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A May 1923 description of how teams implemented a shift against Cy Williams of the Philadelphia Phillies. In a typical shift against a left-handed hitter, the third baseman moves to their left where the shortstop plays; the shortstop plays to the right of second base; the second baseman plays between first and second base, and usually out on the grass in shallow right field; the center fielder ...
How the A's were positioned against left-handed batter Nathaniel Lowe, an alignment that will still be legal under new MLB shift rules in 2023. (Image courtesy Baseball Savant) The outcome, though ...
Another variation had the third baseman move to where the shortstop would play in the shift, leaving the shortstop (who is generally the team's best infielder) to cover the left side of the infield. Many believe that this shift was first employed against Ted Williams in the 1940s, as thought up by then-Indians manager Lou Boudreau. However, it ...
For example, during the 2012 season, the Toronto Blue Jays employed an infield shift against some left-handed batters, such as David Ortiz or Carlos Peña, in which third baseman Brett Lawrie would be assigned to shallow right field.
In such a situation, left-handed hitters may use a drag bunt, in which they start stepping towards first base while completing the bunt swing. Even the great slugger Mickey Mantle would drag bunt once in a while, taking advantage of his 3.1 second speed from home to first base.
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Speed Score, often simply abbreviated to Spd, is a statistic used in Sabermetric studies to evaluate a baseball player's speed. It was invented by Bill James, and first appeared in the 1987 edition of the Bill James Baseball Abstract. [1] Speed score is on a scale of 0 to 10, with zero being the slowest and ten being the fastest.
For example, a certain hitter's ability to hit left-handed pitchers might incline a manager to increase their opportunities to face left-handed pitchers. Other hitters may have a history of success against a given pitcher (or vice versa), and the manager may use this information to create a favorable match-up.