Saturday, November 10, 2018

A limit on defensive over-shifts would only worsen the game

Supposedly, the MLB brain trust is pondering four rule changes:

1. Implement a 20-second clock for pitchers.

2. Move the trade deadline back a few weeks.

3. Alter the 10-day DL so teams can't fudge on it.

4. Ban the defensive over-shift.

On the first three, I'm open for debate. (Though, instinctively, I oppose clocks in baseball.) But let's be clear: Number 4 shits the bed. It represents no less than a battle over baseball's soul.

I understand why the owners would ban the over-shift: It works. The over-shift turned "You're on the" Mark Teixeira into a sad .220 lunk, and it can lop 30 points from the average of the game's biggest sluggers (in whom the owners have invested a lot of money.) But forcing teams to play traditional defensive slots - the opposite of Wee Willie Keeler's "hit 'em where they aint" - will eventually backfire. It will embolden the strikeout/walk/homer swing-a-thons that have undermined the pace of the game. 

The problem is not over-shifts. It is batters who cannot - or refuse to - adjust to them. 

Boston won the World Series with a lineup that coaxed singles from thin air,  rather than attempting to hit balls all the way to Maine. So did the Kansas City Royals a few years back. The 2018 Yankees set a home run record - whoopie-doo! why no parade down the Canyon of Heroes? - but had nobody capable of hitting .300. You could say they were always fated to flop against good pitching. And that's exactly what happened.

If MLB bans the over-shift, hardcore sluggers will see a spike in batting averages - for a few months. But as they swing harder and harder for the fences, the game will descend even more into a quagmire of strikeouts, walks and home runs. What will the owners do next? Ban the split-finger fastball? Force defenders to play without gloves?

One of the beauties of Luke Voit in September was his ability - and willingness - to drive balls into the opposite field. For the record, he finished at .333 - in a small sample. Of course, our concern is that, over an entire season, he would come down with Traumatic Giambi Syndrome and start pulling everything to left field - into an over-shifted spider's web. 

Theoretically, wasn't that why teams have batting coaches? To help batters adjust? Oh, well... 

As much as we love the idea of the Yankees adding Bryce Harper to the lineup, what we don't need is another 169 strikeouts. (Yep, that's what he did last year.) Somehow, we must forestall Glyber Torres and Miguel Andujar turning into Chase Headley and Stephen Drew, or Clint Frazier becoming a RH version of Curtis Granderson. Banning the over-shift might briefly goose some players' numbers. But it won't save baseball from itself. Let the owners finagle the 10 day DL. But they should keep their hands off the field.

14 comments:

  1. I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND HOW YOU CAN PUT A RESTRICTION ON WHERE THE DEFENDERS POSITION THEMSELVES ON THE DIAMOND...

    IT SOUNDS CRAZY TO ME.

    IT IS LIKE REWARDING THE HITTERS FOR FAILING TO FIND AN ANSWER TO THEIR PROBLEM.

    ....BUT, THERE IS AN ANSWER, AND IT DOESN'T SEEM TO BE THAT HARD A TASK (IF YOU'RE A MAJOR LEAGUER).

    HITTING THE BALL WHERE IT'S PITCHED.

    DEREK JETER MADE A CAREER OF IT.



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  2. The REAL problem is that homeruns are just too attainable by too many batters today:
    1. Ballparks are smaller
    2. The ball is more “live” (travels greater distances than a few years agoj
    3. Players are bigger and stronger at positions they didn’t use to be (e.g., middle infielders)

    This has made everyone in the lineup hit like a Dave Kingman. It used to be just the 3, 4, 5 hitters. We tolerated all the strikeouts and the pull hitting into easy outs from them, because homeruns were rarer and were still worth attempting from those hitters. Everyone else had to find other ways to remain in the lineup, e.g., reaching base by hitting the other way, advancing runners, etc.

    Now everyone is a slugger. The REAL solution is making homeruns harder to attain, so that only the middle of the lineup continues to hit that way. Everyone else would no longer need to be shifted against, because they would be looking to hit to all fields just to get on base and possibly move or score a runner.

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  3. The game will adjust. The shift, on surface, seems easy to beat. We all know how. We all scream, "JUST BUNT!" at the TV. Do it five times in a row and they won't shift. Any minor league organization (and college program) that isn't bringing this skill back is inept.

    As an aside, I spent most of the week in LA, driving back early yesterday AM and just beating the fire closures. It's unreal. I had lunch in Malibu on Thursday. The next day, all was chaos. It's amazing how quickly things can change.

    On the drive back to Nor Cal the air for the entire 200+ mile valley looked like LA used to look in the 80's. Brown haze as far as thee eye could see. You could barely make out the mountains that form the valley.

    When I drove past the Harris Ranch (For those who don't know -- it's right around the half way point from LA to SF and there's a big restaurant etc. there. They are a major beef supplier and from the highway you can see thousands of cows waiting for the slaughter.) all I could think of was that there's going to be a sale on pre-smoked brisket.

    It's bad.

    Right now the smoke from "Camp Fire" (And what a horrible situation that was/is!) is permeating my house even though the fire is ninety miles away and all of my windows are closed.

    Anyway I'm home. I don't know if the Yankees will trade Gray. I do know I'm getting tired of seeing brown.

    Doug K.



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  4. Wait just a friggen minute.......

    What about midgets?

    What about a guy playing on a unicycle? Or stilts ( made of Louisville sluggers to keep things official ).

    And I think we should allow infielders to wear.....forget allow, let's require it.....gloves on both hands.

    The ball should be reduced to the size of a marble, and colored " infield/outfield green."

    First basemen should be issued a 40 gallon plastic receptacle for catching said green marbles, but they also are
    awarded " clowns feet" for lengthening their "stretches."

    Don't trade Gary. He'll fit right in as is.

    I have to stop drinking bloody Marys in the early morning hours.

    Love this game called baseball.

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  5. Just raise the mound back to where it used to be.

    I know it has always been a business and we pretend that it's something else, but the owners are truly ruining it.

    Just a drag.

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  6. I said, "I hate Cashman. I'm driving over to his place to take a crap on his porch. Who's with me!? !?"

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  7. Did anyone get a free Doritos Locos taco?

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  8. I'm in, Winnie. Let's all do colonoscopy prep first and hang out there for a while, then go grab a huge dinner somewhere.

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  9. Fajitas Grande and margarita pitchers and then we prep on his deck and in his hot tub.

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  10. Warblist--carboard cutout out of a Playboy magazine lifestyle ad, circa 1964. What a mindless, soulless clone of some advertising agency's mirages of the "good life"--getting and spending like a good little robot.

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  11. MLB, the owners, Cashman...they're all of a piece.

    Given enough time, they'll all fuck it up.

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  12. Really. I would rather see us go back to the "deadfall" era than this crap.

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