Kelly Shoppach

[Zenny]

Shopp walked for the first time since the break, but he also went 0-3 with a K. His BB/K actually improved.

 

Season Line: .227/.311/.424/.735; .34 (32/95) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 13 HR, 44 RBI, 41 R

 

I'm a very disappointed Kelly Shoppach fan.

[Chrupzilla]

Certainly not an encouraging show down at AAA by Shoppach. With Tek possibly going, but possibly re-signing, Shopp could either be a very important part of the teams future ... or trade bait.

[Zenny]

I still think he'll be a damn fine player, but it's beginning to look like he'll need another year. There are still 3 solid months left in which he can prove himself to take the spot, but something needs to click fast and those adjustments he keeps talking about need to be made. I still think he has Gold Glove, 30-homer upside; but that will only come with improved contact and a better ability to hang in on low-and-away curveballs.

 

Of the games I've watched and listened to on 790, his entire problem has been low-and-away curves. He can take any fastball you throw at him over the fence, but if you screw with his timing even a little, he's done for. He needs to get his s*** together and get going.

[elsrbueno]

Well, Shopp will be 25 next year....he doesn't have a lot of time to prove he's ready for the bigs (since catchers pretty much start declining at 30).

[Zenny]

Shoppach hit a 3-R HR in 4 AB's and managed not to K. He's all the way down to be tied for 5th in the league, whoopie!

 

Season Line: .227/.310/.433/.743; .34 (32/95) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 14 HR, 47 RBI, 42 R

 

He can really hit the s*** out of the ball when he makes contact. I'm still very disappointed with his second-half showing and overall season, but I'm going to try to remain positive.

[Zenny]

Thought I'd just do the second-half line as well: .107/.138/.357/.495; .11 (1/9) BB/K; 1 2B, 2 HR in 7 games (28 AB's).

[Zenny]

Shoppach went 1-5 with a R and 2 K's yesterday...

 

and they are playing now and he just struck out looking on a pitch by Bruce Chen after getting ahead 3-0. He didn't swing once the entire AB.

 

Season Line: .226/.309/.429/.738; .33 (32/97) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 14 HR, 47 RBI, 43 R (not including today's first at-bat).

[Zenny]

Shopp went 0-2 with a BB and K in today's day game. This is just becoming extreme; he's the prototypical sabermetric power hitter: a walk, strikeout or homerun as the only three real results in baseball. It's just that he's not hitting enough homeruns and whiffing a bit too much.

 

Season Line: .225/.309/.426/.735; .34 (33/98) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 14 HR, 47 RBI, 43 R

[Zenny]

Shopp hit an RBI single and K'd twice in 4 AB's.

 

Season Line: .225/.308/.423/.731; .33 (33/100) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 14 HR, 48 RBI, 43 R

 

No further comment today, expect for this: I listened to Shopp's 1st AB on the radio and he struck out on a curveball that bounced in the dirt in front of homeplate. This is very, very bad.

[Zenny]

Shopp pinch-hit for Bailey yesterday and, guess what, struck out.

 

Season Line: .224/.307/.422/.729; .33 (33/101) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 14 HR, 48 RBI

[Zenny]

Shoppach went 1-4 with a 2-run homerun and an RBI groundout. All this without K'ing (flyout to LF and groundout to 3B also).

 

I'm probably reading too much into this, but it looks like he is beginning to make those adjustments later. He took those offspeed pitches to the left-side, therefore meaning that he's been making those adjustments a little bit quicker. So instead of flailing at those pitches, he's at least making contact. Those might be Shoppach's three most important at-bats of the year without getting on base.

 

Season Line: .225/.308/.427/.735; .33 (34/102) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 15 HR, 52 RBI

[Zenny]

Shoppach's overall second half: .146/.196/.354/.550, .18 (3/17) BB/K, 1 2B, 3 HR

 

Shoppach's last eight games: .185/.267/.407/.674, .38 (3/8) BB/K, 2 HR

 

Certainly a promising trend over the last eight games. If you remove that one AB in which he pinch hit and K'd, so in his last seven starts: .192/.276/.423/.699, .43 (3/7) BB/K, 2 HR

 

Given that he's apparently hanging in there better on offspeed stuff, we could see a big August and September from Kelly Shoppach.

[Zenny]

Shopp and Tek had identical nights tonight, 0-4 with 2 K's.

 

Season Line: 222/.304/.422/.726; .33 (34/104) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 15 HR, 52 RBI

[Zenny]

I forgot to update Shoppach from two games ago. He went 1-4 with a homerun and 3 K's. The homerun came off of side-winding, "impossible for righties to hit" Yankee farm hand Colter Bean.

 

Guess what he did today? 1-4, 2-R HR and 3 K's again. This time, the shot came off of "teh nxt ynke ace!!1!" Brad Halsey. I hear it was quite a moon shot.

 

Looks like we've got a Yankee killer on our hands, boys (when he's not striking out)!

 

Season Line: 223/.303/.436/.739; .31 (34/110) BB/K ratio; 16 2B, 17 HR, 55 RBI

[Zenny]

Here's what Shoppach did in the second half of July: .135/.182/.327/.509; .17 (3/18) BB/K; 1 2B, 3 HR; 2.89 AB/K; 18.3 PA/BB.

 

Yuck. August (.250/.250/1.000/.1.250; Zero (0/6) BB/K; 2 HR; 1.33 AB/K; 0 PA/BB) is looking a little better already. OK, not really, he's still whiffing like a madman.

[Zenny]

As most of you know, I was in attendance at tonight's PawSox game against the Rochester Red Wings. My boy Kelly Shoppach impressed me.

 

In the second inning, he laced a double in the left-center field gap off of a fastball.

 

In the fourth inning he took an offspeed pitch to the shortstop Prieto who made a nice backhanded pick and turned it into a DP.

 

In the sixth, Shoppach destroyed a 90 MPH fastball, hitting it off the Benny's sign in left-center for a 420-430 foot homerun. It was more of a linedrive homerun, but Ryan and Restovich didn't even give chase. They stayed put, knowing it was very gone and just turned to admire.

 

In the eight, he worked the count full and took the walk, laying off some very good breaking stuff.

 

The best part? All of this came off of right-handed pitchers. I saw (or remember) him only swing and miss once, and that came on an 89 MPH fastball that he got fooled on. He is definitely improving, as evidenced by the homeruns in three consecutive games and his ability to either make contact to the offspeed pitches or lay off them to work a fastball count or take the walk.

 

Season Line: .227/.308/.451/.759; .32 (35/110) BB/K ratio; 17 2B, 18 HR, 56 RBI

[CrespoBlows]

What's that 4 homeruns in his last 5 games? He's showing some power now. I think he hits .250 with 25 HR's this year.

[Zenny]

Shopp's got a 1.690 OPS this month. Granted, it's only three games, but wow.

[Zenny]

Shopp went 1-4 with 2 K's today. One of those K's (the only one I heard) came on a fastball, so it's not like he's overly chasing the breaking stuff again.

 

Season Line: .227/.307/.449/.756; .31 (35/112) BB/K ratio; 17 2B, 18 HR, 56 RBI

[Zenny]

Apart from yesterday's game (an ugly 0-4, 3 K's), Shopp is on fire. 2-4 with a homerun, single, walk and two runs scored today. In August, Shopp is hitting .304/.360/.870/1.230 with 2 BB/11 K; 2 1B, 2B, 4 HR.

 

Season Line: .228/.308/.453/.761; .31 (36/115) BB/K ratio; 17 2B, 19 HR, 57 RBI

[Zenny]

I don't think Shoppach knows what a single looks like. This is just crazy, he has been feasting on AAA pitching for the past two or so weeks. Today? 2-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, K. I think he's made the adjustment. The announcer on 790 (I can never remember his name) said that Tim Raines Jr. didn't even move to go after the ball. He hit it to dead center and the guy screamed "No one hits them there!" It was something like 420-430 feet, like the one I saw in Pawtucket, except this one came in Ottowa.

 

A good sign is also that a lot of the guys he is taking deep are guys who have been or should be in the big leagues. He's not feasting off of the scrubs, he's been taking deep the guys with big league experience or the talent to be there.

 

I still firmly hold my belief that the jump from AA to AAA is just as hard or harder than AAA to the big leagues. There are a lot of guys in AAA who belong on a big league roster (or who have been there) and there are a lot of big league pitchers who belong in AAA. You never see anything like that in AA. If a kid is good in AA, he quickly gets the jump to AAA. There's no logjam. It's a totally new experience.

 

The more I think about it, the more confident I am that Shopp could possibly make the jump to start in '05. Granted, fewer K's would be nice, but Varitek had a worse year in '97 in a better hitters' league, was a year older and he still stepped in to start in '98.

 

Season Line: .231/.310/.465/.775; .31 (36/116) BB/K ratio; 18 2B, 20 HR, 60 RBI

[CrespoBlows]

Shoppach could bat 9th like Vartiek did with the Sox in '03. I guess that would work with him.

[Tek04]

Why hasnt this guy been called up yet?

[Zenny]

Originally posted by Tek04@Aug 10 2004, 09:27 PM

Why hasnt this guy been called up yet?

He needs to catch everyday and continue to make adjustments on off-speed pitches. Why rush him when Tek has the job nailed down for the rest of the year? If he continues to play well, he'll likely be up here in September to split time with Tek and Big Belli.

[CrespoBlows]

Do you think Theo Epstein will resign Jason Vartiek?

[Zenny]

Originally posted by CrespoBlows@Aug 10 2004, 09:56 PM

Do you think Theo Epstein will resign Jason Vartiek?

If Tek's price comes down? Yes. If his agent is still Scott Boras six months from now? No. I think Tek's potential suitors will be the D-Rays, Giants, Dodgers, Cardinals, White Sox, Mets, Astros and Angels. I do not honestly think that we can rationally outbid all of them. Someone is going to give him a gaudy offer and he'll take it.

[CrespoBlows]

Maybe we could compare Shoppach to what Vartiek was like at 24.

[Zenny]

Originally posted by CrespoBlows@Aug 10 2004, 10:05 PM

Maybe we could compare Shoppach to what Vartiek was like at 24.

Varitek at 25 was in the PCL (AAA), a good hitter's league, and showed no power and little discipline. Shoppach at 24 was in the IL (AAA), in a neutral league, hit for rediculous amounts of power with some walks and a lot of K's.

 

I think too much emphasis is being placed upon the K's. They happen, lot's of younger hitters strike out. Hell, Varitek strikes out over twice as much as he walks even to this day. If you remove Shoppach's first ten games (standard adjustment period), he's hitting about .250 and has just about an .830 OPS. Also, if you remove the second-half of July in which he has publicly stated that he was run down (he got a lot of rest at the end of July/early August), the numbers go up to like .270/.900.

 

Is he ready? The last two months of the season and Spring Training will determine that. The power, defense and walks are there. The question is if the walks and average will become too much of a damper on the other things.

[Zenny]

http://www.sports-wired.com/players/profile.asp?Name=DFJ- Tek's minor league stats, by the way. Shoppach has blown him away in nearly every category at the same level at a younger age.

[Zenny]

Shopp whiffed twice and grounded out tonight, but he also took a walk in a critical spot in the eight inning to extend a key rally. OK, he took a walk and I'm overblowing it. Big deal.

 

Season Line: 227/.310/.461/.771; .31 (37/118) BB/K ratio; 18 2B, 20 HR, 60 RBI