Matt Kremnitzer: Schoop is giving O's a bat they sorely need

It's easy to get carried away when talking about the promise of a young major leaguer. If a player is performing well, even for an extended stretch, it's hard not to ponder his future. Really, that's part of being a fan - wondering what is and what could be. But there's a game tomorrow, and the day after, and probably the day after that; things change in a hurry.

Such is the case for Jonathan Schoop. Only 23, Schoop is certainly no Manny Machado. That's not a dig at all, as Machado is one of the most talented and electrifying young talents in baseball. Schoop, meanwhile, drastically needed a strong start to the 2015 season after underwhelming at the plate in 2014. In his first full year, he was better than expected defensively at second base, showcasing a strong arm and quick turns on double plays, but he was awful offensively. He posted a batting line of just .209/.244/.354, and his wRC+ of 65 was the lowest among all major league second basemen with more than 400 trips to the plate.

So Schoop needed that quick start, and he got it. After his first 29 plate appearances this season, he had a wRC+ of 156 and seemed to be demonstrating better plate discipline. Unfortunately, he injured his knee on April 17 in and wasn't able to return to the O's lineup until early July. The Orioles did not rush Schoop back, and in more than 120 plate appearances since the injury, he's put up a 135 wRC+. Overall for 2015, Schoop has a 142 wRC+ in 155 plate appearances, and has walked a little more often this season and struck out less.

Schoop hasn't played enough to say anything definitive, but so far his plate discipline numbers are encouraging. Schoop swung early and often at all types of pitches last season, but this year he's chasing fewer pitches outside the strike zone and going after more pitches in the zone. He's laying off more pitches both down and away and up and away in particular. He's also making more contact on pitches outside the zone. He's making a little less contact on pitches inside the strike zone, but he's also done more damage when he's made contact (.145 ISO in 2014 versus .227 ISO in 2015).

Two numbers unlikely to remain high are Schoop's batting average on balls in play (.337) and his home run to fly ball ratio (20.5 percent). This season, the average major league hitter has a .299 BABIP and a HR/FB rate of 11 percent. But funny things happen in small samples. Strange things can even happen over the course of a full season. Regardless, those two numbers are bumping Schoop's batting line up more than it probably should be. But that doesn't mean all of Schoop's offensive success this year is being driven by good fortune. He's been hitting the ball harder this year, which is rather important. Here's the percentage of Schoop's balls in play that were classified as hit hard:

2014: 26 percent
2015: 34 percent

He's also hit for much more power against four-seam fastballs, changeups and sliders

It's unclear exactly how good Schoop is, and that's just fine. His true talent is most likely somewhere below the outstanding defensive season he had in 2014 but above the terrible offensive numbers. At best, he continues to grow and develops into a good offensive and defensive weapon. There are worse things than having an above-average defensive second baseman who hits for power, who is also young, relatively cheap and under team control for several more seasons. Considering the dearth of position player talent in the O's farm system and the likely departure of impending free agents after this season, Schoop's development might not be an absolute requirement, but it's unquestionably important.

Matt Kremnitzer blogs about the Orioles at Camden Depot. Follow him on Twitter: @mattkremnitzer. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.