Quote:
Originally Posted by PocketsAintFull
Of course hitters need to adapt, but it's also fair to question at what point shifts go beyond the 'spirit' of the game - a subjective thing, sure, but 3 OFs & 4 IFs is quite strongly tied to baseball.
Also not sure why the game *shouldn't* have players like Bruce? Surely more variety of player types is a good thing?
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The shift has been around since the 20's where Cy Williams was the target. It also seems to me that in the 20's if a shift was put on other batters would immediately counter and hit away from the shift. That adaptability is likely why shifts were underused for several decades until a sufficient number of hitters refused to adapt in modern times.
In my opinion if teams, batting coaches and hitters adopted a "break the shift" approach and stuck with it for 2-3 weeks they could dilute shifting enough to create additional risk for the defense. Right now there is little risk which is why the strategy to no surprise is apparently overused.