For better or worse I am realizing more and more that I come
from the era in baseball that everyone seemingly loves to hate. I grew up a
Yankees fans after being born in the Bronx and after moving just outside the
city in 1985 and really got into baseball around the 1994 season. I didn’t grow
up watching the terrible Yankees teams of the 80’s, all I knew was the dynasty
years and the World Series victories and Derek Jeter. Many call me spoiled, and
I was, but now it’s a whole new generation and fan base that is being attacked,
the sabermetrics community.
I grew up in the era where a teenage kid could sit in front
of a computer and scout every pitch every player ever threw in every game ever.
The same can be said for every bat that ever made contact with every pitch,
fair or foul, and somehow quantify it into meaning something. I am a fan of
sabermetrics, I believe the defensive shift does more good than it does harm,
I’m all about pitch framing and I truly believe a strikeout is no worse than a
ground or fly ball. I watched and read Moneyball, I idolized Billy Beane there
for a minute and I thoroughly enjoyed Joe Girardi’s binder when he actually
used it and the more you look around the internet, twitter etc. the more you
will see that I am more so in the minority than I thought.
How can you argue it though? Batting average across the
league is at its lowest level since 1971 since the shift has been employed and
coaches are having to find new and inventive ways to teach their players.
Shifts are changing the game, for better or worse, and not just regular season
games either. Remember the 2014 World Series Game 7 when Juan Perez was almost
huddling the left field line against Nori Aoki? Off the bat it looked like Aoki
had a game tying fifth inning double that could have drastically changed the
outcome of the game but instead Madison Bumgarner continued to shut down the
Royals when the ball was played perfectly and caught and the rest became
history.
In 2011 teams shifted 2,357 times which doubled to 4,577 in
2012, increased to 8,180 in 2013 and ended with 13,296 in 2014. The first
defensive shift can be linked back to the June 25, 1870 game between the
Brooklyn Atlantics and the Cincinnati Red Stockings and has caught fire more
and more ever since and the fans that agree with the notion have had to defend
themselves and their thinking more and more ever since as well. I am growing up
in unprecedented times and swimming in unchartered waters and I wouldn’t have
it any other way.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)