Question for Jays fans
My name is Matt Swartz, and I’m an author at Baseball Prospectus. I’m doing some research on the infield shift (where three infielders play on the right side of second base for a left-handed hitter), and the data is a bit hard to come by. Since I know what a great resource the SBNation blogs are, being a former writer at one myself, I thought that some of you could give me some help.
I am curious who has gotten shifted against on your team MOST of the time, AND who your team regularly has shifted against in your division over the last 18 years. To jog your memory I am listing the lefties and switch-hitters that your team has had in the last 18 years that have hit at least 20 home runs.
Thank you for your help.
LHB
Adam Lind
Lyle Overbay
Carlos Delgado
Eric Hinske
Darrin Fletcher
Brad Fullmer
Shawn Green
John Olerud
SHB
Jose Cruz
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I don't recall any of those guys getting the shift I could be wrong, definately not the current Jays
We use the shift on the typical guys, Ortiz for sure, Thome also.
I know we shift against Ortiz bigtime
Nobody on our current roster gets shifter against… which is surprising… I cant remember the last time i saw Lind hit a grounder hard to the left side.
Onions Baby Onions
well, not really
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_hitting_chart.jsp?c_id=tor&playerID=452252&statType=1
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
I had no idea Lind was such a pull hitter, based on his groundouts
They’re all to the right side, most of them are directly at the second baseman. Good thing is that when he sprays the ball around he gets hits, if you look at his hits on that chart it’s tough to pick out a definite pattern, I mean a lot of singles to right centre but really they’re all over the place.
probably because he's a totally different type of hitter
at least, when he’s going well
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
he pulls all of his ground balls...
thats the only reason you’d play an infield shift against anyone.
Onions Baby Onions
he has a lot of singles to left field
which were presumably ground balls. I think the shift would be counterproductive. What the chart shows is the more he hits to the opposite way and up the middle, the more hits he gets whereas most of his pulled grounders are already outs where he was beaten and rolled over. If you overshifted on him, I think he’d make you pay big time because he’s not a dead pull hitter at all.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
I thought Wells gets a small shift
I don’t remember it being mentioned or seeing it any time recently though
Ball.
Interesting thing I remember about Delgado
Is that he got shifted a ton throughout his career with the Jays, but teams stopped doing it during his monster years in 2000 and 2003. During these seasons, his BA was significantly higher than his career numbers and (IIRC) he actually managed to hit to the opposite field on a semi-regular basis, so teams didn’t shift him. In his other seasons with the team, when he would club 40+ homers but was a dead-pull, .260BA guy, they went right back to shifting him.
Delgado mos def
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I think Fullmer might have gotten shifted against a bit
but I’m not positive on that one.

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