Manfred: Eliminate Shifts

[BohKnowsBmore]

Or they could ban spitballs, corked bats, pine tar on certain areas of the bat, and lower or raise the mound.

Wait..all have been done over time to keep the game fair and balanced.

What do foreign substances have to do with the positioning of 7/9 players that, by rule, a team should have on the field?

[birdcrazy]

What do foreign substances have to do with the positioning of 7/9 players that, by rule, a team should have on the field?

Yes, they should be on the field...AT THEIR positions. Why should a Thirdbasman be in right field? Rules need to adapt. When the rules (or lack of rules) regarding a shift were written, managers did not have books of spray charts showing where players hit which pitch, in which situation. Now they do, and it is skewing the game too much away for offense.

Power hitters and scoring are what puts casual fans in the seats. Most power hitters are pull hitters. Crazy shifts make it hard for anyone to be a pull power hitter.

I don't think a rule saying that the payers have to be in their general positions prior to a pitch is unfair. They can run wherever they want after the pitch is thrown.

[OFFNY]

P.S. If the commissioner is so concerned about offense, perhaps he could ban fastballs over 99 M.P.H., and outlaw the knuckleball, too.

1) No defensive shifts.

2) No knuckleballs.

3) No really fast fastballs.

4) And perhaps put a limit on the number of inches that a curveball can break, too.

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Oh, and one more thing. Make pitchers formally apologize to any batter that he strikes out 3 times in the same game.

We can't be having the batters emotionally demoralized by a dominant pitcher. The fans want to see offense.

Or they could ban spitballs, corked bats, pine tar on certain areas of the bat, and lower or raise the mound.

Wait..all have been done over time to keep the game fair and balanced.

All which have nothing to do with the basic rules of baseball, which includes the teams' right to position of the 7 players anywhere on the field that they see fit (in fair territory) other than the pitcher and the catcher.

[AdamK]

I don't really want to see shifts gone, but...

What if the compromise was that infielders stay in the infield and can not overlap. Outfielders stay in the outfield and can't overlap.

Overlapping would be a 3rd baseman anywhere other than to the right of the SS. Same for other fielders. From left to right, order of infielders must be 3rd baseman, SS, 2nd baseman, 1st baseman.

The infield is defined as the area we all think of (up to the edge of dirt/outfield grass).

No more roamers in short right field.

But, you could definitely over-shift your players to the right side of the field.

[Nevermore]

This makes no sense. How will they enforce this? What are they going to do, paint yellow lines going from the infield to the outfield, and then give the hitter a base on balls is any of the defensive players crosses one of the yellow lines?

[ShoelesJoe]

I think MLB should make a rule preventing pitchers from throwing down and away sliders to Adam Jones.

[Tryptamine]

I'd argue that taking away the shift hurts offense. If you're a professional athlete you should be able to bunt towards 3B for your free single, sometimes double.

[bdub85]

As a MLB level hitter, you should be able to wait on a ball and shoot it the opposite way for at least a single. If you can't adapt to do that, then the hitter can only blame themselves for continually hitting into the shift.

[AdamK]

This makes no sense. How will they enforce this? What are they going to do, paint yellow lines going from the infield to the outfield, and then give the hitter a base on balls is any of the defensive players crosses one of the yellow lines?

Was this in response to my compromise?

[harp6]

I don't think a rule saying that the payers have to be in their general positions prior to a pitch is unfair. They can run wherever they want after the pitch is thrown.

What positions. They are positions in name. A leftfielder does not need to always be in leftfield. What are you going to do, tell a team that they cannot bring an outfielder into play infield and move the other two outfielders in when there is less than two outs and the winning runner on third in the bottom of the ninth. It is called defensive strategy. Taking away where the fielders are intelligently placed by the manager takes away from the game. How do you suggest they define those general positions. Put chalk circles on the field and say don't leave your general position until the pitch. Do the umpires have to watch all the players to see if a player releases to early and then rule the batter safe because of an illegal shift?

[harp6]

I don't really want to see shifts gone, but...

What if the compromise was that infielders stay in the infield and can not overlap. Outfielders stay in the outfield and can't overlap.

Overlapping would be a 3rd baseman anywhere other than to the right of the SS. Same for other fielders. From left to right, order of infielders must be 3rd baseman, SS, 2nd baseman, 1st baseman.

The infield is defined as the area we all think of (up to the edge of dirt/outfield grass).

No more roamers in short right field.

But, you could definitely over-shift your players to the right side of the field.

Second basemen routinely position themselves three or four steps in the outfield grass. Are you going to take that away because you have determined that they cannot go one foot beyond the infield dirt. How do you define the outfield. Should there be a limit on how far the outfield can move in? I could state that the weaker hitting line drive hitters have always had a disadvantage because outfielders "Shift" in on them and shrink their field of play. But those line drive hitters have had to adapt over the years to make it to the majors just like any other player should have to adapt. Those type of players do not have the natural power to stretch the outfielders, so they have to learn how to hit within the shift that is played against them all the time. Why should baseball suddenly cater to one type of hitter and not another? Those left-handed pull hitters have the power that the line drive hitters do not have, but suddenly teams are catching on and their field of play is being reduced. Oh, the poor, poor left handed power hitters. They just have to learn to adapt just like line drive hitters have had to adapt to the outfield shift on them since the beginning of baseball. If they can't adapt, then they can't play in the majors. It is that simple.

[islebreeze]

Why did it take over a century for MLB teams to start using shifts?

[DrOrioles90210]

This sums up my feelings on Manfred's thoughts on prohibiting shifts and instituting game clocks:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>I will say this: the fact that the commissioner of baseball apparently thinks baseball is boring troubles me</p>— ihateprospects (@ihateprospects) <a href="https://twitter.com/ihateprospects/status/559400702964137984">January 25, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[BMann]

Do the umpires have to watch all the players to see if a player releases to early and then rule the batter safe because of an illegal shift?

Sure, why not? Refs have to look for similar things in a football game, where a certain number of players have to line up on the line of scrimmage, certain players can't line up behind one another, only eligible receivers can line up here or there, etc. All those changes were made to combat "new" strategies that were giving one side of the ball a perceived advantage over the other.

Thankfully, baseball doesn't have nearly the number of complicated rules that football does (yet), but it's not like it would be that hard to enforce, assuming the rule is written clearly and logically. Hopefully they don't go to the extreme of drawing boxes all around the field (like the coaches' boxes!), but that would help the umps!

[harp6]

Yeah and look how effective it has been against some of the best hitters in the game. What if it use continues to expand at the same rate it has over the last five years. I'm not saying get rid of it entirely. I think a modified shift like the one Verducci suggest is okay with me.

I think that Verducci is suggesting two infielders on each side of second base. This is where all the people who want to put restrictions on the fielders get it wrong. If you want to make a rule like this, then you will find that you have to create many rules. You would have to make all kinds of silly rules like an outfielder can only play so shallow and and infielder can only play so deep and are we going to place lines all over the field to monitor these rules.

To show you why these rules don't make since, I can show you how to still legally shift for the lefthanded pull hitter under the rule of two infielders on each side of the base rule. It is simple. Move the third baseman to left field, the shortstop to behind secondbase slightly to the left of his "Boundary" and move the the leftfielder to short rightfield where teams have been placing the third baseman in the shift. It will be very close to the original shift. The only disadvantage is that a team would loose some fielding skill by placing a thirdbaseman in the outfield and outfielder in a shallow position to field a ground ball and throw to first base.

Then one might state that the outfielders can't overlap or the leftfielder can't go beyond the line through homeplate/secondbase. Well then, you move the third baseman to leftfield, the leftfielder to centerfield just to the left of his "Boundary" and then shift the centerfielder and leftfielder into shift positions similar to the shift already played on the lefthanded pull hitter.

So the only way to prevent this type of shifting is to prevent the third baseman from moving to the outfield. But then you have to draw a boundary somewhere on the field to prevent an infielder from playing in the outfield. And don't suggest where the outfield grass begins because infielders routinely play a couple of steps into the outfield grass.

So to eliminate the shift against one type of hitter, the left-handed power pull hitter, baseball is going to have to create all kinds of boundary rules to do it. To me it is very simple. Why cater to one type of hitter and not another because of shifting. Baseball is full of inequalities based on abilities. That is part of the game. All baseball players have had to adapt to baseball in order to make it to the majors based on their abilities. Why should baseball now make it easier on one type of hitter because some teams have figured out how to shift on them. Those hitters need to adapt to the shift just like any other hitter in the history of baseball. Shifting has always been a part of the game and every hitter has always had to figure out how they can adapt their talents and abilities to match those shifts.