Travis Shaw

[The Gray Eagle]

Shaw's slumping a bit now, going 2 for his last 17 before today with only one walk in his last 9 games. In 84 at bats in AAA, he's at .262/.297/.333. He has only 5 walks to 29 whiffs at this level, which is disconcerting.
 
I wonder if he is pressing or back to trying to hit home runs again. Maybe he is just trying to adjust to more advanced pitchers not walking him so much. Shaw is capable of falling into deep slumps, so hopefully he'll break out of this one soon.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

Shaw's AAA numbers so far: 268/307/456 in 149 at-bats at that level. He's only walked 10 times with Pawtucket, to go with 44 strikeouts. The power is improving, as he's got 6 HRs in AAA, with 3 in his last 7 games.
 
Seems like the pitchers at this level are coming after him and challenging him more, not wanting to let him walk, and he seems to be adjusting lately. Hopefully the power will continue and the walks will go back up to where he's always been.

 

[gammoseditor]

Through 20 games in July Shaw is hitting .342/.437/.562 and over his last 10 it's .441/.548/.618.  Considering his ceiling before the season was a regular on a bad team I think it's safe to say his stock is way up this year.  It's starting to look like he could possibly replace Naopli after next year.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

Shaw hit another HR last night, his 9th with Pawtucket and 20th of the season at both levels.
 
In his last 10 games, he's 14 for 35 with 7 extra base hits and 7 walks to 5 Ks.
 
His AAA numbers are now .290/347/.491 in 214 at-bats. His overall season numbers for both levels combined are .297/.374/.517. A little disappointing that he is only hitting .210/.265/.306 against lefties in AAA though (In only 62 at-bats so far though.)
 
He handled lefties well at lower levels, which was great to see. Hopefully he will get it going against lefties soon, as it would make him a more likely potential fulltime player, rather than a platoon type.

 

[SouthernBoSox]

The flip side of his inability to hit lefties at AAA is that he is crushing RHP.

If he can even be decent against lefties you're looking at a .380/.500 type of hitter.

We can only pray.

 

[smastroyin]

The real mystery of Shaw is his AA regression last year.  What were the causes, and will he repeat the struggle.  I will be honest, on the surface you can't be too impressed with a guy beating up the Eastern League at age 24 in his third go-round.  On the other hand, he held his own in his initial promotion there two years ago and is doing so again in his AAA promotion now (though walking at half his normal rate).  It would obviously be nice to see him continue to make strides, even if he ends up as a guy who only has value during his age 26-30 years.
 
And the reason this is of some concern to me is that the AAA-MLB gap seems as wide as it has ever been right now, though that opinion might just be overly informed by the close to home struggles of XB and JBJ.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

Shaw is now hitting .273/.324/.457 in AAA in 282 at-bats, with 10 HRs. He's fanned 70 times, with 23 walks, quite a difference from his AA ratio of 29 walks to 23 Ks. But after whiffing 50 times in his first 46 AAA games, he's only fanned 20 times in his last 26 games, so his K rate has been improving nicely. (Though he has been K-ing more in his .641-OPS August than he did in his .957-OPS July.)
 
Combining both levels, he's hit 21 HRs this year in 459 at-bats, slugging a combined .492 in the minors. Good to see some power from a Red Sox prospect in AAA. 

 

[The Gray Eagle]

Shaw only had a .591 OPS in August, bringing his AAA numbers down to .262/.321/.431 in 313 at-bats. He had only 28 walks to go with his 76 Ks though.
 
In his combined numbers at both AA and AAA, he hit .278/.353/.473, with 21 total HRs this season.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

Shaw has been lousy so far this season: .169/.235/.273 in 77 at-bats. At least his walk/strikeout numbers aren't bad: 10 whiffs to 7 walks. 

 

[The Gray Eagle]

Shaw's slow start doesn't keep him from getting called up to the bigs to start tonight in Toronto, with Ortiz suspended for one game.
 
Surely it's a one-game-only shot, but congrats to Travis on the callup to the Show.
 
Shaw's always been streaky, and he's 4 for his last 13 with a HR and 6 RBIs, so maybe he can keep it going tonight.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

Shaw had a huge game in the majors the other day, with 2 HRs. Nice to see him do that in the majors. 
 
Interesting that so far in the big leagues he has played more innings at 3B than at 1B, and has even stood in LF for 3 innings. 
 
Fun with tiny sample sizes: Shaw now has a career major league OPS of 1.136 (.391/.440/.696) with an OPS+ of 206!
Without a doubt, he will continue to hit like that for the rest of his career.