I've been watching a lot of baseball shifts being employed in virtually all of baseball nowadays and I have to say that I am very surprised at how effective that they are. In the Tigers and Cubs series, there have been probably about 20 or so examples where a player hits the ball well but right at a shifted defensive player. Also I would love to be in the pitcher/catcher/coach reviews before the game where they go over the hitters and how they are going to pitch them and defensively defend them. I supposed that there are videos and scouting reports that they go over. If I had a bucket list, that would be one of my desires.

I don't think there should be limits on the shifting (it's up to batters to adjust and hit it to the open areas)...but I will say it's unnerving to see balls hit sharply up the middle and my brain says "single" until the camera shows the fielder standing right there.

I like home runs just as much as the next guy, but it is called "Baseball", not "Homerball".

Fence distance hasn't moved back to account for strength. There was occasional shifting going back to Ted Williams, but now the hitters aren't adept enough at adjusting.

The Padres are basically playing with three infielders and four outfielders at home against pull lefties. They've cut their grass short, stuck Machado where a RF would typically play against a pitcher at the plate, and dared lefties to beat him. The fly from Gallo the other day, Machado was 283 feet from home plate when he caught it.

The shifted him from 3B to behind 1B?

Fence distance hasn't moved back to account for strength. There was occasional shifting going back to Ted Williams, but now the hitters aren't adept enough at adjusting.

The Padres are basically playing with three infielders and four outfielders at home against pull lefties. They've cut their grass short, stuck Machado where a RF would typically play against a pitcher at the plate, and dared lefties to beat him. The fly from Gallo the other day, Machado was 283 feet from home plate when he caught it.

Steve Stone was talking about bunting against the shift the other night. He didn't use specific numbers, but he said that bunting was counter productive.

I guess if you are good enough at it that a bunt has a 40% chance of succeeding then that's an .800 OPS. So if you are a .230/.330/.525 LH power hitter you are better off swinging away. You have to be able to bunt with probably a 52-55% success rate for it to be worth it, unless you can perfect the Robinson Camo bunt double.

https://youtu.be/KZth29D337A

I don't know if enough people try to make the data on bunting vs the shift accurate.

If there is a guy on second, they won't shift...

I agree that players should try and bunt more against the shift. Stone's point was that he'd rather just give up the possible single.

Manfred needs to change the rules to tighten up the parameters on the shifts. For instance, shortstop should not be able to cross over past the other side of 2B until the ball leaves the pitcher's hand (and vice versa for the 2nd baseman going the other way).

This is bullshit, and it is not baseball.

Steve Stone was talking about bunting against the shift the other night. He didn't use specific numbers, but he said that bunting was counter productive.

I guess if you are good enough at it that a bunt has a 40% chance of succeeding then that's an .800 OPS. So if you are a .230/.330/.525 LH power hitter you are better off swinging away. You have to be able to bunt with probably a 52-55% success rate for it to be worth it, unless you can perfect the Robinson Camo bunt double.

https://youtu.be/KZth29D337A

I think if you prove that you can beat the shift, they'll stop doing it as much against you which probably raises your long term results.

Even though the shift is good at gobbling up ground balls and line drives, it has the secondary effect of making pitchers throw more pitches out of the strike zone. They don't appear to be pitching to the shift -- by throwing more pitches on the inner part of the plate, for instance -- but merely pitching away from contact, nibbling more and throwing fewer fastballs. This all means more balls. More balls mean more walks, and they also mean more hitter's counts, which means more doubles, more triples, more home runs and fewer strikeouts.

That right and this is more an indictment on today's hitters inability to bunt than anything else. If a player cannot bunt, then he shouldn't be asked to bunt.

Are pitchers getting better pitching to the shift? When BP ran the numbers in 2018 pitchers were more often putting themselves in a hole in the count when pitching in front of the shift:

Manfred needs to change the rules to tighten up the parameters on the shifts. For instance, shortstop should not be able to cross over past the other side of 2B until the ball leaves the pitcher's hand (and vice versa for the 2nd baseman going the other way).

This is bullshit, and it is not baseball.

No parody "Shits in Major League Baseball" thread yet?

whistler was busy with tollbooths last night.

whistler was busy with tollbooths last night.