Dewan: Shifting slowdown in 2017
From SABR member John Dewan at ACTA Sports on September 11, 2017:
Back in April, we took a look at the state of shifting in Major League Baseball and predicted that teams were on pace to total 31,677 shifts during the 2017 season. While this projection was a 13 percent increase over the total number of shifts in 2016, the projected year-over-year increase was actually the smallest increase in league-wide shifts since they began their record-breaking trend between 2011 and 2012. As the 2017 season comes to a close, it turns out that our April projection for a slowdown in shifts was too conservative. For the first time since the 2011 season, defensive shifts are on pace to decrease from the prior year. Note that all shift totals referenced in this article are shifts on balls in play.
Read the full article here: http://www.statoftheweek.com
Originally published: September 11, 2017. Last Updated: September 11, 2017.