The short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium isn’t an advantage anymore for the Yankees, Joel Sherman of the New York Post argues. The fact that defensive shifting has become so common means the Yankees can no longer fill their lineup with pull-oriented lefty swingers and rack up singles and doubles at their home park, which has the least right field square footage of any stadium in the majors, Sherman writes. “It definitely has lent to us realizing that a stadium design that used to move us to gravitate to stack lefty hitters and take advantage of our stadium for 81 [home games] has been negated to a significant degree by the shift,” said general manager Brian Cashman. “You have to be aware of it when you acquire talent.” This isn’t necessarily a new problem for the Cashman-led Yankees, who have been shifted against a major league-leading 3,677 times on balls in play since 2010, according to Sherman. In those instances, the Yankees have put up the second-worst batting average in baseball, .193, on grounders and short line drives.
More from the Bombers and two other American League clubs:
- Performance-enhancing drugs are a hot topic in baseball right now in light of the suspensions given to Chris Colabello and Dee Gordon since last week. Unfortunately, Yankees manager Joe Girardi doesn’t expect PED use in the sport to ever go away, he said Friday (via Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald). His reasoning: “Because I think the rewards are too great from a financial standpoint and I think guys get caught up in being ultra-competitive and they do things that they wish they could’ve done a little bit different.”
- An MRI on Friday revealed that Rangers outfielder Shin-Soo Choo’s strained right calf is “80 percent better,” he said (link via Dave Sessions of MLB.com). Choo is aiming to begin a rehab assignment sometime in the next two weeks and hopes to return to big league action by the third week of May. Choo has been out since April 8 because of the injury, and his departure from the lineup led to the promotion of Nomar Mazara. In Choo’s absence, the rookie phenom has batted .344/.403/.475 with two home runs in 72 plate appearances.
- Athletics outfielder Sam Fuld will face a 12- to 15-month recovery period after he undergoes surgery on a torn rotator cuff, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache will perform the procedure on or before May 18, Fuld said Saturday. Fuld, 34, is now poised to miss all of this year and a sizable portion of the 2017 campaign. He’s scheduled to become a free agent during the offseason.
Imagine if the Yankees had been shifted all through the 90s. Or for their entire history. They lucked out. Their 1 dimensional strategy that had a very obvious counter that was, inexplicably, not used against them until now.
I wonder how ruth/Gehrig would have fared against today’s advanced shifts. I want to say they would still do great, but you never know.
Well, Ruth was great because his swing was so long. His bat stayed squared up in the zone longer than anyone, probably longer than anyone ever. I’ve never seen anyone come close to how long his swing was. But it was also very fast. He was a freak of nature, I don’t think anyone could have stopped him from doing anything. I have seen video breakdowns of Ruth side by side with current players that showed his bat squared up in the zone for two, three, or four times as long as current batters. Just think about that. Think about a bat moving just as fast as today’s players, but squared up in the zone, ready to hit a pitch, for 2 or 3 times as long. That’s how he could swing at a changeup but still hit the fastball.
He also didn’t play against the best competition in the world. He swung a remarkably heavy bat too, like something like 44 ounces or something, where most players today swing a 31 or 32-ounce bat. Swinging a bat that heavy would definitely leave it in the zone longer.
Girardi is correct. Even if there was a life time ban for a first offense, there would still be PED user every year. Laws do not stop crime, they merely make people question the consequences. When the reward of not getting caught is multi-millions… need I say more.
That said, I still feel the best punishment is making a player give his salary for the year if they cheat.
I feel eventually, and I don’t mean overnight, maybe 20 years down the line, your first offense will be a 5 year suspension, and you’d be suspended from everything. North America, South America, Asia, everything. It would be career ending for most players.
I disagree. The union will always allow for the tiniest of doubts that the player may have take the drugs accidentally. And honestly I’m not sure I disagree. There are some players from Central American who are tied to shady agents who are more concerned with future profits over their players. There is some thought they might be giving their players PEDs and telling them it’s ok. I really think a 3 strike policy before a complete ban is best for all.
Three strikes works for me as far as a PED offender’s overall eligibility, though I’d propose the following for second-time PED offenders:
1) Offender’s contract is voided with that player tied to his team following the season of his second offense as if entering his final year of arbitration eligibility (regardless of actual service time); and
2) Offender’s team is required to deposit all outstanding guaranteed money the offender would have been paid under his now voided contract into the revenue sharing pool or some other MLB-managed fund set up to collect and reallocate such penalties.
MLB has to align the owners’ and the players’ incentives against PED use if the two sides really want this situation to improve.
I think you need to make it so that first offenders never want to offend again. You will always have guys willing to try because of the financial appeal and you can’t really blame them. Especially if you are a from a third world country when your high end earning potential has a such a small window and is most likely one big contract. Especially with age now playing a crucial part.
First offense needs to be something closer to a years suspension and forfeiture of all salary in that year. Then your first suggestion works.
2) I don’t see any such penalty tied to revenue sharing working. First it’s kind of a joke which some teams use to full advantage and if a player is popped from a revenue sharing team the money still filters right back to them. I.E. Gordon’s money if second offense would filtered back to the Marlins. Second you’re assuming only big market teams have players willing to cheat. If you are going to tax a team with that money at least make it meaningful. Give it to charities and not put it back into play for teams or the league.
To tie a team to a voided contract kind of seems too much.
All that said there do need to be changes. Monetary potential need to be addressed. If teams keep handing out huge contracts to players that have been popped then are there any consequences to offenders?
I also don’t think suspension from one will mean suspension from. Especially since the MLB does not own all. Just as in any other league making money to make such leagues viable is the main proponent.
All good points, Visions. Reducing first offenses is critical, but also significantly more difficult given the union’s responsibility to fight such penalties for that theoretical “false positive” or “mistake” offender.
Revenue sharing is fraught with its own issues. I only mentioned it as a possible mechanism since its existence would at least at first prevent MLB from having to invent a whole other fund. Ideally, MLB would collect and donate such proceeds to charity as you suggested.
Tying teams to second-time offenders’ contracts after grandfathering existing contracts would probably lead teams to offer only one or two-year contracts to most PED offenders.
If so, players considering PEDs would be risking their ability to get multi-year contracts following even one offense. That may be the best possible incentive not to use.
I hate the massive shifts that are taking place. Yes, they are within the rules of the game. But they suck as a fan.
I like them. 80% of the time it’s smart baseball and I prefer a low scoring pitchers duel anyway.
There have been overshifts in baseball for decades; they’re more widely used now but Ted Williams was shifted all the time when he was playing. He was such a good hitter that he was able to adjust, hitting more line drives and homers. If Tony Gwynn had been overshifted during his career he may have had that .400 season, as he had that innate ability to put the ball on the left side of the infield no matter where he was pitched.
What would a return for betances or Miller would look like come trade deadline ?
Andrew Miller,Gary Sanchez & Headley for Ruiz, Toki, Ellis, Olivera & Jenkins