Defensive shifts this year

[PeteU]

Is it just me, or have I been seeing more and more of the radical defensive shifts this season than from past seasons?

Probably just my awareness, but it seems like a lot more managers have been putting three infielders on one side of the field for various hitters.

[Rich the Giants fan]

The shift is definitely on the rise, and rightly so if teams are smart (like Tampa Bay).

From Acta Sports:


Shifty Business

May 11, 2012

This is so cool. Have I died and gone to heaven?

Since I began my career over 25 years ago, first with Project Scoresheet, then with STATS, Inc., now with Baseball Info Solutions, my main focus in the analytics world has been defense. At Project Scoresheet we came up with a variety of techniques that we presented at the SABR conference in the 80’s. In the 90’s at STATS, we developed Zone Ratings and the original version of Ultimate Zone Ratings. In the 2000’s, here at Baseball Info Solutions we developed the Plus/Minus System and Defensive Runs Saved.

Recently our focus has been on evaluating The Shift. And for the first time ever, we’re seeing major league teams immediately adopt a major strategy that is in line with the new analytics.

This is so cool.

In each of the last two years, there have been about 1,900 shifts in MLB. This year we’re on pace for twice that, about 3,800. Here are the top ten teams. You can see that they have really upped the ante on the new Shift Defense.


Top 10 Most Shifting Teams in 2012


Team 2010 2011 2012 Projected 2012 Total
Rays 221 216 171 695
Orioles 103 75 95 386
Indians 130 148 81 342
Blue Jays 79 117 71 288
Royals 46 70 55 242
Yankees 56 53 54 228
Athletics 35 69 53 215
Brewers 22 170 46 194
Red Sox 87 41 42 177
Rangers 49 72 39 158


Most of these teams are doubling and tripling the number of shifts they’ve done in the past, a couple even more.

But there are still some teams that don’t believe in it yet. Here are the five
teams with the fewest shifts this year. They have not adopted the Shift Defense.

Top 5 Least Shifting Teams in 2012

Team 2010 2011 2012 Projected 2012 Total
White Sox 40 43 0 0
Cardinals 27 26 0 0
Phillies 34 9 1 4
Rockies 55 42 1 4
Reds 43 43 2 9

In their defense, I will say that the research is not yet 100% conclusive that The Shift is effective. In our book, The Fielding Bible—Volume III, we showed that about 50 points are knocked off the batting average on grounders and short liners for the most commonly shifted hitters in the last two years. It’s a good sample size, but it’s not a conclusive sample size. Baseball Info Solutions is continuing to track this and provide research updates to team clients.

But having said that, I believe the teams that are ramping this up are doing the right thing. In The Fielding Bible—Volume II, that came out three years ago, we were suggesting more shifts to more hitters. In our newest book we provide more evidence. I expect that as we continue to dig deeper, we will continue to uncover more evidence in favor of the Shift Defense.

I’m calling it the Shift Defense. I’m thinking of this as a new defensive strategy, like the Zone Defense in basketball, the 3-4 Defense in football, etc. Defense in baseball has gone unnoticed for a long time. It’s time a new defense in baseball got its own name like new defenses in other sports. I expect that there will come a time in baseball where shifting by batter and even by count and pitch type will become as commonplace as NFL defensive changes based on the down and distance situation. The Tampa Bay Rays are getting close to that now, and as they continue to succeed, other teams will begin to emulate their success, as they have begun doing now

[UnderPressure]

Tony LaRussa was never a fan of the shift. He would have a normal defense even if there was a notorious pull hitter at the plate.

[Rich the Giants fan]

It's interesting to note that the two teams that have not shifted at all were skippered by rookie managers with zero professional coaching experience.