Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 9-5-23

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (All Times Central):

Iowa vs. Omaha, 6:38 pm
Tennessee at Mississippi, 6:35 pm
South Bend vs. Quad Cities, 6:05 pm
Myrtle Beach vs. Columbia, 6:05 pm

Probable Starters:

Iowa: TBD
Tennessee: RHP Manuel Espinoza
South Bend: RHP Tyler Santana (86.2 IP, 4.05 ERA, 4.32 FIP, 76 K, 33 BB)
Myrtle Beach: RHP Erian Rodríguez 

[Hrubes20]

Shaw bomb #1 at AA

[Transmogrified Tiger]

and now a ground rule double for Shaw, the search for a level he can't hit .400 at continues

[muntjack]

So Shaw is Kris Bryant, then? 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

PCA grand slam off a lefty

[WhyCantWeWin]

Man I hope they are aggressive and start Shaw off at AAA next year. He's just been killing it everywhere

[CubinNY]

16 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Man I hope they are aggressive and start Shaw off at AAA next year. He's just been killing it everywhere

There is no reason to do that. 

[WhyCantWeWin]

6 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

There is no reason to do that. 

They probably will though given his quick ascent. Only thing he hasn't done much of is take his walks. If he continues to hit well to close out this AA season and show some patience then he'll be there at AAA next opening season. 

[Tryptamine]

29 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Man I hope they are aggressive and start Shaw off at AAA next year. He's just been killing it everywhere

He's mashing no doubt, but if he wants a long MLB career he's going to need to take some walks. Between A+ and AA, he's just over 4% which is pretty awful. Comparatively, even Nico has a 6.7 BB%

[Tim]

13 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

He's mashing no doubt, but if he wants a long MLB career he's going to need to take some walks. Between A+ and AA, he's just over 4% which is pretty awful. Comparatively, even Nico has a 6.7 BB%

Given the results, I wonder how much of the lack of walks is because of chase versus how much is because he's just mashing everything in the strike zone. 

One way or another, there's going to be adjustment required as he continues to move up.

[Jason Ross]

7 minutes ago, Tim said:

Given the results, I wonder how much of the lack of walks is because of chase versus how much is because he's just mashing everything in the strike zone. 

One way or another, there's going to be adjustment required as he continues to move up.

From my eye; he's just mashing everything in the zone...and he's making contact with most everything out side of it. His bat control is really, really good. He also swings, a ton. So he's kind of in Nico Hoerner territory. Hoerner is bottom 30% in chase rate, but 99% in whiff rate. I'd like to see Shaw knock some of that out, because he'll probably do much better if he starts swinging at good strikes instead of, well, anything.

The positive thing is that when Shaw gets into 2 strike counts, he really dials back the leg kick, while maintaining power (I.E. 2 strike triple Sunday afternoon I highlighted in the weekly recap). My fear is that better pitchers will exploit Shaw, not so much on 2 strike counts, but early in the count with chase pitches designed to get him to roll over. We saw these issues when the league realized that Frank Schwindel would swing at anything thrown his way. Not saying Shaw=Schwindel, just that my fear is that could be Shaw's fatal flaw if he doesn't work on some things and be a bit more selective.

Edited September 6, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[CubinNY]

8 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

From my eye; he's just mashing everything in the zone...and he's making contact with most everything out side of it. His bat control is really, really good. He also swings, a ton. So he's kind of in Nico Hoerner territory. Hoerner is bottom 30% in chase rate, but 99% in whiff rate. I'd like to see Shaw knock some of that out, because he'll probably do much better if he starts swinging at good strikes instead of, well, anything.

The positive thing is that when Shaw gets into 2 strike counts, he really dials back the leg kick, while maintaining power (I.E. 2 strike triple Sunday afternoon I highlighted in the weekly recap). My fear is that better pitchers will exploit Shaw, not so much on 2 strike counts, but early in the count with chase pitches designed to get him to roll over. We saw these issues when the league realized that Frank Schwindel would swing at anything thrown his way. Not saying Shaw=Schwindel, just that my fear is that could be Shaw's fatal flaw if he doesn't work on some things and be a bit more selective.

They should hire Mark Bellhorn to give him some hitting philosophy, lol. His bat-to-ball skills are off the charts. No one wants a Javy Baez approach.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Shaw can max out at 17 games at AA, unless he's hitting like .450 I don't see any harm in having him start 2024 in Tennessee.  The last couple years(Morel, Amaya, Wicks) has shown that's not gonna prevent them from impacting the big league club if they're ready, plus you stay away from a little bit of the Iowa April weather.

[Rex Buckingham]

Nope, no need for AAA to start next year for Shaw.  If he continues what he's doing to finish the year, then tears up AA for a month or so to start next year, then you make whatever move you need to.  

[jumbo]

Shaw was SS in college, but 2B in MLB? Does he have other position flexibility given Nico is pretty good defensively at 2B? 

[Tim]

1 minute ago, jumbo said:

Shaw was SS in college, but 2B in MLB? Does he have other position flexibility given Nico is pretty good defensively at 2B? 

If Madrigal can handle 3B, Shaw can.

[Jason Ross]

15 minutes ago, jumbo said:

Shaw was SS in college, but 2B in MLB? Does he have other position flexibility given Nico is pretty good defensively at 2B? 

2b or 3b. As Tim mentioned, the Cubs made Nick Madrigal, who had a bottom-barrel arm strength% in 2022 into a capable 3b. I would trust that the Cubs could extract that out of Matt Shaw, who, while kind of squatty and not known for his arm, remains pretty athletic overall. He's been playing 3b in the MiLB recently, so I think that's the path he will take unless he proves it's simple untenable.