Schebler played five sports in high school. The way Iowa's school calendar works, baseball is a summer sport.

"I have a hard time explaining this to people outside of Iowa," he said. "I played football and basketball, and the coaches let me play soccer and run track in the spring."

Schebler was a shortstop in high school and mostly a designated hitter at Des Moines Area Community College. As a professional, he was shifted to the outfield.

In 2010, Scott hit .446 with 20 homers for Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa. He was going to transfer to Wichita State.

But in June 2010, the Dodgers persuaded him to sign, via scout Scott Little, after they chose him in the 26th round. He signed for $300,000 on August 16 -- the signing deadline.

In 2011, Baseball America rated Schebler as the 23rd-best prospect in the Dodgers organization.

After being out of the book for three years, Scott was back in, at #17, in the spring of 2014. They had him at #8 in the winter before 2015 spring camps opened, and at #14 a year later, early in 2016.

In 2013, the Dodgers named Schebler their Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year award winner. Scott was second in the California League with 27 home runs. The outfielder also had 13 triples, 91 RBIs, 16 stolen bases, a .581 slugging percentage, and scored 95 runs in 125 games with Rancho Cucamonga. 

Scott held school track records in the 55-meter, long jump, and the 800-meter relay at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School in Iowa. But it wasn’t until his senior year of high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that the track team successfully lobbied Schebler to fit them into his schedule that already included baseball, football, basketball and soccer.

Because track season coincided with soccer season, he went to meets only when it didn’t conflict with soccer. Still, he set school records in the long jump and 55-meter dash.

“It was one of those things that kept me busy,” Schebler said of playing five sports. “I really enjoyed it. I liked the busy-ness. It kept me out of trouble, I think. Soccer helped me a ton,” he said. “Eye-foot coordination is a lot tougher than eye-hand coordination. I don’t know if it translated (to baseball), but you like to think it did.” (C. Trent Rosencrans - Baseball America - 4/08/2016)

After first seeing Schebler in Spring Training, followed by his appearance in the 2014 Southern League All Star Game when he played left field for the Northern Division as a member of the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts, Bernie Pleskoff noted Schebler when he hit a home run off Braves prospect J.R. Graham. He also doubled and had a walk in that game. “Outstanding athletic ability. Brings thump, speed. Bright future,” Pleskoff wrote in his assessment of the then 23-year-old left-fielder. 

Pleskoff also suggested how Schebler can improve his game: “Schebler has work to do recognizing pitches and being more patient at the plate,” says Pleskoff. “Using more discipline and recognizing breaking balls and off speed pitches outside the strike zone will be one area that will help with gaining better contact and cutting down the strikeouts. Pitchers, however, will have difficulty getting fastballs by him that are anywhere near the strike zone. Schebler can feast on mistakes.”

It seems Schebler has made some adjustments since Pleskoff watched him in the Southern league All Star Game. In the second half of the season, he stuck out 44 times and walked 26 times while posting a .385 OBP. He credits hitting coach Shawn Wooten with helping him shorten his swing. 

“Everybody told me, ‘You have really, really quick hands,’” Schebler said. “I realized what they were seeing.” (Uhlman - thinkbluela.com - 11/16/14) 

Schebler wants to be a Dodger and play in Dodger Stadium but he is not letting himself get discouraged with the overcrowded Dodgers outfielder in front of him.

“You keep working hard,” said Schebler. “There are 29 other teams. I’d love to play for the Dodgers. That’s my dream. They gave me the opportunity. But if I let that stress affect me, the other 29 teams are not going to see what I have.”  Smart kid. (Uhlman - thinkbluela.com - 11/16/14)

Schebler's bloodlines are notable (both parents are engineers), but you won't find them on Baseball-Reference.com. Schebler was drafted in the 26th round out of junior college two years before Corey Seager. He was a multisport star at an Iowa high school that didn't have a baseball team playing spring ball. Actually, Schebler was better known for his football ability.  

"My eventual JUCO coach, Dan Fitzgerald, told me baseball was my future," Schebler said. "Until my high school senior year, football was my sport. But my mom didn't want me to play football with all of that concussion stuff coming out. My coach really got my name out there. I really wasn't on the radar."  

Schebler was taken as a "draft-and-follow" selection, then he was offered $300,000 to spurn Wichita State after his breakout summer in the Northwoods League in Wisconsin.  

"Until then, I had never concentrated on one sport, so I never knew how good I could be," Schebler said. "I showed up at Rookie ball the same day as Joc Pederson. James Baldwin was on that club, and when I saw that he had every tool in the box, I thought that maybe I wouldn't have much of an opportunity. You always have a little self-doubt.  

"But that was also the first time I realized that I was hitting right alongside of Joc and Baldwin, and that gave me the confidence that I was performing the same as their top guys. That was the turnaround for me.  Maybe I have a chip on my shoulder, knowing I might only get one opportunity and they get four or five," Schebler said of the higher picks. "You're always searching for that little edge."

Seager said Schebler never displayed jealousy over the different hands they were dealt.  "He's way too genuine to be jealous; you could tell that's not how he was raised," Seager said. "When I moved up to the Cal League in 2014 and struggled, he was always coming up with ideas to try to get me through it."  Said Schebler: "Corey deserves everything he gets. Who am I to be jealous of him?"  (Gurnick - mlb.com - 9/17/15)

Scott talked about his mother, Deb: "Amazing woman; she took me to everything. I had an older sister, and she played softball. So the way it worked was our summers were kind of just slam packed. My Dad would always go with my sister. My mother would always take me to tournaments. We were already close, but that made us closer. She pretty much took me to every baseball event I've probably ever been a part of, pre-high school. Big thanks to her.

"Even now, she's the first person to text me after the game and the first person to text me in the morning. No matter the outcome, she doesn't care. If I need a little bit of motivation, she'll give it to me. If I need a pat on the back, she'll give that to me, too. I owe everything to her."  (Sheldon - MLB.com -5/5/16)

Scott is a naturally shy person.

Schebler wears a red T-shirt under his uniform on which is inscribed: "Win 2483."

What does that mean?

Someone figured out the average Major League batter who plays most of the games during a season, and Schebler said, "That means win every pitch.

"I was not a top prospect coming up, and I knew my window was always limited," Scott said. "I've always had a little chip on my shoulder and I haven't lost that. It is a little burning inside me that keeps me going. I wasn't a top draft pick so I always knew there were guys in the organization that were going to get more opportunities than me. It puts a little chip on your shoulder because you always want to prove somebody wrong.

"I didn't even get any looks out of high school from any baseball schools," Schebler said. "I thought I was going with football. I've been a little bit of an underdog all my career."

In addition to baseball, Scott played football, basketball, soccer and ran track in high school, setting school records in the 50-meter spring, long jump and 800-meter relay.

He wound up at Des Moines Area Community College in his native Iowa. And when he finally got drafted it was in the 26th round, by the Dodgers.

June 21-24, 2018: Scott was on the bereavement list.

TRANSACTIONS

June 2010: The Dodgers signed Schebler, via scout Scott Little, after they chose him in the 26th round, for $300,000 on August 16 -- the signing deadline.

Schebler has a sound lefthanded stroke and is short to the ball. He has a line-drive approach, hitting the ball to both gaps. He has very good power with good bat speed.

His plate discipline improved in 2013, as did his confidence. Schebler credits Quakes coach Johnny Washington, who also coached him at Rookie-level Ogden during the 2011 Pioneer League season, with his development as a hitter. In '13, Washington suggested a different timing mechanism. He ditched a toe top in favor of a half step toward the pitcher.

Scott focused on taking “three healthy hacks every time up,” he said, instead of being content with driving the ball to the gaps. His strikeouts jumped from 99 in 2012 in low Class A Great Lakes to 140 for the 2013 season, but his production took a leap as well.

"The biggest thing is that I am feeling more comfortable at the plate," said Schebler. "I've worked with Wash early every day. I have learned the important thing isn't stats, it's getting good swings. If you waste two at-bats in 10 games, that's 20 at-bats. I learned to concentrate at each at-bat and let it go after it is over."

Schebler draws comparisons with Matt Stairs and Travis Snider for his blue-collar approach, powerful, squat build and potent lefthanded bat. Evaluators praise him for his bat speed, barrel awareness and power to all fields, projecting him as an above-average power source and fringe hitter for average.

Scouts are concerned Schebler's holes on the inner-third of the plate will be exploited by better pitchers as he climbs the ladder. But, early in the 2014 season teams had success against Schebler by pitching him away and getting him to chase sliders off the plate. In the second half, he improved his pitch recognition, tightened up his plate discipline and forced pitchers to come into the zone, where he made them pay.

Scouts who once questioned his bat speed and ability to cover the inner third of the plate saw a quicker stroke in 2014. Schebler has above-average raw power that plays in games.

In May 2015, Scott had a talk with Dodgers farm director Gabe Kapler during a series in Las Vegas. Kapler told Schebler to stop worrying about his batting average because the Dodgers’ decision-makers weren’t concerned. The new front office relied on more sophisticated statistical analysis to evaluate players. They were more impressed with the exit velocity of Schebler’s contact and the percentage of balls he hit hard .

“I was struggling, batting average-wise, at the time,” said Schebler. “They’re like, ‘Well, there’s these other stats that you’re doing well at. Let’s get confidence from that.’

“Being a competitive person that I am and to look up at the scoreboard and see those numbers every time? Yeah, I was pretty surprised (to hear that from Kapler). It kind of calmed me down. It did. It gave me a little confidence that ‘Maybe I’m doing all right.’

"I went back to what I was originally doing. I was hitting the ball hard, but I wasn’t getting results so I started changing because I wasn’t getting results. Come to find out, I was doing fine at the beginning.”

Schebler has come into his own as a power hitter, slugging 27 home runs for Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga in 2013 and topping the Southern League with 28 homers for Double-A Chattanooga in 2014.

"He makes the pitcher pay in the zone with the best bat speed I saw among lefthanded batters in the league,” Mobile manager Andy Green said. “As the year progressed, his plate discipline improved, forcing the pitcher to come into the zone.”

In 2015, Scott was in Triple-A, and he tried to force his way to the Majors. He got caught up in over-swinging and chasing pitches out of the zone.

When Schebler is at his best he uses the whole field and does not expand his strike zone.

He can go deep to all fields with his plus raw power, putting up impressive exit velocity of his bat.

His average launch angle has decreased by five degrees. This has led to fewer fly balls and popups, while creating more line drives and grounders. By itself, that doesn’t mean much, but the 1.5 mph increase in average exit velocity is a big deal.

Last year, Schebler realized he could be an OK hitter by selling out for home runs. This year, he’s learned to become a really good hitter by going in the opposite direction. He’s hitting the ball harder by squaring up line drives instead of trying to elevate.


This approach has led to fewer home runs (though he does have eight of them) and walks, but he’s striking out less as well. That’s another critical piece of the puzzle. He’s putting the ball in play significantly more often than he did last season. Combined with the higher exit velocity and line drive rate, and you get an explosion of base hits.

Scott is an average left fielder, covering a lot of ground. He is improving his reads and jumps. He had not played the outfield before signing his first pro contract with the Dodgers.

"I had been a good athlete, so I thought playing the outfield would be easy," Schebler said. "I had a lot to learn and Damon Mashore (a Dodgers' Minor League instructor and former California League manager) has worked wonders with me."

Schebler a below-average throwing arm (a 40 grade on the 20-80 scouting scale), which eliminates him from right field, at least on a regular basis.

Defensively, Scott profiles best as a left fielder. He has enough speed and a strong and accurate enough arm to be an average defender at that corner. Schebler can also play right, but he probably would find more consistent comfort and confidence in left. (8/12/14)

July 4-16, 2015: Schebler was on the D.L.  

July 31-Aug 18, 2017: Scott was on the DL with left shoulder strain.

April 8-20, 2018: Scott was on the DL with right ulnar nerve contusion.