Defense used to be exciting but now it is not as fun to watch I would not have as many memories of Ozzie Smith playing shortstop and coming up with all the awesome plays that he made if there was a shift in place when he played. Same for Lou Whittaker, Frank White, Barry Larkin, Cal Ripken, etc, etc. Great SS and 2B play has been reduced. Hopefully, this rule puts the fun back in watching infield defense and expanding offensive opportunities. Only time will tell.
Amen, defense is a third of the aspect behind the game of baseball (pitching and hitting being the other two) and the shift has belittled it to the point of no longer living up to professional/elite standards like in the good ol’ days when many players represented defense the fun way, the right way!
Banning the shift was a great move but could have been totally avoided if players were trained to bunt to the weak side of the field to beat the shift but whatever
Homeruns in MLB are like 3-pointers in the NBA. Analytics will tell you though a 3-point shot/home run blast is a lower probability/chance of success than a 2-point/base knock does, but because of AAU and great training in higher levels the players have become skilled enough that these less successful strategies are still successful enough to give better end results than the more successful play - GWB would call it - "fuzzy math" Its a testament to the training these players get that a lower percentage play equates to greater value at the end of a game...
Getting a hit in baseball is hard as hell. (Hence why even the best hitters fail to hit a majority of the time) All the shift does is make it even harder.
I'm an 80's and 90's kid. I hate the shift with a passion. It irritates the hell of me when I see a third baseman playing all the way deep in right field.
Amen. It mocks the design of the field! Mocks the game of defense, let alone the efficacy of the hitter! Seen some sad stuff that belongs in soccer (looks like they’re all lined up for Penalty Kicks)! Pathetic! Play the position or shift to another sport.
There’s a reason why mlb hitters don’t bat .400 anymore. Pitching has gotten a lot better. Today, a .300 hitter is becoming rare. Most lineups have 1 or even 0 .300 hitters. Something had to change to balance the game again. Would love to see a guy hit .400 in our lifetime but the pitching is far too good, at least this should make .300 hitters more common
Hitting into the shift is the most boring batting outcome in baseball besides a walk so for that reason I’m happy. This will also encourage more balls in play and thus more base running as well which will be great on the other had I do worry that this will encourage pull hitters to be even more extreme and thus also move us closer to true 3 outcome baseball which would suck, hopefully it’s a positive change more then a negative one
I don't mind the shift as long as the infielders don't go out in the grass...if an infielder is out in the grass then he's considered a 4th outfielder which should have been illegal in the first place...
Whats going to happen i bet is that against a horrible hitter like Gallo, the entire outfield will be on the right side. So basically there will be no LFer. That's how bad he is as a hitter. Teams literally dont need a left fielder and they csn get around the shift rule against a guy like Gallo. Not that they need to because he bats sub .200 in his career and strikes out a lot.
It should be limited. A certain amount of times, should be allowed. Even the heel of a guys shoe on the grass on the outer edge of the dirt is considered a shift penalty.. Kinda ridiculous it's fully banned. The shift is(was) always in baseball and it's somewhat ironic how the analytical era lead to the abuse of the shift . 34% of All AB's last year. Rules charges shouldn't be a problem, but this is approached with total absolutism..
Banning the shift was a great move for MLB. All the shifts did was encourage hitters to try and swing harder because that was what the shift couldn't account for. Teams weren't going to change their shifts because a player would occasionally bunt or have an opposite field hit. It also showed *less* skill for players defensively when the ball is being hit right to the player instead of the player having to make a great play when they are out of position.
The shift is stupid because the pitcher already has the odds on his side. There's a reason why a batter with a .300 batting average is considered great. A pitcher can throw 4-6 different type of pitches, but a batter can't change his bat prior and during every pitch. So if I'm the batter and guessing a fastball could be coming, I would want a slightly lighter bat to meet up with their speed.
Actually, I think it’s going to keep guys doing more of the same. I could imagine someone who’s been hitting .200 with 40 hr’s thinking the same approach will now lead to .230 with 40 hr’s.
Hitting a baseball is very hard to do and i think that the MLB should change some rules that would make baseball a more hitters league. but because of the difficulty to hit a ball i suggest not making Arizona League changes but making changes to little league. I think baseball needs a big overhaul and any kids who make it in American professional leagues play that sport from the time they are 5 till they make it and they should be better than past generations. So change rules form Little League. I think you make the strike zone chest high. This means batters have to swing at a lot more pitched balls and though i'm not a station, i think having to swing at a lot more pitches and making the strike zone chest high will mean far less home runs and far more contact hits and ground balls. but at the same time allow for any shift the defense wishes to play. 18/16/14/12 could be the pitchers clock for each level so by the time they get to major leagues they have to pitch in 12 seconds other than the first pitch and when there is an inside ball that shakes the batter. CALL ME CRAZY BUT DON'T THINK HOMERUNS BRING IN FANS. IF THE GAME HAD FAR MORE BASE RUNNERS AND SHIFTING FOR INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS THE GAME WOULD BE FAR MORE EXITING. I also suggest a plate adjustment to give matters some .10's of a second more to react so they can better put the ball were they wish. At the end of the day if the game is worked out to make base hitting better than its been in a long time the coaches will coach and train for it and the player will do the same. You will probably see smaller more agile players who train to make it to base and then run them.
Joey Gallo is a .180 hitter in his last 300+ games. So he will probably bat .200 next season on top of striking out 200 times. He is such a bad hitter and cant go the other way, i would just bring the left fielder to play in shallow right where the 3B would play in the shift. Thats how hard Gallo sucks. And its going to be sn embarrassment because it will show he hasnt made any adjustments in his approach.
Ha, this aged like wine. Teams are doing that in spring training against him. If mlb wanted to limit guys like him, they should have continued to allow the shift. Now he’s got no incentive to do anything different. He’ll keep taking his home run cuts because he can hit just as many and now have more singles get through as you said will have a slightly higher average.
It's what seperates a good major league player from an average one. The shift is nothing new. They used to play a shift against Ted Williams, one of the best hitters in baseball history. Banning the shift because not everyone can hit to the opposite field is similar to banning the curve ball because a hitter can't hit it. Mine as well make it like cricket where the batsman can tell the bowler where they would like it thrown.
Bro, they players used to be able to pull/hit oppo all the time. It’s no easy, but there were plenty of players capable of it and now they’d be heavily rewarded when teams shift. Banning the shift just further encourages players to swing as hard as they can without bothering to learn how to actually learn to pull/hit oppo.
It's funny that people want to make baseball games shorter, but these same people want to outlaw the shift. Having the shift taken away means more baserunners. More baserunners means more runs scored. More runs scored means longer innings. Longer innings mean longer games. Taking away the shift contradicts the mindset of shorter games.
I thought all these players are pros. Bring pros mean that you should be able to hit the ball where the players aren't. If you can't, then go back to the minors.
talk about devaluing the entertainment value of the game- the mlb " shot clock" has totally screwed up the best game in the world....dont gimme the excuses about the game is too long. you dont complain about a 60 min (actually about 10 min of play time) nfl game now taking 3"45 min where it used to take 3 hrs........remember the 1 oclock- 4 oclock starts- they now 1 pm - 4-30 pm...no one minds this bullshit
The whole your a big leaguer hit it the other way thing is a stupid cop out if it was that easy obviously everybody would do it. That’s y it was so special when jeter would put his hands in and shoot it the other way miss me with that argument
Yep. These idiots like Reynolds aren’t getting it. It’s not just the fielders being shifted… the pitchers are also only targeting the inside part of the plate. They never get a pitch to hit today to take the other way in shifted PA. Reynolds never faced shifting and could count on getting pitched away and also wasn’t facing 94+ Mph with crazy spin in every at bat
It's not a cop out. Most major league players in the past could adjust enough to hit the other way. You go with the pitch and take what the pitcher gives you instead of trying to pull everything with power. It can be learned if you are a competent major league hitter. It used to be a staple in baseball used to advance the runner. It used to be a basic skill.
Sure when pitchers played to contact, had huge stadiums, were allowed to finish starts and take a little off off 70% of their pitches, and had defensive specialist at SS and Centerfield for late game play. Yea sure hits were likely to spray it around a little. Now the shift abuses all these points: small stadiums with no foul territory, pitchers throw 100% for the 70-100 pitches max, very few late innings player specialists.
Hate to tell you this bud. I grew up in an era when everyday players could take the ball opposite field when needed. It was expected of everyday hitters not just stars like Jeter. Even if they didn't get the hit they would advance the runner. Shit I grew up in Detroit in the 1960s. Our 2nd baseman Dick McAulliff always batted 2nd, maybe a lifetime .250 hitter, because if the leadoff batter got on he could be counted on to advance him via bunt or opposite infield hit and run or outfield directional contact. This was a regular occurrence back in the day expected of competent major league hitters, not something relegated to great hitters as some fantastic occurrence. It was baseball 101.
@@donpietruk1517 man regardless baseball is finally waking up and changes need to be made and stop with the get off my lawn bullshit narrative cuz baseball is dying man especially here in the USA kids wanna play basketball football shit even soccer 😐 baseball has become boring no more stealing bunting etc the game needs changes and I applaud what their doing
I've been seeing "ban-the-shift" phraseology lately, so I thought I'd watch this video to see if it means what it seems to mean. It does, and it's stupid. I ceased following MLB after 6+ decades in early 2020 when it committed suicide by political activism. Now there's this business of dictating strategics in some preposterous hope that it will be for the greater good(!), and it makes me gladder than ever that I walked away. This is the further puzzification of baseball.
How about leaving some room for would-be base hits if you didn’t have all of this nonsensical “anal-ytical”defensive shift fad with “place position player here and here and here and waaaay over here” that’s been running the show and demeaning literally one third of the physical art of baseball!
Defense used to be exciting but now it is not as fun to watch I would not have as many memories of Ozzie Smith playing shortstop and coming up with all the awesome plays that he made if there was a shift in place when he played. Same for Lou Whittaker, Frank White, Barry Larkin, Cal Ripken, etc, etc. Great SS and 2B play has been reduced.
Hopefully, this rule puts the fun back in watching infield defense and expanding offensive opportunities. Only time will tell.
Amen, defense is a third of the aspect behind the game of baseball (pitching and hitting being the other two) and the shift has belittled it to the point of no longer living up to professional/elite standards like in the good ol’ days when many players represented defense the fun way, the right way!
Shifts were allowed back then, it was just a rare occurrence. Analytics are the problem.
@@zachramey7187 yup.
Banning the shift was a great move but could have been totally avoided if players were trained to bunt to the weak side of the field to beat the shift but whatever
Homeruns in MLB are like 3-pointers in the NBA. Analytics will tell you though a 3-point shot/home run blast is a lower probability/chance of success than a 2-point/base knock does, but because of AAU and great training in higher levels the players have become skilled enough that these less successful strategies are still successful enough to give better end results than the more successful play - GWB would call it - "fuzzy math" Its a testament to the training these players get that a lower percentage play equates to greater value at the end of a game...
They’re more specific role oriented like they just got rid of the DH rule
Gotta take as much strategy out of the game as possible because batters are too useless and stupid to adjust
I agree in principle, but they weren’t adjusting
Ted Williams said hitting the ball in the MLB is the hardest thing to do in sports, I'd give them a break
Getting a hit in baseball is hard as hell. (Hence why even the best hitters fail to hit a majority of the time) All the shift does is make it even harder.
I'm an 80's and 90's kid. I hate the shift with a passion. It irritates the hell of me when I see a third baseman playing all the way deep in right field.
why? learn to spread the ball all over the field bitch!
Amen. It mocks the design of the field! Mocks the game of defense, let alone the efficacy of the hitter! Seen some sad stuff that belongs in soccer (looks like they’re all lined up for Penalty Kicks)! Pathetic! Play the position or shift to another sport.
So true!!!!! Ozzie Smith would not exist in today's game. And that's crazy!!!! The best defensive ss ever!!!
The shift eliminates great infielders. How does any infielder even get a gold glove nowadays?
What's next? Hitting the ball off a tee because it's too hard to hit a 12-6 curve ball or 98mph fastball?
😂 it’s easy for them to say, isn’t it?
It’s valued in the playoffs. You miss the contact hitters then if you don’t have them
Who don't we ban curve balls and sliders and splitters because there just to hard to hit. It's exactly the same thing as banning a shift.
Exactly
There’s a reason why mlb hitters don’t bat .400 anymore. Pitching has gotten a lot better. Today, a .300 hitter is becoming rare. Most lineups have 1 or even 0 .300 hitters. Something had to change to balance the game again. Would love to see a guy hit .400 in our lifetime but the pitching is far too good, at least this should make .300 hitters more common
Yea might as well make batting boxes for fielders and they can’t leave the box until the ball is hit smfh commish is an alco
you don't make any sense
@@kingrazo10 only 1 guy ever batted .400.
Hitting into the shift is the most boring batting outcome in baseball besides a walk so for that reason I’m happy. This will also encourage more balls in play and thus more base running as well which will be great on the other had I do worry that this will encourage pull hitters to be even more extreme and thus also move us closer to true 3 outcome baseball which would suck, hopefully it’s a positive change more then a negative one
I don't mind the shift as long as the infielders don't go out in the grass...if an infielder is out in the grass then he's considered a 4th outfielder which should have been illegal in the first place...
Whats going to happen i bet is that against a horrible hitter like Gallo, the entire outfield will be on the right side. So basically there will be no LFer. That's how bad he is as a hitter. Teams literally dont need a left fielder and they csn get around the shift rule against a guy like Gallo. Not that they need to because he bats sub .200 in his career and strikes out a lot.
It should be limited. A certain amount of times, should be allowed. Even the heel of a guys shoe on the grass on the outer edge of the dirt is considered a shift penalty.. Kinda ridiculous it's fully banned. The shift is(was) always in baseball and it's somewhat ironic how the analytical era lead to the abuse of the shift . 34% of All AB's last year.
Rules charges shouldn't be a problem, but this is approached with total absolutism..
Banning the shift was a great move for MLB. All the shifts did was encourage hitters to try and swing harder because that was what the shift couldn't account for. Teams weren't going to change their shifts because a player would occasionally bunt or have an opposite field hit.
It also showed *less* skill for players defensively when the ball is being hit right to the player instead of the player having to make a great play when they are out of position.
Exactly!
The shift is stupid because the pitcher already has the odds on his side. There's a reason why a batter with a .300 batting average is considered great. A pitcher can throw 4-6 different type of pitches, but a batter can't change his bat prior and during every pitch. So if I'm the batter and guessing a fastball could be coming, I would want a slightly lighter bat to meet up with their speed.
Actually, I think it’s going to keep guys doing more of the same. I could imagine someone who’s been hitting .200 with 40 hr’s thinking the same approach will now lead to .230 with 40 hr’s.
No shift? Really?
What next, participation trophy’s for everyone?
My little league Padres?
Someone needs to be insulted and shamed.
Hitting a baseball is very hard to do and i think that the MLB should change some rules that would make baseball a more hitters league. but because of the difficulty to hit a ball i suggest not making Arizona League changes but making changes to little league. I think baseball needs a big overhaul and any kids who make it in American professional leagues play that sport from the time they are 5 till they make it and they should be better than past generations. So change rules form Little League. I think you make the strike zone chest high. This means batters have to swing at a lot more pitched balls and though i'm not a station, i think having to swing at a lot more pitches and making the strike zone chest high will mean far less home runs and far more contact hits and ground balls. but at the same time allow for any shift the defense wishes to play. 18/16/14/12 could be the pitchers clock for each level so by the time they get to major leagues they have to pitch in 12 seconds other than the first pitch and when there is an inside ball that shakes the batter. CALL ME CRAZY BUT DON'T THINK HOMERUNS BRING IN FANS. IF THE GAME HAD FAR MORE BASE RUNNERS AND SHIFTING FOR INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS THE GAME WOULD BE FAR MORE EXITING. I also suggest a plate adjustment to give matters some .10's of a second more to react so they can better put the ball were they wish. At the end of the day if the game is worked out to make base hitting better than its been in a long time the coaches will coach and train for it and the player will do the same. You will probably see smaller more agile players who train to make it to base and then run them.
Joey Gallo is a .180 hitter in his last 300+ games. So he will probably bat .200 next season on top of striking out 200 times. He is such a bad hitter and cant go the other way, i would just bring the left fielder to play in shallow right where the 3B would play in the shift. Thats how hard Gallo sucks. And its going to be sn embarrassment because it will show he hasnt made any adjustments in his approach.
Ha, this aged like wine. Teams are doing that in spring training against him. If mlb wanted to limit guys like him, they should have continued to allow the shift. Now he’s got no incentive to do anything different. He’ll keep taking his home run cuts because he can hit just as many and now have more singles get through as you said will have a slightly higher average.
Willie Keeler should be here today. He’d be hitting about .850.
Dude never saw a pitcher throw harder 90. Get out of here.
its not easy hitting in general, letting alone hitting another way, not everyone can do it
It's what seperates a good major league player from an average one. The shift is nothing new. They used to play a shift against Ted Williams, one of the best hitters in baseball history. Banning the shift because not everyone can hit to the opposite field is similar to banning the curve ball because a hitter can't hit it. Mine as well make it like cricket where the batsman can tell the bowler where they would like it thrown.
Bro, they players used to be able to pull/hit oppo all the time. It’s no easy, but there were plenty of players capable of it and now they’d be heavily rewarded when teams shift. Banning the shift just further encourages players to swing as hard as they can without bothering to learn how to actually learn to pull/hit oppo.
It's funny that people want to make baseball games shorter, but these same people want to outlaw the shift. Having the shift taken away means more baserunners. More baserunners means more runs scored. More runs scored means longer innings. Longer innings mean longer games. Taking away the shift contradicts the mindset of shorter games.
Bingo
Baseball is trying shorten games with the pitch clock, the shift reduces action and turns the game into a homer run derby or low impact bunt fest.
It will only help the hitters and make more action. There needs to be something that offsets it for pitchers.
Did you have the same mentality about the shift benefiting pitchers believed something had to be done to offset it for the hitters? Or no?
They should think about alternative solutions before changing the game in a fundamental way.
How do you ban strategy? Lol
Mlb blows so bad
MLB screws w their own rules so much year to year the game is russian roulette every season.
I thought all these players are pros. Bring pros mean that you should be able to hit the ball where the players aren't. If you can't, then go back to the minors.
Sadly, baseball players are specialists. They can't freelance as much
Exactly. Messing with the purity of the game.
talk about devaluing the entertainment value of the game- the mlb " shot clock" has totally screwed up the best game in the world....dont gimme the excuses about the game is too long. you dont complain about a 60 min (actually about 10 min of play time) nfl game now taking 3"45 min where it used to take 3 hrs........remember the 1 oclock- 4 oclock starts- they now 1 pm - 4-30 pm...no one minds this bullshit
The whole your a big leaguer hit it the other way thing is a stupid cop out if it was that easy obviously everybody would do it. That’s y it was so special when jeter would put his hands in and shoot it the other way miss me with that argument
Yep. These idiots like Reynolds aren’t getting it. It’s not just the fielders being shifted… the pitchers are also only targeting the inside part of the plate. They never get a pitch to hit today to take the other way in shifted PA. Reynolds never faced shifting and could count on getting pitched away and also wasn’t facing 94+ Mph with crazy spin in every at bat
It's not a cop out. Most major league players in the past could adjust enough to hit the other way. You go with the pitch and take what the pitcher gives you instead of trying to pull everything with power. It can be learned if you are a competent major league hitter. It used to be a staple in baseball used to advance the runner. It used to be a basic skill.
Sure when pitchers played to contact, had huge stadiums, were allowed to finish starts and take a little off off 70% of their pitches, and had defensive specialist at SS and Centerfield for late game play. Yea sure hits were likely to spray it around a little. Now the shift abuses all these points: small stadiums with no foul territory, pitchers throw 100% for the 70-100 pitches max, very few late innings player specialists.
Hate to tell you this bud. I grew up in an era when everyday players could take the ball opposite field when needed. It was expected of everyday hitters not just stars like Jeter. Even if they didn't get the hit they would advance the runner. Shit I grew up in Detroit in the 1960s. Our 2nd baseman Dick McAulliff always batted 2nd, maybe a lifetime .250 hitter, because if the leadoff batter got on he could be counted on to advance him via bunt or opposite infield hit and run or outfield directional contact. This was a regular occurrence back in the day expected of competent major league hitters, not something relegated to great hitters as some fantastic occurrence. It was baseball 101.
@@donpietruk1517 man regardless baseball is finally waking up and changes need to be made and stop with the get off my lawn bullshit narrative cuz baseball is dying man especially here in the USA kids wanna play basketball football shit even soccer 😐 baseball has become boring no more stealing bunting etc the game needs changes and I applaud what their doing
I've been seeing "ban-the-shift" phraseology lately, so I thought I'd watch this video to see if it means what it seems to mean. It does, and it's stupid. I ceased following MLB after 6+ decades in early 2020 when it committed suicide by political activism. Now there's this business of dictating strategics in some preposterous hope that it will be for the greater good(!), and it makes me gladder than ever that I walked away. This is the further puzzification of baseball.
Not a good idea. You need to leave some room for creativity.
How about leaving some room for would-be base hits if you didn’t have all of this nonsensical “anal-ytical”defensive shift fad with “place position player here and here and here and waaaay over here” that’s been running the show and demeaning literally one third of the physical art of baseball!
@@whataboutthirdbreakfast why blame teams for trying to do what they can to help their chances to win?
Baseball is SCREWED!!
No, baseball is not screwed, just the “what on planet earth is that” defensive shifts (and their proponents of it, as well).
Same people crying about the shift are the same exact scrubs who couldn’t build in Fortnite.
Ruining baseball.