Dewan: Which hitters should be shifted more often
From SABR member John Dewan at ACTA Sports on October 21, 2015:
The 2016 Bill James Handbook will be on bookshelves on November 1, but we wanted to give you a bit of a sneak preview. In the Handbook, we go through a detailed Q and A that is all about shifts. What follows is one of those questions and answers.
Q: Who are some of the more interesting hitters? Specifically, how do these guys perform when shifted compared to when they are not shifted?
A: There are quite a few players who are almost always shifted now (90% of the time and more): David Ortiz, Chris Davis, Lucas Duda, Ryan Howard, Adam LaRoche. Collectively this group hit .199 on grounders and short liners with the shift in place. The 2015 MLB average was .230 on grounders and short liners with a shift on. That’s 33 points lower than the MLB average of .263 with no shift on. Let’s put that in a chart.
Read the full article here: http://www.statoftheweek.com
Originally published: October 21, 2015. Last Updated: October 21, 2015.