NCAA Considering Rule Change

[Northside Hawk]

I’m big time against the shift. I’m happy they outlawed it.

Hitting it where the infielder isn’t—is orders of magnitude harder than moving an infielder over to the other side. Like it’s ridiculously harder. Anyone who’s tried to really learn to be an opposite field hitter can tell you. Because of that, the defense has a huge advantage. It’s also against the original, fundamental spirit of the game. The original pioneers of the game didn’t intend for there to be 4 or 5 outfielders or having every infielder on one side of 2B.

Even if you can’t get on board with the shift being 1) an enormously lopsided defensive advantage, or 2) being against the spirit of the game, it made baseball even more of a trudge to watch than it was already becoming with slow play.

If you want the shift to stay, you’re going to have to accept boring pitchers duals where guys are striking out trying to hit homers because they know if they don’t they’re hitting right at 5 fielders 95% of the time. None of those are good for baseball.

Hitting live pitching has widely been accepted as the most difficult thing to do in sports for generations.

Being able to to hit behind runners and away from shifts, like you said, is almost impossible. But the best could do it, which is why defenses played them straight up. I'm not going to bore you with the names because you know who they are-all you need to do us look at the lifetime averages of certain players to know who could use the whole field, foul line to foul line.

Hitters, even at youth levels, are being coached in the cage and elsewhere to elevate the ball. But you can still elevate to all fields. Try to elevate an outside pitch to your pull side and chances are you're going to roll it to shortstop (if right handed) or to second base (if left handed)

I think the onus should be on the hitters to stop trying to jack everything out of the park and learn to hit to all fields again. That would make banning the shift a non issue because hitters who can use the whole field will never see a shift. It's cause-effect. Plus, stringing hits together keeps the pressure on the pitcher and defense, keeps the pitcher in the stretch, and generally leads to more offense than the occasional solo home run.

 

[Fryowa]

I think the onus should be on the hitters to stop trying to jack everything out of the park and learn to hit to all fields again. That would make banning the shift a non issue because hitters who can use the whole field will never see a shift. It's cause-effect. Plus, stringing hits together keeps the pressure on the pitcher and defense, keeps the pitcher in the stretch, and generally leads to more offense than the occasional solo home run.

I get the sentiment, but pitching is way too good now. Almost everyone touches 98 with tons of movement. Coming out of high school if you aren’t touching 90 you won’t even get a high level look which would be unheard of 20 years ago.

The reason guys used to be able to cope with that kind of pitching was because there was a 10 year period where guys were as juiced as Ronnie Coleman.

Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Giambi, A-Rod, Caminiti, Palmeiro, Canseco, on and on and on. I don’t want to see baseball go back that direction.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I get the sentiment, but pitching is way too good now. Almost everyone touches 98 with tons of movement. Coming out of high school if you aren’t touching 90 you won’t even get a high level look which would be unheard of 20 years ago.

The reason guys used to be able to cope with that kind of pitching was because there was a 10 year period where guys were as juiced as Ronnie Coleman.

Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Giambi, A-Rod, Caminiti, Palmeiro, Canseco, on and on and on. I don’t want to see baseball go back that direction.

Pitching has definitely never been tougher, even as pitchers log fewer innings. Most major league teams have eight man bullpens and every one of them can hum it up there. Training has never been more advanced. Pitch labs have never been more sophisticated. Metrics have never been studied more religiously.

Tommy John surgery has become so commonplace and advanced that many pitchers come back stronger with even more velocity. And if one pitcher destroys his elbow, they simply run another one in there. Starting pitchers are seldom asked to navigate a lineup a fourth time, frequently not even a third time. Get him through a lineup twice, then turn the game over to an eight man bullpen of flamethrowers

Of course speed means nothing without movement and location, cause a major league hitter will eventually catch up to even Aroldis Chapman's heat if they know where it's going.

I'd like to see baseball go back to the direction when guys like Brett, Carew, Boggs, Gwynn, Madlock were professional hitters with great bat control who seldom struck out. Who would give the Schmidt's and Jackson's and Stsrgell's of the world someone on base to make the home runs they hit more meaningful. You see guys today hit 40 home runs and still not drive in 100. Because people aren't on base when they hit their home runs.

What gave you the hint that Ronnie Coleman was juiced? Is it the fact that he's not fifty yet and can barely walk and takes constant heart medication. I followed the sport of bodybuilding religiously in the late eighties and through the nineties, and that was before Coleman's time. Many of them are not well. And that's the ones who are still with us in the first place.