April 23, 201411 yr Stupid Ventura. Mark Simon @msimonespn 23m White Sox shifted D 80 times this season. Did so 73 times in 2013. In related story, White Sox lead MLB in out of zone plays made (81)
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 11:23 AM) Stupid Ventura. Mark Simon @msimonespn 23m White Sox shifted D 80 times this season. Did so 73 times in 2013. In related story, White Sox lead MLB in out of zone plays made (81) Not surprising with Rick Hahn as GM. I would imagine we will be towards the bottom in sac bunting as well. Good stuff.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 11:23 AM) Stupid Ventura. Mark Simon @msimonespn 23m White Sox shifted D 80 times this season. Did so 73 times in 2013. In related story, White Sox lead MLB in out of zone plays made (81) Not surprising with Rick Hahn as GM. I would imagine we will be towards the bottom in sac bunting as well. Good stuff.
April 23, 201411 yr Well, we're still in the part of the season where you have to qualify everything with "WARNING: SMALL SAMPLE SIZE", but the Sox have only had 2 (successful) sac bunts so far this year. Five AL teams have less than two, but on the other end of the spectrum Texas has 11. Sox are also 88% on SB, meaning that they are being smarter about when to run.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 11:38 AM) Well, we're still in the part of the season where you have to qualify everything with "WARNING: SMALL SAMPLE SIZE", but the Sox have only had 2 (successful) sac bunts so far this year. Five AL teams have less than two, but on the other end of the spectrum Texas has 11. Sox are also 88% on SB, meaning that they are being smarter about when to run. The Sox attempted the fewest sac bunts in baseball last season. It was the 3rd lowest total of the past 10 years. Yet there were posts on Soxtalk how Robin like to give up outs.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 11:41 AM) The Sox attempted the fewest sac bunts in baseball last season. It was the 3rd lowest total of the past 10 years. Yet there were posts on Soxtalk how Robin like to give up outs. Probably because we didn't have enough base runners to sac bunt over.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 01:59 PM) We made 2 terrible shifts last night that lead to the Tigers big inning. With Leesman on the mound, playing the OFs in the bleachers would help.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 03:26 PM) With Leesman on the mound, playing the OFs in the bleachers would help. Saw a few innings of Boston/New York last night. Kaat was saying basdeball has started to see a change this year where players are starting to hit against the shift. The Red Sox shifted on McCann as most teams do. But the stat they showed was that more than 50% of his hits this year are to left instead of right. On that play he flied to warning track in left. Kaat said some teams are starting to reconsider shifting for some players they normally shift on.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (SCCWS @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 02:34 PM) Saw a few innings of Boston/New York last night. Kaat was saying basdeball has started to see a change this year where players are starting to hit against the shift. The Red Sox shifted on McCann as most teams do. But the stat they showed was that more than 50% of his hits this year are to left instead of right. On that play he flied to warning track in left. Kaat said some teams are starting to reconsider shifting for some players they normally shift on. I can see that, but with many of the better players, if they hit against your shift, they are doing you a favor.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (SCCWS @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 02:34 PM) Saw a few innings of Boston/New York last night. Kaat was saying basdeball has started to see a change this year where players are starting to hit against the shift. The Red Sox shifted on McCann as most teams do. But the stat they showed was that more than 50% of his hits this year are to left instead of right. On that play he flied to warning track in left. Kaat said some teams are starting to reconsider shifting for some players they normally shift on. With many players, their ground ball splits will indicate pulled balls but their flyballs are sprayed pretty well over the outfield. Hitters will try and shoot balls the other way, but with mixing speeds, they'll get caught out in front and on top of breaking balls and pull them anyways.
April 23, 201411 yr Did anyone read that NYT article on shifts this summer? It was really good. Said the sox weren't shifting as much compared to other teams. I think they picked up on it this year. That shift where Semien plays right up the middle has saved some singles from going through.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 03:59 PM) We made 2 terrible shifts last night that lead to the Tigers big inning. As with any defensive positioning, you win some, you lose some. You just try to win as many as possible and lose as few as possible. How many outs would be missed by NOT shifting when you could have? Given enough data, you can calculate the optimized position based on odds. I'm sure that's what they do. But that doesn't guarantee someone will hit it where you'd like them to.
April 23, 201411 yr If I understanding that tweet correctly, we have shifted more than any other team, therefore we have more outs recorded via the shift.....okay...isn't that to be expected? Wouldn't you also assume the team that shifts the LEAST has the most amount of "in zone" outs recorded? Does that correlation then mean that you should never shift? I'm just failing to see how this proves the shift does or doesn't work. It's like saying the team that bunts the most has the most sacrifice bunts, therefore sac bunting is always the right thing to do.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 05:12 PM) If I understanding that tweet correctly, we have shifted more than any other team, therefore we have more outs recorded via the shift.....okay...isn't that to be expected? Wouldn't you also assume the team that shifts the LEAST has the most amount of "in zone" outs recorded? Does that correlation then mean that you should never shift? I'm just failing to see how this proves the shift does or doesn't work. It's like saying the team that bunts the most has the most sacrifice bunts, therefore sac bunting is always the right thing to do. It doesn't. It just shows that we went from a defense that NEVER shifted last year to one that shifts as much as anyone this year.
April 23, 201411 yr QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 05:12 PM) If I understanding that tweet correctly, we have shifted more than any other team, therefore we have more outs recorded via the shift.....okay...isn't that to be expected? Wouldn't you also assume the team that shifts the LEAST has the most amount of "in zone" outs recorded? Does that correlation then mean that you should never shift? I'm just failing to see how this proves the shift does or doesn't work. It's like saying the team that bunts the most has the most sacrifice bunts, therefore sac bunting is always the right thing to do. Espn had a graphic the other night. The Sox were 4th in times with a shift. Houston has lapped the field.
April 24, 201411 yr QUOTE (BaconOnAStick @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 02:02 PM) Did anyone read that NYT article on shifts this summer? It was really good. Said the sox weren't shifting as much compared to other teams. I think they picked up on it this year. That shift where Semien plays right up the middle has saved some singles from going through. I think I started a thread on the lack of shifts last year and if anyone thought that was going to change. Maybe it was in spring training .
April 24, 201411 yr QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 05:21 PM) It doesn't. It just shows that we went from a defense that NEVER shifted last year to one that shifts as much as anyone this year. Ok, got it.
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