Banning the Shift: not if, but how

[Phoenix2]

I really can't believe the league is serious about this. Gonna place big circles on the field where defenders should stand? The defense has 9 players and can be wherever they want on the field.

[Chip R]

I really can't believe the league is serious about this. Gonna place big circles on the field where defenders should stand? The defense has 9 players and can be wherever they want on the field.

Except for the catcher and pitcher.

[RiverfrontRed]

Not for the defense. They're free to stand anywhere on their side of the line.

It’s still an apples to oranges comparison. I’m glad you enjoy watching the shift but I think it’s sucks. If baseball is interested in gaining new fans and staying viable as entertainment they’ll rid themselves of it.

[Wonderful Monds]

I really can't believe the league is serious about this. Gonna place big circles on the field where defenders should stand? The defense has 9 players and can be wherever they want on the field.

There’s zero reason to care about this beyond “well that’s how it’s always been done.” All this rule would do would enforce basically previously informal rules as to how the game was played 99% of the time from its inception until the last decade or so when a bunch of Wall St. freaks showed up and devised the most “efficient” and boring way possible to play baseball.

[Wonderful Monds]

The weird thing is, for the most part I don’t actually see anyone arguing that watching left handed hitters constantly line out to a 3B standing in right field is actually fun or exciting to watch. The argument against banning the shift is entirely based on “uh well you’re not allowed to ever come up with new rules or change baseball” and some sorely mistaken notion that human beings are going to somehow figure out how to consistently hit triple digit fastballs (or nearly triple digit for the irritatingly pedantic) in on their hands to the opposite field and make baseball not suck anymore.

[Joey Blotto]

There’s zero reason to care about this beyond “well that’s how it’s always been done.”

This approximates my feelings about requiring fielders to man their "traditional" defensive positions.

[RedTeamGo!]

The weird thing is, for the most part I don’t actually see anyone arguing that watching left handed hitters constantly line out to a 3B standing in right field is actually fun or exciting to watch. The argument against banning the shift is entirely based on “uh well you’re not allowed to ever come up with new rules or change baseball” and some sorely mistaken notion that human beings are going to somehow figure out how to consistently hit triple digit fastballs (or nearly triple digit for the irritatingly pedantic) in on their hands to the opposite field and make baseball not suck anymore.

Yeah, that whole “just hit it to the opposite field” thing is weird to me. The idea here is they are not trying to do so? Like they can just easily hit 97 on the hands oppo?

[Joey Blotto]

Yeah, that whole “just hit it to the opposite field” thing is weird to me. The idea here is they are not trying to do so? Like they can just easily hit 97 on the hands oppo?

Hitting a pitched baseball is hard. Should we allow the batter to throw the ball instead?

[Roy Tucker]

Once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s awfully hard to get him (or her) back in.

I don’t like the shifts and all that, but legislating against it is a real can of worms. But it does make me wonder what the evolution was to come up with the positioning of the 7 non-pitcher-catcher positions was. At some point, the manager told the players to go out and stand on the field and they all said “where?”.

[Wonderful Monds]

This approximates my feelings about requiring fielders to man their "traditional" defensive positions.

No actually, people have given plenty of reasons beyond “uh just because it’s always been like that” for preferring traditional defensive alignments and wanting to get rid of the shift, namely that watching a ton more balls in play turn into outs because some analyst nerds gave managers some charts is extremely boring.

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Hitting a pitched baseball is hard. Should we allow the batter to throw the ball instead?

There a difference between “hard” and “doing what you’re asking these people to do is basically not possible”

[RiverfrontRed]

Hitting a pitched baseball is hard. Should we allow the batter to throw the ball instead?

Your argument loses credibility when asinine statements are made.

[KronoRed]

Hitters are never going to 'bunt' to beat the shift or 'learn to hit it the other way', they will just swing for home runs, strike out more and make the game even worse.

Ban the shift.

[NeilHamburger]

Redszone is probably one of the more progressive MLB forums you will find. It seems like over 50% of the board would be in favor of banning the shift. I gotta imagine the average fan is significantly higher than that.

[klw]

Hitting a pitched baseball is hard. Should we allow the batter to throw the ball instead?

That would be a fungo approach.

[MoneyInTheBank]

Unless you are just a contrarian, I can't imagine watching a game where there are 3 outfielders and 2 infielders on each side of 2nd base and saying "OMG, this isn't baseball. I'm not watching this crap"

The standard can't be "if the rule doesn't cover every possible situation, then it must remain unchanged". Start with 2 infielders on each side of 2nd base. If teams get creative and find a loophole to those rules, tweak it.

As far as defining infielders and outfielders? Define them as the 4 closest (non pitcher and catcher) defenders to home plate as "infielders". The remaining 3 are "outfielders"