RADIO
Travis Shaw Pushes To Be Top-5 3B
7 years agoTo say that Travis Shaw benefitted from the move to Milwaukee from Boston would be an understatement. Unexpectedly, Shaw hit 31 home runs, 101 runs batted in, and added in 10 stolen bases. He produced an impressive .862 on-base plus slugging as well. His base on balls improved to just above league average, 9.9%. One area of interest is how Shaw will do against left-handed pitchers. In 2015, he did quite well against them with a .329 average, but he had a terrible .187 average against them in 2016. Shaw provided an adequate average against left-handers in 2017, producing a .250 average against left-handed pitchers. He is in a situation with plenty of opportunies. Miller Park continues to benefit left-handed hitters, assuming Shaw can increase his fly-ball percentage (37.6) by at least 5% to his career average. Also, Brewers’ manager Craig Counsell enjoys running, so there will continue to be an opportunity for Shaw to provide some stolen bases. If Shaw continues to improve his strikeout percentage (22.8) and becomes more consistent against left-handers, he could be undervalued, even drafted near the seventh round.
