The mental one. It's hard to understand complex situations like hitting multiple major league pitches with different movement in different locations from different hands in different orders with a given batting stance and swing. It's hard work to find the information to support evidence based analysis of that. And then you have sample sizes, and uncertainty, which makes most peoples heads explode. Luck and probability are even harder to understand properly. We don't know about unannounced injuries. But not trying hard enough? Being entitled? Not wanting it? Not being able to handle pressure? We can accuse people of that all day long and just use bad results as evidence of a bad process that is based on mental defects.There are 5 potential causes of a hypothetic Shaw slump going forward:
1.) The old Mistress of BABIP. It's currently sitting around 0.419 right now, so there is definitely room for regression.
2.) Pitchers making adjustments based on scouting reports.
3.) Nagging owie that gets unreported during the season but affects his swing.
4.) Shaw starts seeing more left handed pitchers, against which he currently has a 0.294 OPS in a irrelevant sample of 17 at bats.
5.) Shaw, an unheralded prospect that had to scratch and claw his way through the minors, suddenly decides he can back off, despite the fact that the team could always DFA or option him at essentially zero cost?
Which of these 5 is most believable?
Also, Antoine Walker was doing 15-20 years ago what is now the standard, accepted, and statistically smart strategy that most of the NBA wants: a big man who shoots from the three point line and passes well, drawing a defender from the box, creating space and flow, and creating better shots for everyone. He wasn't as good a shooter as players are today, but that is true of the whole NBA. Three point percentage is way up from 'Toine's era, and so are the number of shots. Sports radio killed him for it at the time, but he was just ahead of the curve.