Rockies’ hitters doing what they can to beat everexpanding shift

For majorleaguers, it’s as newage of a hitting conundrum as conundrums come. When the opposing defense moves infielders from their traditional spots and into a batter’s hottest spray zones, is it better to stick to the usual approach or adjust your swing in an attempt to beat the shift?

It’s a question that made its first prominent appearance in the baseball consciousness in the 1940s, when teams placed six fielders on the right side of second base in the “Ted Williams Shift” that was designed to limit the Splendid Splinter’s ability to pull the baseball.

And since Tampa Bay reintroduced the shift to the modern game in 2007, the controversial tactic has quickly risen in popularity as teams keep leaning on Sabermetrics for even the slightest advantages.

Over the past decade, the number of shifts has increased about 900 percent, and they continue to climb this year. Per Statcast, there were 22,157 shifts in 2017, and the major leagues are on pace to easily surpass that num ber in 2018, with 17,872 shifts already employed, including 17.3 percent of all atbats.

In the Rockies’ lineup, two of the team’s top lefthanded hitters see the shift regularly. Right fielder Carlos Gonzalez ranks 14th in the National League, with 61.6 percent of his atbats coming against the shift this year, and he’s followed by center fielder Charlie Blackmon’s 25.3 percent clip.

Colorado manager Bud Black said the shift is always at the top of his mind in discussions between hitters and the coaching staff in terms of tactics against it. Defensively, Colorado ranks sixth in the NL — and in the top half of all of baseball — with an 18.3 percent shift rate this season.

“We talk about (the shift) a lot with CarGo and Charlie, about how we want to attack a certain series or attack a certain team that does always shift against those players,” Black said.

The Colorado skipper isn’t on the same page as MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on the issue of shifting. Manfred has repeatedly expressed his desire to legislate the strategy, noting at the June owner’s meetings in New York City, “I think we want to proceed judiciously, but I also think we want to proceed” with regulating the shift.

“I don’t think there should be a ban on shifts. … I’m against telling a team where they have to play,” Black said. “What’s going to happen, hopefully, is there will be young players coming up who will learn to beat the shift. There are players now who are trying to beat the shift.”

But beating the shift isn’t necessarily the philosophy for Colorado’s mostaffected hitters, especially considering the diminished speed of 32yearolds Gonzalez and Blackmon, which has downsized their ability to bunt for a base hit.

Gonzalez flatly said “I’m not a bunter” but qualified that statement by noting how he got around 10 basehit bunts a season — sans shift — as a younger player in Oakland. But now with the shift, opposing third basemen loiter around the bag until Gonzalez gets one strike, limiting his bunting opportunities.

So, the lefty’s approach remains largely unchanged, even with the fact that majorleaguers are hitting .489 on oppositefield grounders against the shift this season.

“If you go out there thinking ‘I’m going to hit the ball to the left side’ most of the time, you’re going to be out or you’re not going to square the ball up,” Gonzalez said. “So I just go out there and try to hit the ball hard anywhere in the park, and if it’s outside, I just try to flip it.”

Righthanded shortstop Trevor Story, third on the team with a 15.0 percent shift rate, noted the best way to beat the tactic is to outgrind a pitcher who is often concurrently pitching to the shift. The shortstop did just that in a 12pitch atbat against Archie Bradley in the seventh inning of Colorado’s loss to Arizona on Tuesday, eventually singling to right field on a grounder past where the second baseman should have been.

“I noticed they were in the shift when the atbat started, but it’s not like I’m trying to hit one right where I did,” said Story, averaging .406 against the shift this season. “I’m just trying to hit something on a line, and battle, because those things will still

beat a lot of shifts.”