting average outlook and I had a need for power. Personally, I still wouldn’t draft him. Just too many holes for me.

AL-Only: The only place that I would draft him with the expectation that he could be in my starting lineup. The holes aren’t going anywhere but every middle infielder who plays daily has to be starting in this format (virtually all at least). I still see plenty of options at second base in AL leagues though so don’t feel like is all is lost if you end up with Logan Forsythe or Devon Travis instead of Schoop.

To see where Schoop ranks take a look at our 2016 Rankings that are part of the MLB Draft Guide.

Listen to Kyle Elfrink and I talk about the outlook of Schoop.

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 6 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).