Let's Shift Again Like We Did Last Summer

[TonySoprano]

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Here’s how much shifting has increased yet again in 2019, according to Sports Info Solutions:

At this rate, there will be some type of defensive shift deployed on more than 44,500 balls in play this year – an increase of (gulp) 28 percent just since last year!

No team shifted 1,900 times last season. But seven teams – the Orioles, Twins, Marlins, Brewers, Pirates, Dodgers and Royals – are on pace for more than 1,900 this year. And the Orioles will shift on more than 2,400 balls in play at this rate – twice as many as last year (1,205).

If left-handed hitters get the feeling they’ve never been shifted on like this, they’re not hallucinating. They’re seeing a shift on 65 percent of the balls they’ve put in play this year. And two teams – the Orioles and Astros – are now shifting approximately 90 percent of the time against left-handed hitters.

Finally, we’ve seen shifts deployed on 42 percent of all balls in play this season – nearly quadruple the rate from just five years ago.

2019: 42%
2018: 32%
2017: 24%
2016: 25%
2015: 16%
2014: 11%

So unless Rob Manfred convinces the union to ban or limit shifting, there’s no telling how high the rate of shifting might go. And you know why? Because it works. Of course.

“All it means is, we’re putting our defensive players where balls are hit the most,” an exec of one shift-heavy team said. “And that’s because it’s impossible to make the math add up any other way. There isn’t any equation you can find that tells you not to do it.”

 

 

[Moose Milligan]

You're so proud of that thread title aren't you?