Is it Wednesday already?
The subject of the day seems to be that MLB is considering banning the shift. Jayson Stark, over in the Athletic (subscription required) gives the case for banning. Most of it seems to be center around the idea that to deal with the ban players have been working on launch angle to beat the shift. In turn the launch angle stuff has caused an uptick in strikeouts. It seems a stretch to me.
Who is hurt most by the shift? Apparently slow running left-handed hitters:
“The guys this would help,” said one AL executive, “are left-handed power hitters with no speed who pull a ton of balls. Those guys have been really crushed by The Shift – in performance and value.”
Personally, I hate any rule that limits strategies. I think teams should be allowed to try anything, use their 9 players anyway they want. I mean, if they ban shifts, should they be banning playing corner infielders in on bunts? I have trouble hitting curve balls, why not ban them?
This bit a really don’t get:
So maybe banning The Shift wouldn’t fix baseball. Maybe it wouldn’t have as dramatic an effect on offense as some people think. Maybe it would even make games longer, not shorter. But maybe it would also send a message that baseball needs to send: It’s time to change.
I think it would send a sign that baseball is resisting change: “You guys figure something that works and we’ll make a rule against it.”
Anyway, let’s have a poll:
Poll
Should baseball ban the shift?
A year ago yesterday Gregg Zaun was fired by Sportsnet for inappropriate behavior. I was wondering, do you miss him?
Personally, I wasn’t a fan. I like Joe Siddall much better.
But we got too much of Kevin Barker for my liking and I would have rather had Zaun.
Poll
Did you miss Zaun?
I’m starting to think about a baseball trip this summer. Not sure where I’d like to go. I see the Jays are in San Francisco in May, and I’d love to visit AT&T, but it is only two games. It seems like a long trip for two games. The team is in Toronto before that, so the thought of a few games in Toronto and then fly out to SF is there. Or could chase the team to Chicago and see four games there against the White Sox.
In June they have a trip to Boston and New York, that would be a fun trip. But I’ve been to both parks before.
At the end of June and first week of July, the Jays have 3 series (serieses?) at home with the Royals, Red Sox and Orioles coming to town. That might be fun.
There is a 10-game home stand in August, hosting the Yankees, Rangers and Mariners. That might be fun.
We have the annual trip to Seattle near the end of August. Seattle is a great city, and it is close and easy to get to from Calgary. I really love visiting Seattle and it is all that much better doing it with 20 to 30 thousand of my closest Jays fans. They are in LA for 3 games against the Dodgers just before, so that might be a nice two city trip.
The Jays have a two city road trip to start September, visiting Atlanta and Tampa. I haven’t been to either ballpark (and I’m sure I could get good tickets cheap to the Rays games. And I’m sure Alex would put me up for a couple of days in Atlanta. I mean we are old friends.
What Blue Jays road trips are you considering next year?