Tuesday, April 26, 2016

The Last Dragon and Travis Shaw



Shaw Nuff. Travis Shaw delivered a three-run homer tonight in Atlanta (not included in statistics below).


Shaw isn't making any reservations for Cooperstown, but he's been solid in the early going (small sample size). Back in the day, I used a simple formula for production (R + RBI - HR)/Games. Coming into tonight Shaw was 15/19 and as of now its 18/20. Anything approaching unity (1) is spectacular.

For illustration, in 1967 Carl Yastrzemski had 112 runs, 44 homers, and 121 RBI in 161 games (189/161). Jim Rice's rookie year, he had 92 runs, 22 homers, 102 RBI in 144 games (172/144). Rico Petrocelli's best year (1969) he had 92 runs, 40 homers, and 97 RBI in 154 games (149/154).

Last season Shaw had 31 runs, 13 homers, and 36 RBI in 65 games (54/65). By comparison, Pablo Sandoval scored 43 runs, 10 homers, and 47 RBI in 126 games (80/126).

Add in that Shaw has been in the upper quintile of third basemen defensively and Shaw has made a compelling argument for himself, regardless of Sandoval's health. Shaw 'nuff...


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