Hey baseball fans.... you hear about the latest part of the game they are trying to ban/outlaw?
Defensive Shifts (the Infield Shift)
"As shifts suppress offense, time has come to consider a rule change"
The author says......
Support of an “illegal defense” rule – or at least the consideration of it – is gaining some traction in baseball. Such a rule might stipulate, for instance, that you cannot have three infielders on one side of second base. A shortstop would be able to shift as far as directly behind second base on a lefthanded hitter, but no farther.
As a baseball fan, I think this is a stupid idea. Really stupid.
They've been around for years.
And are an important strategic part of the game.
But he doesn't think so.....
Is it time for an illegal defense rule? We can all sit here and pretend nothing is wrong and count on the natural “ebbs and flows” of the game to self-correct the decline in offense. Or we can do what the lords of baseball have done many times when offense was down, such as outlawing the spitball and putting a clean baseball in play (1920), lowering the mound (1969) and introducing the DH (1973): we can update the rules.
An article in USA Today is much more logical, pointing out the faults of making this part of the game illegal:
"Outlawing MLB's aggressive infield shifts makes no sense"
I especially like this.....
First and foremost: Just because the second baseman typically played in one place for the past 100 years or more doesn’t mean he should be tethered there forever. The traditional defensive positioning became standard because managers found it to be the most effective way to reduce hits. It has only changed in recent years because clubs are working with more information.
Amen!
And another good read from Business Insider:
"There's A Revolution Going On In How Baseball Teams Play Defense"
That article is 2 years old (May 2012) and talks about the growing trend of using defensive shifts.
Plus, it makes reference to the shifts played on Ted Williams (pictured above).
There doesn't need to be a change.
No "shifts" in the rules are needed.
Out for now......
Matt