Anti-Shift talking point people not addressing

[Trov]

When the anti-shift rule was announced everyone started talking about how it will help guys like Kepler, Gallo, and other guys that get shifted a ton taking away singles from pull hitters, both right and left handed.  I have debated that I do not think the rule as stated will make a huge difference in that aspect.  Mainly, it only takes away the middle infield guy from playing the few feet on the other side of second base, but they can play just behind the base, still playing way over from past traditional spots.  It does prevent the 2nd baseman from playing in short right against lefties taking away a few line drives or hard hit ground balls for hits.

However, one shift people seem to not be talking about, that we did not see a ton, but did increase the past year or two.  The full 4 man outfield.  We saw teams play it that way against Polanco, and we even employed it a couple of times ourselves I believe.  We would see heavy fly ball gap to gap type hitters face a 4 man outfield.  To me, this is a much bigger shift being taken away.  Despite it not happening often, although was increasing last year, and we all know would have started to grow more, as data showed it worked. 

How did it work?  It was not just getting outs maybe a normal 3 man would not have, it really would help reduce extra base hits, which as many know is the key to scoring runs, getting extra base hits.  Sure, you would leave huge holes for ground balls, but the 4 man was used against guys that hit very few ground balls compared to line drives and fly balls.  You trade making sure no extra base hits for the extra shot at a single. Even if the outs were not increased, the extra base hits would be decreased.  Our now Gallo saw this defense a bit last year, and so did Polanco.

In my opinion, this shift going away, will have much more of a long term impact, than the infield shift.  I feel many did not talk about it, because it really just started to happen more last year.  But just like the infield  shift started with a few teams against a few guys, we started to see it happening over and over again for all teams. As we talk about the anti shift helping guys like Gallo, people forget he faced the 4 man outfield more than just about any other.  He was having doubles turned into singles, and having guys that would normally score from first on that double get stopped at 2nd base.  As we talk about how Gallo should have some bounce back in offense, it is less from the 2nd baseman being in short left, but actually facing a 4 man outfield. 

[chpettit19]

One shift idea I've seen thrown around is teams being willing to risk putting their LFer somewhere on the right side of the OF against guys like Gallo. That would be one bold move. Would continue to make it very hard for him to pull the ball for singles, but risk him getting lots of bases if he is able to hit one into LF. I'd like to see some team try this and see the adventure of 3B, SS, CF all racing into LF to try to get to the ball before the hitter scores.

[Parfigliano]

I dont think the shift should have been prohibited.  I think teams should be able to set their defensive 9 any way they want to.