I don’t want to compare the two guys, because they are actually very different players in a number of significant respects. But the fact that they were both first round college bats, taken back-to-back years by the Chicago Cubs in the 13th/14th pick range, with both playing third base, it became inevitable that the things Cam Smith did or didn’t do in his professional debut season were going to be compared to what Matt Shaw did or didn’t do the year before.
Totally unfair, right? I mean, Shaw exploded into professional ball, only briefly appearing in the complex league before going straight to High-A, dominating, and then hitting very well at Double-A to finish the year. Overall, he hit a ridiculous .357/.400/.618/170 wRC+ over 38 games, immediately pushing him into the top-100 overall prospect list, and into the top three or four Cubs prospects in a high-quality system. How could anyone reasonably expect Smith to do anything close to that, especially knowing that he h🌄ad less coll🦂ege experience and was perhaps more of a developmental play than Shaw was?
Well, you already know what has happened, of course. Smith went to Low-A instead of the complex, took a few games to adjust, and then got a rocket ship strapped to his back that saw him also reach Double-A before the year was up. Over his 32 pro games, he hit .313/.396/.609/179 wRC+, he also pushed his way into top-100 lists, and is also going to get consideration this offseason as already being among the Cubs’ top three or four prospects. It is absolutely wild what Cam Smith did, just as it was absolutely wild what Matt Shaw did.
Now Smith is trying to do something else Shaw did last year: helღp the Double-A Tennessee Smokies win the Southern League title. Shaw slumped a bit in that postseason run, no🏅tching just two hits across the four games, but he did bat leadoff, scored a number of runs, and generally contributed to that Smokies steamroll of a playoff win.
So far, the Smokies are 1-1 in the divisio🤡n series, and need a🍷 win tonight to move on to the championship series. Smith is doing his part, though, having already reached base five times in the two games, and last night hitting his first playoff homer:
That front view looks like a Mike Piazza swing, doesn’t it? Others have said it, and I can’t unsee it.
That game was Smith’s 100th of the year, between college and the pros, and it was his 24th home run.
