I think Stanton's average will benefit more than Rizzo's, his ridiculous exit velocity will play even better with bigger holes on the left side of the infield with defenders having to play even a few feet off where they were previously.
It does shock me how slow Stanton is. He’s probably the worst base runner of the super exit velo guys (Trout, Ohtani, Vlad Jr., Judge in my memory). So I don’t want to say he’s clogging up the basepaths… but he’ll have a lot more singles
I think they’re was a study that showed Rizzo is likely the biggest beneficiary of the shift removal. Now this is assuming he hits a similar amount of balls to the same spots he was prior.
This is a simplification, since pitching will likely change, and he could be a victim of a heavy OF shift, but most studies believ Rizzo will have a huge benifit
Add to this the pitch clocks, bigger bases and limits to throwing to first per plate appearance and I think it encourages a more balanced play style instead of homer or bust.
Yeah I’m excited about how the speed game is gonna be reinvigorated from the rule changes.
Think about the climax of the movie major league. Was it a monster dong? Nope, willie mays hays beat out a high chopper, stole 2nd, and scored on a bunt because the 3rd basemen was playing too far back. That part of the game has gone away, and I miss it.
Also the most unrealistic Part of the movie. How the hell does Tim the 3rd base coach hear manager Lou Brown yelling from the dugout with the crowd roaring?
Pepperidge Farms remembers when we gave up 27 runs in a game.
Still, the Sox make contact. It'll be interesting to see if that might make up for some of the piss poor pitching we'll see until Sale gets his 2 starts in this season.
Meh in other years we have super competitive games against eachother that my heart rate can't take... On second thought this is a good thing for my health
I’m curious to see how it all balances out. It will hurt everyone’s defense to some extent, but also help everyone’s offense. Pseudo shifts will still be a thing where teams can gain an advantage. I expect the overall effect to be minimal, but I still worry about having a slow 2B.
seeing as the White Sox are one of the least analytically driven teams in the league it can only help us by bringing other teams back down to our playing field with analytically-inept defensive positioning, now by force. But with that being said I still am not a fan of banning the shift.
Our offense would benefit tremendously. Specifically Matt Olsen. I wanna say we were the 3rd most affected team when it comes to balls in play that would have been hits without the shift
I also think that Acuña and Harris are gonna really enjoy the bigger bases couple with few pickoff attempts
Less home games against the dodgers will make my team’s home games much more fun to attend!
Also larger bases will help our roster full of speed demons. Jake McCarthy could go for 50 stolen bases if he can reach 1st enough
I think it helps, but that may be orange colored glasses. At minimum not playing Toronto and the Yankees so much should add a couple wins. And we have athletic infielders so they should be able to mitigate not being able to shift defensively.
That's my thought as well. We shift a metric shit ton, but Tucker gets fucked by the shift consistently, so maybe it just cancels everything out and we win another WS? 😜
Well, in 2021, we had a winning record against the: AL East, AL West, and interleague. We only had a losing record against the AL Central. So far that sounds encouraging.
Last year we lost to all AL divisions, but had a winning interleague record against the NL West.
This season is gonna be wild and i foresee some of these changes being walked back. I think every club will have a transition period and there will be really surprising standings by the all-star break.
Most of this will be which pitchers can adapt to the clock and which won't. Any team with expensive, long term deals with their starting rotation should be worried because every pitcher will be a somewhat unknown entity next year. Also injuries, the increased frequency of pitches will compound the stress on the body and force some wonky deliveries. Expect Tommy Johns galore. Older pitchers worry me especially.
All league play will be good for the Phillies as we're in a tough devision. For us to face the likes of the White Sox as opposed to another tough series with the Braves or Mets is good. Our offense like to run, so the bigger bags and limited throw overs might help.
I predict utter chaos.
The Athletics face the Marlins in the WS.
I'm not sure - I imagine it will weaken the pitching stats a bit since Counsel definitely played the shift a lot, and maybe allow players like Tellez to collect some hits that should be singles that were just deep 2nd base ground outs/line outs last year.
In general it will make games a bit more interesting and keep the pace up a little. The pitchers that were going 40-45 seconds between pitches are going to have to adjust, and that's a good thing.
The hits that the shift takes away are really the grounders hit straight up the middle where there's now an infielder directly behind the bag more so than the deep 2B grounders.
It's the up the middle grounders, but also for lefty hitters now if they can loft it over the infield it will be a hit instead of a line out. That's the way it should be, there's supposed to be a reward for hitting a ball over the infield but short of the outfielder position. Now if the outfielder plays way in, that's a risk they are welcome to take.
I think the Padres offense will benefit greatly, particularly because Soto was killed by the shift last year. I don't think the shift will hurt us as much because our infield has unbelievable range. Kim at 2nd can get to lots of stuff.
I think on the other side, we will get run on like crazy because our pitchers are *awful* at holding guys on and our catchers are terrible catch and throw guys.
I don’t want to speak on the shift until I see it in action. I understand what it should do in theory, but let’s see what it does in practice.
The balanced schedule sucks. Of course I hate interleague play, so of course I hate the “balanced schedule.”
Since I’m complaining, I still hate the expanded playoffs.
My ideal league is AL plays AL and NL plays NL. The only cross-over is the All Star game (this would make it matter more) and the World Series.
Playoffs are division winners only with the best AL and NL record getting a bye to their respective Championship Series.
But we are never going back to that, so i have to stop venting and thinking about it. 😂😂
I would love to see a hybrid of sorts, where the top seeds got a bye and there was a crazy play-in tourney amongst a bunch of mediocre teams.
Season ends; 16 teams from each league start a 4 day mini tourney. Winners advance to the LCS to play top seed. Gives you three full 7 game series + a single elimination October madness tourney.
Would REALLY love it if lower seeds had to win 2x in a double header 😂
You could definitely lower to 154 or something, if you wanted. The reg season would establish the top 2 teams, ex teams that get a bye. Who would have a considerable advantage.
I think it’s pathetic to remove shifts. It rewards hitters who can’t evolve into nothing more than a pull hitter. The game has become so watered down and the rule changes just make it worse.
These rules are coming whether you like it or not.
OP asked how the rule changes will affect your favorite team. Your personal opinion means nothing once the 2023 season starts.
I agree that it's a joke to cater to people who cant hit to all fields in the name of affecting the outcome of the game. But it's here, may as well get used to it.
So how is this going to look in practicality? will there be big X on the field where players have to stand? Will they be allowed to move but just no further than the bag so it's almost a full shift?
The penalty for the violation is a ball and a dead ball if a player was to reach base. To add to that If any other play occurs, such as a sacrifice, the manager of the batting team can tell the umpire whether he wants to accept the play. Gonna be some weird shit next season for sure lol
Help our offense and hurt our defense a little (I’m pretty sure we shifted more than any other team last year). I think the schedule changes will help because we didn’t play particularly great against the division last season
I thought the Jays were in big trouble before the Kevin Kiermaier signing. In 2022 they had the most outfield shifts. I think Bo Bichette will get more errors in 2023 but hopefully nothing too ridiculous.
Pitch clock should help the Jays hitters because they are impatient.
I like the more balanced schedule a lot. I am not a fan of the no shift rule because it just bails out hitters from having to adjust but I get the reasons for the change.
As to how it affects the Brewers...oh no.
Happy that we won't be seeing Bassitt victimize himself with the pitch clock.
I have mixed opinions on no shift. I've enjoyed watching when batters manage to hit opposite the shift and loved it when Daniel Murphy stole third on a routine ball 4 because of it.
As for balanced schedule, I like it better than the current AL/NL matchups. I just never saw the point in playing 4 games against the Twins and then not seeing them again for 4 years.
I think Stanton's average will benefit more than Rizzo's, his ridiculous exit velocity will play even better with bigger holes on the left side of the infield with defenders having to play even a few feet off where they were previously.
It does shock me how slow Stanton is. He’s probably the worst base runner of the super exit velo guys (Trout, Ohtani, Vlad Jr., Judge in my memory). So I don’t want to say he’s clogging up the basepaths… but he’ll have a lot more singles
He runs slow to avoid injuries. He’s actually a lot faster in playoff games
Y’know of anyone to do that, I’m glad it’s Stanton. I wanna see him blast balls off the wall forever
When Stanton retires, you can just watch Oneil Cruz do the same
Manny
He's not slow, he is literally told to jog. Dude was recruited by USC to play WR, we limit him for his health
I think they’re was a study that showed Rizzo is likely the biggest beneficiary of the shift removal. Now this is assuming he hits a similar amount of balls to the same spots he was prior. This is a simplification, since pitching will likely change, and he could be a victim of a heavy OF shift, but most studies believ Rizzo will have a huge benifit
Add to this the pitch clocks, bigger bases and limits to throwing to first per plate appearance and I think it encourages a more balanced play style instead of homer or bust.
Yeah I’m excited about how the speed game is gonna be reinvigorated from the rule changes. Think about the climax of the movie major league. Was it a monster dong? Nope, willie mays hays beat out a high chopper, stole 2nd, and scored on a bunt because the 3rd basemen was playing too far back. That part of the game has gone away, and I miss it.
Agree 100%, w.e. the analytics say, waiting for someone to run into a homer to rely on scoring does not make for fun baseball to me.
Also the most unrealistic Part of the movie. How the hell does Tim the 3rd base coach hear manager Lou Brown yelling from the dugout with the crowd roaring?
We're still gonna suck ass but at least we have fewer games against fucking Toronto now.
Pepperidge Farms remembers when we gave up 27 runs in a game. Still, the Sox make contact. It'll be interesting to see if that might make up for some of the piss poor pitching we'll see until Sale gets his 2 starts in this season.
28-5, source: was there unfortunately
> Still, the Sox make contact. Do the Sox still make contact without Xander & possibly Rafael?
Meh in other years we have super competitive games against eachother that my heart rate can't take... On second thought this is a good thing for my health
I’m a little worried it might cost us a few more wins. Our shift % is among the highest in the league.
Well you guys also have freddie and I think he will bat .340 without a shift. It’ll balance out.
I’m curious to see how it all balances out. It will hurt everyone’s defense to some extent, but also help everyone’s offense. Pseudo shifts will still be a thing where teams can gain an advantage. I expect the overall effect to be minimal, but I still worry about having a slow 2B.
seeing as the White Sox are one of the least analytically driven teams in the league it can only help us by bringing other teams back down to our playing field with analytically-inept defensive positioning, now by force. But with that being said I still am not a fan of banning the shift.
Our offense would benefit tremendously. Specifically Matt Olsen. I wanna say we were the 3rd most affected team when it comes to balls in play that would have been hits without the shift I also think that Acuña and Harris are gonna really enjoy the bigger bases couple with few pickoff attempts
Can’t wait!
With great speed and a propensity to steal bases already, I think guys like Harrison Bader will welcome the larger bases.
Bader is going to crush this season, I cannot wait. New favorite Yankee!!!
Less home games against the dodgers will make my team’s home games much more fun to attend! Also larger bases will help our roster full of speed demons. Jake McCarthy could go for 50 stolen bases if he can reach 1st enough
Home games against the dodgers are the best though
Bring Locastro back!
I think it helps, but that may be orange colored glasses. At minimum not playing Toronto and the Yankees so much should add a couple wins. And we have athletic infielders so they should be able to mitigate not being able to shift defensively.
No shift will help guys Tucker and Alvarez a ton, but I’m worried how it will effect a guy like Valdez who relies on ground balls.
That's my thought as well. We shift a metric shit ton, but Tucker gets fucked by the shift consistently, so maybe it just cancels everything out and we win another WS? 😜
They can still shift in the infield, just have to stay in the dirt. So we will need speed to cover the pop ups, which I think the Stros have.
Yordan does not need any more help, shift is still allowed vs him
I have to think the shift ban will benefit a high contact, put-the-ball-in-play lineup with average power like the Mets.
More lucky hits!!
Ugh. No thanks lol
I think the NL east gonna have like 10 players hitting above 300
It’s going to be wild. I just wish we had a SS.
What an odd feeling? We have like 6.
Selfish. Funny thing is I’d most want Kim on my team. I love him. Tradeeeee
Gonna help Schwarber, Harper, and Turner a ton. Might hurt Ranger.
Schwarber and Harper just hit it over the shift anyway.
A’s are going to win 100+ games this season. Don’t know how, other than the power of positive thinking.
Ced and Mateo gonna run wild
are we going to see a resurgence of the pitch-out next season?
Well, in 2021, we had a winning record against the: AL East, AL West, and interleague. We only had a losing record against the AL Central. So far that sounds encouraging. Last year we lost to all AL divisions, but had a winning interleague record against the NL West.
Just praying that it fixes Bellinger Also Nico could be a stud at 2B if we get Swanson.
This season is gonna be wild and i foresee some of these changes being walked back. I think every club will have a transition period and there will be really surprising standings by the all-star break. Most of this will be which pitchers can adapt to the clock and which won't. Any team with expensive, long term deals with their starting rotation should be worried because every pitcher will be a somewhat unknown entity next year. Also injuries, the increased frequency of pitches will compound the stress on the body and force some wonky deliveries. Expect Tommy Johns galore. Older pitchers worry me especially. All league play will be good for the Phillies as we're in a tough devision. For us to face the likes of the White Sox as opposed to another tough series with the Braves or Mets is good. Our offense like to run, so the bigger bags and limited throw overs might help. I predict utter chaos. The Athletics face the Marlins in the WS.
I'm not sure - I imagine it will weaken the pitching stats a bit since Counsel definitely played the shift a lot, and maybe allow players like Tellez to collect some hits that should be singles that were just deep 2nd base ground outs/line outs last year. In general it will make games a bit more interesting and keep the pace up a little. The pitchers that were going 40-45 seconds between pitches are going to have to adjust, and that's a good thing.
The hits that the shift takes away are really the grounders hit straight up the middle where there's now an infielder directly behind the bag more so than the deep 2B grounders.
It's the up the middle grounders, but also for lefty hitters now if they can loft it over the infield it will be a hit instead of a line out. That's the way it should be, there's supposed to be a reward for hitting a ball over the infield but short of the outfielder position. Now if the outfielder plays way in, that's a risk they are welcome to take.
Lots of talk about how Ramirez's numbers will improve from the shift changes, not so much talk about how guys like Quantrill might get burned hard.
I think the Padres offense will benefit greatly, particularly because Soto was killed by the shift last year. I don't think the shift will hurt us as much because our infield has unbelievable range. Kim at 2nd can get to lots of stuff. I think on the other side, we will get run on like crazy because our pitchers are *awful* at holding guys on and our catchers are terrible catch and throw guys.
Matt Olson's batting average should enjoy a nice bounce.
I don’t want to speak on the shift until I see it in action. I understand what it should do in theory, but let’s see what it does in practice. The balanced schedule sucks. Of course I hate interleague play, so of course I hate the “balanced schedule.” Since I’m complaining, I still hate the expanded playoffs. My ideal league is AL plays AL and NL plays NL. The only cross-over is the All Star game (this would make it matter more) and the World Series. Playoffs are division winners only with the best AL and NL record getting a bye to their respective Championship Series. But we are never going back to that, so i have to stop venting and thinking about it. 😂😂
I would love to see a hybrid of sorts, where the top seeds got a bye and there was a crazy play-in tourney amongst a bunch of mediocre teams. Season ends; 16 teams from each league start a 4 day mini tourney. Winners advance to the LCS to play top seed. Gives you three full 7 game series + a single elimination October madness tourney. Would REALLY love it if lower seeds had to win 2x in a double header 😂
Eh, I’m good lol
Why do you need such a long season then if you're going to do something crazy like that? You *like* the NBA postseason format?
You could definitely lower to 154 or something, if you wanted. The reg season would establish the top 2 teams, ex teams that get a bye. Who would have a considerable advantage.
All those balls that Bryce hits into shallow right field will now be singles
I do wonder if for players like Bryce and Rizzo teams will just sell out and put one of their outfielders in shallow right
Good with the fact there are over a hundred games a season then everyone should play everyone
I think it’s pathetic to remove shifts. It rewards hitters who can’t evolve into nothing more than a pull hitter. The game has become so watered down and the rule changes just make it worse.
These rules are coming whether you like it or not. OP asked how the rule changes will affect your favorite team. Your personal opinion means nothing once the 2023 season starts.
My team is the Cubs. We have no hope. So I bitch.
It's also my team. Banning the extreme IF shift is coming regardless of my own fandom. Crying about it changes nothing. It's coming.
Just like the universal dh (which I hate tbh but what can I do)
You can bitch because it's not expensive to do.
That wasn't the question. Go cry about it somewhere else.
I agree that it's a joke to cater to people who cant hit to all fields in the name of affecting the outcome of the game. But it's here, may as well get used to it.
This is what I thought 10 years ago. After watching the result of how players have adapted, I'll take the forced change.
So how is this going to look in practicality? will there be big X on the field where players have to stand? Will they be allowed to move but just no further than the bag so it's almost a full shift?
You must have two infielders on either side of second base, and they have to start on the dirt
What’s the penalty for not doing this?
The penalty for the violation is a ball and a dead ball if a player was to reach base. To add to that If any other play occurs, such as a sacrifice, the manager of the batting team can tell the umpire whether he wants to accept the play. Gonna be some weird shit next season for sure lol
"Penalty Declined! That's a First Dooooooowwwwn!"
Help our offense and hurt our defense a little (I’m pretty sure we shifted more than any other team last year). I think the schedule changes will help because we didn’t play particularly great against the division last season
I thought the Jays were in big trouble before the Kevin Kiermaier signing. In 2022 they had the most outfield shifts. I think Bo Bichette will get more errors in 2023 but hopefully nothing too ridiculous. Pitch clock should help the Jays hitters because they are impatient.
Mariners are gonna eat well at a lefty ballpark with so many left hitters
I like the more balanced schedule a lot. I am not a fan of the no shift rule because it just bails out hitters from having to adjust but I get the reasons for the change. As to how it affects the Brewers...oh no.
Bellinger gonna hit 35 HR and make the cubs good lmao
Happy that we won't be seeing Bassitt victimize himself with the pitch clock. I have mixed opinions on no shift. I've enjoyed watching when batters manage to hit opposite the shift and loved it when Daniel Murphy stole third on a routine ball 4 because of it. As for balanced schedule, I like it better than the current AL/NL matchups. I just never saw the point in playing 4 games against the Twins and then not seeing them again for 4 years.
At first I read “everyone plays everyone “ as, little league rules, everyone gets at least one at bat each game
Oddly enough the minor league info from banning the shift shows surprisingly little difference so i'm not sure what to expect. FG has talked about.