Shaw busts out at plate for River Cats

Baseball is undergoing a flyball revolution and Chris Shaw is more than happy to be along for the ride. 
San Francisco's No. 5 prospect set a career high with four hits, including two homers, driving in four and scoring three times in Triple-A Sacramento's 11-10 win over El Paso on Thursday. 

"The past two weeks or so, I feel like I've put a lot of good swings on the ball," Shaw said. "And the balls that I have put in play, I've been barreling and putting it in the air, which is what I'm trying to do -- barrel the ball and put it to center field. After that, whatever happens, happens."
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The 2015 first-round pick has noticed that the philosophy around hitting is about trying to put balls in the air. 
"The way I've always hit has fallen into that kind of mind-set," Shaw said. "Maybe I wouldn't categorize myself as a flyball type of hitter before this year, but for me -- and this goes for any player -- your best swing shouldn't be a hard ground ball up the middle or a hard liner up the middle. It should be something with backspin that's going to carry into the gaps."
The Massachusetts native realizes that a focus on elevating the ball also has helped improve his plate discipline. 
"You're not going to be able to put a ball in the air in center field on a pitch you can't drive," he said. "So this approach puts you in the mind-set of 'I'm going to get a pitch in this at-bat that I can put in the air with some authority behind it.'"
Shaw put the River Cats on the board in the second inning when he turned on a 1-0 fastball from starter Tyrell Jenkins and put it over the center-field fence. 
"I went in looking to hit something hard and elevate something," the Boston College product said. "The first pitch was a fastball inside, kind of a brushback pitch, so I figured he was trying to get me off the plate a little bit. I kind of figured he was looking to go outside corner or something like that. I was able to get a two-seamer that caught the middle of the plate and I got a good swing on it."

In the third, Shaw jumped on the first pitch from Jenkins and drove a three-run blast to left-center. 
"The first pitch was in the exact same spot as the one I hit in my first at-bat, so I took the same swing on it," Shaw said. "El Paso is a great ballpark for hitters, there's no question about that. It's the type of place that if you barrel a ball in the air, you'll get rewarded a little more than you would elsewhere."
Shaw completed the first four-hit game of his career with singles to right in the fifth and seventh. 
Since being promoted to Triple-A on May 24, Shaw sports a .292/.310/.533 slash line with six homers and 21 RBIs. In 37 games for Double-A Richmond, the 6-foot-4, 235-pounder batted .301/.390/.511 with six homers and 29 RBIs. 
Shaw has drawn four walks in 30 games with the River Cats. He had 18 with the Flying Squirrels.
"I know I'm not walking nearly as much as I normally do, and honestly, after the game I'll look at that and kind of figure out why that is, but a lot of it goes back to the fact that guys are around the zone a lot more," Shaw explained. "I'm not going up there with the intention to walk, I'm looking to drive something. If I'm getting it, I'm going to put a good swing on it.
"I definitely have noticed that my on-base [percentage] isn't where it normally is, but I can't put my finger on it other than guys throw a lot more strikes up here."
Even with his first-ever four-hit day behind him, Shaw is happy to go back to the drawing board to grow his game as he nears the Major Leagues. 

"Every day, I'm learning something new," he said. "I don't really look at the numbers as much as I look at the ways I can improve as an overall hitter, just based off the way guys pitch up here because it's a lot different than Double-A. You could argue that, at Double-A, guys may have more raw stuff and guys might have more velocity. But everyone up here knows how to pitch and can throw any pitch in any count for a strike.
"I'm learning a lot about myself and how to maximize my skills against guys who know how to execute a gameplan."

In his second Triple-A game, catcher Matt Winn put the River Cats ahead with a three-run blast in the ninth. The 23-year-old contributed two doubles, a walk and four RBIs.
Christian Villanueva went deep twice and drove in three for El Paso.