Living in South Florida, you get to watch both the Marlins and the Rays.

 

One of the many differences between both teams is that Joe Maddon looks like a genius most of the time when he uses a shift. Probably because he uses his scouting reports/knows the spray chart for every hitter.

 

Since the Rays started doing this, other teams have begun doing it as well.

 

Has anyone noticed a shift work for our egotistic, moronic manager this year? Does he even bother to use them?

 

Combine this with our unathletic defense and it's no surprise that we have one of the worst .BABIP's against in baseball. 4th worst in the NL to the Rockies (horrendous pitching staff, hitter's park), Astros (minor league team), and Brewers. No wonder all of our pitchers underachieve.

Has anyone noticed a shift work for our egotistic, moronic manager this year?

 

 

Solid.

So, do you have an opinion on the subject?

Alot of speculation really about preparation. Maybe the other teams can just make better adjustments and can hit it the other way

 

Wouldn't be so much an issue if our pitchers were better getting strikeouts. What do the stats say about our pitchers having a lower strikeout rate. Seems like the regular roatation guys werent getting the strikeouts like they used to. Ricky's is down, JJ is down. Cishek has strikeout caliber stuff but wanst hitting on much tonight.

So, do you have an opinion on the subject?

 

 

Nope. I just thought your post was funny.

 

Your post features a lot of conjecture and anecdotal evidence and very little that can be verified. It's kind of just a rant. I have no way of proving if Joe Maddon's usage of defensive shifts works any better or worse than Ozzie's or any other manager's.

Also, I do not think Joe Maddon was the first manager to ever use defensive shifts and I don't think he is the reason why other teams do so, so you're going to need to be more specific about what you mean.

Also, I do not think Joe Maddon was the first manager to ever use defensive shifts and I don't think he is the reason why other teams do so, so you're going to need to be more specific about what you mean.

 

 

The Rays shift more than any other team. He uses shifts for all types of hitters, not just the left-handed power hitter shift that's been used since before he began managing. Other teams now do it too, to a lesser extent.

 

You haven't noticed an increase in defensive shifting over the past couple of years?

 

I didn't think it was some sort of secret. Anyway, http://mlb.mlb.com/n...news_tb&c_id=tb

 

Their shifting saves a lot of runs over the course of the season.

 

A specific pitcher who comes to mind in their rotation as someone who shouldn't be nearly as good as his ERA's suggest is Jeremy Hellickson. Hellickson, for 2+ years now, has pitched like someone who kinda sucks, yet he has a career 3.18 ERA in 370.2 innings. In the American League East.

While I don't think that defensive alignment is the only contributing factor in BABIP (defensive ability, park dimensions, skill also), but it is certainly one of them.

 

It's worth noting that the Rays have had one of the best BABIPs each year over the last several years in baseball. While I am not making a correlation/causation claim, I would hypothesize that their defensive alignment has been one of the major factors in a consistently low BABIP.

I should also add that the Rays have also been one of the best fielding teams over that time period too (although not so much this season), so the good defense will lower that BABIP. However, it's also worth contemplating to what extent the defenders might be reaping the benefits of the defensive alignment. It's certainly hard to quantify any of this, though.

It's certainly hard to quantify any of this, though.

 

 

Well, that was kind of my point. The OP was more or less asking wholly unquantifiable questions.

If they can invent a shift that doesn't give up HRs or walks then it might help, as for shifts they've been around since at least the 40's when the Indians used one on Ted Williams. As for Madden he does a lot out of the box stuff like hitting struggling Carlos Pena leadoff among other things. I'm not sure how much evidence exists to say how much a shift helps, I think it does more to the batters psyche than it does for the defenders.

If they can invent a shift that doesn't give up HRs or walks then it might help, as for shifts they've been around since at least the 40's when the Indians used one on Ted Williams. As for Madden he does a lot out of the box stuff like hitting struggling Carlos Pena leadoff among other things. I'm not sure how much evidence exists to say how much a shift helps, I think it does more to the batters psyche than it does for the defenders.

 

 

Only the Nationals and Dodgers have allowed less HR's than the Marlins this year.