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ANALYSIS: It may be lost on people, but a baseball player's career isn't automatically over if they are just now performing in the majors at 28-years old, as is the current case with Padre infielder Ryan Schimpf. In 111 total AB for San Diego this season, Schimpf has a .953 OPS, has hit nine HR, has an XBH percentage of 14%, and a fantastic walk rate of 14.7%. He first appeared in June and struggled in his first 29 AB by hitting zero HR and producing a meager OPS of .462. Fortunately, he was given ample time to work out the kinks at the plate. In 78 AB in the month of July, Schimpf produced a 1.092 OPS, hit all nine of his HR for the season, and produced an XBH percentage of 16.1%. People may think that because he is on the older side at 28 that this is a fluke performance. However, over an eight year minor league career; Schimpf had an .830 OPS, an XBH percentage of 10.5%, and hit 128 HR in 2,579 AB. Since Schimpf averaged 322.4 AB per season, he would've averaged 25 HR per season if he had received 500 AB. Yes, Schimpf isn't a 21-year old phenom who shoots through the farm system and becomes a huge sensation; but he is a proven and time-tested power hitter who is pretty much doing exactly what he's done with a bat since 2009.
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