Time for the second round of community projections here at Beyond the Box Score. After looking around some spreadsheets and message boards, I figured Ryan Shealy would be a good choice for a projection.
Shealy got his first shot in the majors last year with Colorado after three plus seasons in the minor leagues.
Although his slugging dropped somewhat, he still put up an excellent line over the course of his short stay. This year the Rockies are attempting to platoon him in the outfield with Brad Hawpe, to the delight or chagrin of many across the World Wide Web. Let's take a look at his projections to see how important his bat is to the Rox lineup:
Basically all of the projections are about the same, with some giving him a little more power (myself and James), some giving him a little bit more patience, and some cutting into his playing time (James). ZiPS doesn't think he will crack a .500 slugging percentage, but I think over the course of a full season in Coors he will. ZiPS is set a little higher than I think he will hit on the road. These are closer than the Kotchman projections from the last time around, certainly.
Same drill as before. Use the projection spreadsheet I've supplied you with in order to have correct rate statistics to make your own projection.
For those of you wondering, Shealy is a monster player. He is 6'5", 240 pounds...for comparison's sake, Adam Dunn is listed as 6'6", 235 pounds. He has knee problems that make it difficult for him to play the outfield, but he has supposedly dropped some weight and put himself into better playing shape in order to play a corner spot. The last report I saw, which was around two months ago, said he was making progress defensively, and that the Rox were excited to play him in 2006. For his sake, and the sake of the Rox fans who need another bat in the lineup, let's hope they are right.
