Debate about defensive shifts

[halfnard]

Living on the West Coast doesn't allow me to see the Brewers often but with them playing in the Post Season has allowed me to watch baseball. One thing I noticed is the amount of talk there was about the defensive shift and whether it was good for the game or not. Anyway I googled it and there are 3+ million discussions that come up.

 

What do you guys think? It isn't an entirely new scheme, in fact if you watch Mickey Mantle's 500th home run on Youtube it appears that Baltimore was employing a defensive shift during his at bat. That was in 1967.

 

[trwi7]

A team's job on defense is to get outs. If a player hits it to a certain spot on the field far more than another spot on the field, why wouldn't you put a defender where he hits it more and take a defender away from where he rarely hits it? There's not a single thing wrong with shifting.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Defensive shifts are smart baseball. If hitters don't like them, they should be working on hitting to all fields.

[FVBrewerFan]

There is no controversy, other than it doesn't look right to some old timers. It is beyond proven that it works, either hitters can adjust or not.

 

I'm an old codger in a lot of ways. I hate the DH, I think Pete Rose should never see the HOF, and I think there's still a time and place to plunk someone. Don't get me started on instant replay.

 

But things like defensive shifts, using the pitching staff in different ways...things like that have always been within the rules- it's just that now teams are finally taking more advantage of it.

[stoutdude04]

Funny that you mention old timers...they definitely had a shift on in that video.

[Baldkin]

It's not new. Really, it's not new. Shifting has been around for nearly 100 years.

 

That’s when Lou Boudreau, in the spur of the moment, invented the shift. Well, he probably did not INVENT it; it was more like he revived it from the distant past. In a fun column in the Oakland newspaper, a writer quoted a conversation of some old-time baseball guys, a group that that included then Oakland Oaks manager Casey Stengel. One of the old-timers was Giants scout Hank DeBerry, and he said the shift had been used against the slugger Cy Williams. It was especially useful in the hitters paradise Baker Bowl, where Cy Williams routinely hit 60 or 70 points higher than anywhere else. “We used that same defense against Cy 25 years ago,” DeBerry said. “And it didn’t work any better than it does today against Ted Williams.”

 

I'd rather the old curmudgeons focus on the things that actually are bad for the game: Time between pitches, time between balls in play and time between innings. All of which have skyrocketed in the past 20 years.

[jerichoholicninja]

I'll never understand the talking heads that say the shift should be banned. Essentially saying that there should be a rule to prevent a team from taking advantage of an opponent's weakness. With that same line of thinking pitcher's should be banned from throwing breaking balls to batters that struggle to hit them, teams should be outlawed from trying to steal against pitchers that are slow to the plate or catchers that have weak arms or taking extra bases against noddle armed outfielders, and teams should be required to pinch hit a LHB for a RHB if the LHP on the mound can't get righties out.

 

If guys are sick of hitting outs into the shift, learn to hit the ball somewhere else. Just as in all other parts of every sport - if you're failing at something, work on it so you don't fail at anymore.

[owbc]

Eventually there will be an adjustment, but it will take time for it to work up to the major leagues. We have the children of the steroid era playing right now, but as defensive shifts work their way down to the minors/college/high school, hitters will evolve. Wait 10 years.

[nate82]

Defensive shifts are not new. Shifts in the OF have been happening for a long time now. They have also been happening in the IF just not as exaggerated as they are now.

 

There have been shifts for players who hit more up the middle and corner IF have been shifting and guarding the line for players who normally hit down the lines.

 

Shifting isn't new it is just being used more.

[JosephC]

It's just part of the evolution of baseball. I wouldn't be all that surprised if all the dramatic shifting significantly drops a few years down the road. Runs per game decreased from 4.65 in 2017 to 4.45 in 2018. If that trend continues, teams will place less emphasis on pull power and more "line drive to all fields" hitters will get playing time. I don't think it's just a coincidence that the Brewers have picked Hiura and Turang with the last two first rounders. Stearns could very well be well ahead of the curve here.

[Oxy]

Any discussion about modern stats should start with the origin of ANY statistics.

 

One could always ignore ALL statistics and just watch every postseason game for the last 30 years or so, ignoring even something as simple as batting avg.--then try to judge who the best players are.

 

A scout's dream...

[clancyphile]

It's just part of the evolution of baseball. I wouldn't be all that surprised if all the dramatic shifting significantly drops a few years down the road. Runs per game decreased from 4.65 in 2017 to 4.45 in 2018. If that trend continues, teams will place less emphasis on pull power and more "line drive to all fields" hitters will get playing time. I don't think it's just a coincidence that the Brewers have picked Hiura and Turang with the last two first rounders. Stearns could very well be well ahead of the curve here.

 

It's never a bad idea to be a constant trend-setter. Then you're calling the shots against the bigger teams.