What MLB should enact instead of outlawing the shift.

[CmdrCody]

I’m not a fan of the shift, but I think the way to leave the shift available but not desirable would be if each 1/2 inning the manager of the team fielding can declare they are shifting right side OR left side. The infielders would then take their positions and have to stay in that vicinity for the rest of the inning. It would push managers to really think about it.

My other idea for a rule change that would be pro reds…

The anti David Bell rule would allow only one (1) double switch per team in a game. When the manager comes out to do his second double switch, they flog him. This would be helpful because replacing any player (except Geno) with Freeman is an automatic downgrade in hitting.


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[westofyou]

Funny that you call it the Bell rule, The Dodgers do this all the time, more than the Reds for sure. Last night the Dodgers announcers said that the ability of the Giants to have players that play multiple positions was a key to their recent success. With huge BP's you need double switches more, but fear not the DH will kill that more than anything. But you will need platoon advantages in the game more than once so I'm completely against limiting the move

[M2]

I confess to being wholly confused by the complaints about seeking platoon advantages and making double switches.

Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of baseball should recognize platoon advantages are a real thing in baseball. If the other team has a stack of LH hitters due to bat, then get a lefty out of your pen. If the other team has a RH reliever on the mound and he's got to pitch to the next three batters, then get after him with LH bats. Exceptionally talented players can run roughshod over that (e.g. Tejay Antone when he was on fire earlier this season). And you're not going to pull Nick Castellanos because there's a RH pitcher on the mound. But when you're talking about bench players and the soft underbelly of your bullpen, you better be maximizing your platoon advantages. And if you wouldn't be doing that, then you'd be garbage at managing a baseball team.

As for double switch, everyone's got a short bench. If you don't pull double switches you're going to run out of position players, quickly. Also keeps you from burning through extra relievers. It's a strategy that keeps your options open. As WOY noted, the universal DH will end this. Yet in a league where the pitcher's slot has to hit, a manager would be asleep at the wheel if he wasn't making double switches.

[westofyou]

The funny thing about "Platoon" is that the word really took hold in the sports world after WW2 when football teams began to have players who only played offense or defense, up until then the guys who started on offense started on defense too. When folks started saying one way play increased the quality of the play and lessened injuries then people bought in. Now it's an afterthought. Baseball is a business, players are resources, the game will not limit the ability to insert players into the game to ensure every starter gets 4 PAs, the game doesn't work that way and hasn't for your whole life.

[TNRED]

I prefer that batters return to a time when they practiced hitting as an art. Start hitting in the opposite direction and the shift will disappear.

[SacFly]

[QUOTE=TNRED;4295554]I prefer that batters return to a time when they practiced hitting as an art. Start hitting in the opposite direction and the shift will disappear.[/QUOT

Yes, thank you. Players whine about shifts but make no effort to avoid the shift. “Hit’em where they ain’t”

[SomeCallMeTim]

I prefer that batters return to a time when they practiced hitting as an art. Start hitting in the opposite direction and the shift will disappear.

Does the NFL require the defense to line up in certain way? Does the NBA still have have “illegal defense” as in no zone? Does the NHL have any defensive restrictions outside of obvious penalties?

If you “double team” in other sports what makes “shifting” any different.

Point being, and agreeing with TN, if you can’t beat the shift a few times by hitting oppo thru a 90 foot hole, how good are you as a hitter?

[corkedbat]

Allow the shift or disallow it. Don't get gimmicky.

[M2]

Point being, and agreeing with TN, if you can’t beat the shift a few times by hitting oppo thru a 90 foot hole, how good are you as a hitter?

Good enough to make the top league on the planet. While I agree the next generation will be versed in how to exploit a shift, it's not easy or everyone would just do it.

[dfs]

The funny thing about "Platoon" is that the word really took hold in the sports world after WW2 when football teams began to have players who only played offense or defense, up until then the guys who started on offense started on defense too. When folks started saying one way play increased the quality of the play and lessened injuries then people bought in. Now it's an afterthought. Baseball is a business, players are resources, the game will not limit the ability to insert players into the game to ensure every starter gets 4 PAs, the game doesn't work that way and hasn't for your whole life.

Maybe the word started then, but having a right hander and a left hander share positional time based on the handedness of the pitchers they face goes back to before 1900.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Good enough to make the top league on the planet. While I agree the next generation will be versed in how to exploit a shift, it's not easy or everyone would just do it.

Point taken. I guess I’ve seen the shift beat enough on purpose and by late contact that MLB shouldn’t have to make silly rules on how managers or teams want to play defense.

I don’t like the shift, but at the same time I don’t see how it violates and sanctity of the game.

[Stray]

I'm no fan of the shift, but every single player in baseball can do away with it by hitting the other way enough times to force teams to stop doing it. They're hitting into good scouting and getting outplayed.

[M2]

Point taken. I guess I’ve seen the shift beat enough on purpose and by late contact that MLB shouldn’t have to make silly rules on how managers or teams want to play defense.

I don’t like the shift, but at the same time I don’t see how it violates and sanctity of the game.

I'm with you on that. Also, I don't think structural attempts to ban it are going to achieve much. Fielders will play right next to any imaginary line you draw and break toward the shift side with the pitch.

[Far East]

...While I agree the next generation will be versed in how to exploit a shift, it's not easy or everyone would just do it.

But against the shift, a lefty hitting professional must be able to push a bunt -- even a mediocre one -- towards the vacated third base area. Do they practice that enough? Do hitting coaches teach it? For example, many times when Winker has hit into a double play, the situation almost screamed "bunt." We love him, but he has hit into 13 double plays (tied for second-worst in MLB) -- too often to end an inning or end a rally just after India has reached base. I love his extra base power, but there are still times when a second place hitter could hit like a traditional second place hitter. We hear Larkin say, "Sometimes you're a slugger, some times you're a hitter."

[CmdrCody]

Sorry I was just being sarcastic since he commissioner seems to want to get. Rid of the shift.

The double switch should only be done if you plan on the pitcher you’re putting in staying in for several innings. My complaint about Bell is he will put in a pitcher for the last two outs of an inning and put in a .210 hitter in the pitchers slot, while removing someone like Winker or Stevenson. A different pitcher is then used the next inning. This wastes the double switch. If the pitcher is not pitching multiple innings ie not Antoine then it’s a waste. Bell has done this many times. I also remember him doing a double switch where he pinch hit for the player he put in on the double switch because the other team put in a lefty pitcher. This wasted a player and they later ran out of position players in the game.