Posted on 06/23/2018 4:25:05 AM PDT by a little elbow grease
There is a haunting stirring in the baseball community to establish that fielders defensive “shifts” should be against the rules.
From BusinessInsider.com: “MLB's New Commissioner Is Open To Banning Defensive Shifts To Increase Scoring — Here's A Simple Way To Do It.”
Does this seem to anyone else as more than heavy-handed, almost totalitarian???
Do you suppose that they also will want to impel OUTFIELDERS NOT TO SHIFT, play deeper in the outfield when a power hitter comes to the plate?
Do they suppose to suggest that when a sacrifice bunt is most likely about to be attempted, that the first and third basemen should NOT BE PERMITTED to creep in toward the plate in order to get the ball and throw out the runner at second base for a force play?
Should outfielders not be permitted to shade toward the right field line when a strong left handed pull hitter comes to the plate? My, my.
Baseball has been shifting since Ted Williams and even before that. Now that we realize its effectiveness, we exploit the advantage. Personally, I don't think that this particular strategy EVER should be made illegal.
As a baseball fan said on reddit.com: “People hate the shift when their team hits into it, but love it when the opposing team hits into your shift. It's a part of the game now. Hitters will just have to adjust.
As Wee Willie Keeler used to say, “ Keep your eyes clear, and hit’ em where they ain’t: that’s all.”
I’ll just say this now …………. I find this idea of restrictions on defensive players’ shifts to be about the most ignorant, idiotic, witless, reactionary, vacuous, mindless, unintelligent, half-baked, harebrained, imprudent, unwise, and foolish idea of which I have ever heard.
“If all seven position players want to form a human pyramid behind second base then they should be allowed to.” LOL
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LEAVE THE GAME ALONE …………… and hit’ em where they ain’t.
“and the decisions are all made from an office instead of the dugout”
I don’t believe that.
I think that statement is conjecture and speculation, at best.
The shift is working now because there is a generation of players playing at the highest level that didn’t have to deal with it on their way up. Now they are having a hard time making the adjustment at the highest level. The owners can’t do anything because they are tied up in contracts, so it makes for ugly baseball until the adjustment is made. It might take years and years, hope they don’t panic and change the rules.
Relief pitching is working because hitters are simply more effective the more a pitcher is seen by them, both because of familiarity with the pitcher and fatigue. It makes for ugly baseball but it works. The more times through an order the worse a pitcher becomes for all but the most elite.
Freegards
1. For a hit.
2. A sacrifice bunt to move a runner over.
Bunting for a hit was usually limited to those batters with great speed who could put a ball in play and beat a throw to first base. That strategy began to lose its appeal as speedsters disappeared when the stolen base was determined to be an ineffective offensive weapon.
Sacrifice bunts disappeared in all but a very limited set of circumstances involving a pitcher at the plate or a scenario late in a game where one run could end the game. That's because advanced analytics were used to determine that it rarely ever made sense in the long run to give up an out just to move a runner up one base.
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Could the Ninja Warriors shift?
“Leave baseball alone!”
Great thread. Thanks for posting.
Mariner is spot on.
Think about your playing days. How many times did you exhort your teammates to “make that hurt” or “make them pay” for a mistake (error, missed cutoff, failure to keep the force play intact, walk, etc.). Mistakes. Turn the opposition’s risk into a mistake by hitting against the shift.
However, the game is no longer about “get ‘em on, get ‘em over, get ‘em in. Manufacture of runs is no longer in vogue during the age of launch angle.
And yes, it is an attempt to get millenials interested in a what they perceive as a boring game.
Why don’t millenials like the game? Partly, it has become inaccessible. Gone are the days of pickup games with the other kids in the neighborhood. Everything is organized with travel teams, etc. Highly competitive and excludes the marginal players who’ll be not be likely to develop skills with age and physical ability improvements if they’ve already been told they don’t make the cut.
Additionally, and particularly on the big stage of playoffs, games start late - no more day games. Most playoff games last until after midnight. Baseball would rather sell advertising during prime time than during an afternoon game. Good for the bottom line, not so much for cultivating young fans.
Finally, IMHO, baseball is a thinking man’s game. However, we live in a culture that no longer rewards “thinking”.
Just my two cents - thanks for posting. Placing the bags ninety feet apart is one of man’s greatest accomplishments.
See #86
“I also think that pulling a pitcher based on a pitch count is stupid”
It’s sports science that drove that change and nothing else.
The science of how much muscle damage is done over recovery time.
Most starting pitchers could go 150 pitches if they could have the next 9 days off. Hell, most of them could go 150 with 5 days off.
Unless they had to do it 31 times in 6 months.
There are even a few that could do that. But they would not be able to do it for 10 years in a row.
I don't like that. If you bring in a relief pitcher and he is terrible on the mound, do you have to leave him in there if he doesn't get anyone out?
A better option might be one of the following:
1. After a pitcher makes an appearance in a game, he must sit out for one game (or even two) after that. This won't affect starters since they only pitch every 4-5 games anyway, but it would make managers think hard about using their bullpens wisely.
2. Limit a team to five pitchers on the active roster for any given game. You'd probably never see more than 3-4 of them used in a game.
Unfortunately, I think the trend in baseball is going the opposite way. I believe the whole concept of a "starting pitcher" is going to disappear, and the general approach to a pitching staff will be to have a series of pitchers lined up to throw no more than 2-3 innings in a game. Even a well-pitched game will use a minimum of three pitchers per team.
I think he threw 78 pitches over the nine innings.
The game lasted 1:50, if I remember correctly.
It was a night game, but it was still light out when he walked off the mound at the end of the game.
Yes, you're right. And hitters NOT trying to hit the ball out of the park all the time would solve that. And please don't try to say that a hitter in your lineup with the most total bases, lots of doubles and triples yet few homeruns ............ wouldn't get the big $$$$$'s.
MLB needs more runners on base. It needs batters stretching their hits. It needs base stealing. -------
Yes
"Shorten the base paths by 2 feet and you get the game we grew up loving to watch and play."
LMAO --- that is one foolish thing to say. Firstly......... IT WON'T HAPPEN.
Secondly .......... who are you trying to help with that ridiculous idea, the batter or the fielders?
That's just absurd
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If you want to change the game in any real, beneficial way ......LOWER THE MOUND TO HALF ITS HEIGHT. Being a student of kinesiology, it is quite well known that there is much less stress on a pitcher's shoulder when throwing on a level surface, rather than DOWN off a "MOUND".
So, I say if anything should or could be altered it is the height of the pitcher's mound.
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I think it was the advent of the women's vote.
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See post #4.
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Bingo
ps --- Billy Hamilton kills the Pirates.
Just think about it for a moment ...
He retired from baseball as a player back in 2009 and went to work as a broadcaster. He had never managed a single baseball game at any level in his life -- and never coached even so much as a single inning in baseball -- and here he was being hired to perhaps the most challenging on-field coaching/managerial position in any North American sport.
He's a smart guy and he knows his way around a baseball field for sure, but you can't tell me he has any real decision-making capabilities at all.
“It needs more ACTION!”
Baseball has more action and drama than any other sport, by far.
And that action and drama is concentrated in the battle between pitcher and batter. The action is not the balls hit and runner moving.
The action is the pitching.
If you don’t appreciate that, you should find another sport.
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..... and the catcher.
Base-stealing is a classic example of this. The stolen base has disappeared as an offensive weapon because teams looked closely at the numbers and figured out that the risk of getting thrown out on the base path -- even in an era when the best catchers can't even throw out 50% of the runners attempting to steal -- outweighed the reward of advancing one base.
The Phillies look pretty good this year.
Something. It’s getting crazy
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