© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Some players make a career out of being free-swinging hitters. Vladimir Guerrero had a Hall of Fame career swinging at any pitch – in, or sometimes well out of the strike zone – he fancied. For most of his career, Pablo Sandoval was the same way.
But for a power-swinging rookie who’s just getting adjusted to speed and quality of MLB pitching, free swinging is not exactly a recipe for success. No one has had to face that harsh lesson quicker that Chris Shaw.
The Giants rookie is 1-for-22 with 13 strikeouts in his first 11 games. His one hit – a monster home run against the Colorado Rockies – came in spectacular fashion. He’s picked up two RBIs outside of that, but his at-bats have too often been unfruitful – and brief.
In Shaw’s 22 at-bats, he’s whiffed on 51 percent of the pitches he’s swung at and chased 53.7 percent of pitches out of the strike zone. The league average on whiffs is 23.9 percent and 28.2 percent on chasing pitches. Shaw is nearly twice the league average in both categories.
He had 24 home runs with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats this season, but power isn’t worth much when you don’t put the bat on the ball.
Shaw will make his seventh start of the season this afternoon against the Rockies. Before the game, Bruce Bochy acknowledged Shaw’s troubles and talked about the difficulties of being a young hitter trying to adjust to the big-league level. He compared Shaw to another young player on the Rockies who went from being a free swinger to an MVP candidate.
“You look at all these hitters when they came up, a lot of them went through their struggles and they chased pitches,” Bochy said. “That’s the norm, it really is. I think you look at Trevor Story over there. He used to chase a lot of pitches and now you look at him and what he’s doing and that’s just from playing and getting those reps and I think that’s the case for Shaw.”
The most important thing for Bochy is encouraging players to maintain their aggression. Playing scared, or tentative is not an option.
“The thing you want with players is you don’t want them afraid to make a mistake,” Bochy said. “You can’t coach in a negative tone like, ‘Don’t swing at that high pitch.’ You want them to be on the aggressive end and the same with playing defense. They may make a mistake, but I’d rather them be out there trying to make a major contribution versus playing cautious and afraid to make a mistake. You can’t play the game like that.”
Bochy said power hitters generally take longer to develop and get used to MLB pitching. For a player like Shaw, who lives in the age of advanced analytics, it’s even tougher not to overthink at the plate.
The availability of stats and making tweaks late in the season all add up to a host of information that Shaw has little time to comprehend and implement while also facing the task of hitting an exponentially more difficult level of pitching.
“I think the simpler you keep it for most players, the better off you are,” Bochy said. “It’s a tough one when you have a young player and you’re trying to make some tweaks during the season, especially at the end of the season… I think sometimes they do get too much information, they get too caught up in what the pitcher has. You have to remind yourself you’re probably going to get a good pitch to hit. The key is, don’t miss it.”
Bochy said Shaw may be a candidate to play winter ball – as Bochy did as a player for five seasons. For the skipper, it all comes down to reps.
“Really, at this point I just want him to be himself,” Bochy said. “Don’t try to be too patient. Now, you get caught where you’re letting good pitches go by. If you chase a pitch, so be it, you chase a pitch. I want him to keep his aggressiveness. I’ve said he just needs at-bats, he need reps and it’s going to get better.”