Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffw3000
The entire reason the shift became so common is because everybody tries to pull everything, so they can hit the ball out of the park. If the hitter cannot hit to the opposite field he will make outs when the shift is employed. That is the issue of the hitter. Let him fix it. You will still have your strikeouts and Home runs without the shift. They may even go up, because now there is no reason to go the other way, except during situational hitting. Any other time the player can pull the ball and swing for the fences.
|
I am like 99% positive that there are far, far more opposite field homeruns (purists, beware: these are known as the "oppo taco") than there were in the 80s. I think more players *might* try to run out there as power hitters now whereas back in the day there was a definite "type" with guys who just pulled everything all the time and who tended to hit for a lot of power, but man... I'd love to see some actual data here. I have several of the old Scouting Reports from the 80s; there are quite a few players to where if you look at their hit charts you'd think "huh, I bet this guy could get shifted all to hell".