Vigderman: Despite another shifting surge, hitters still aren’t beating it
From Alex Vigderman at ACTA Sports on May 15, 2019:
In recent weeks, we’ve heard a couple of broadcasts mention that hitters are doing a better job against the shift. As well they should, because as the shift becomes more and more common—this year’s prorated full-season total is nearly 10,000 more shifts on balls in play than last season, which was a record 34,000—hitters better be able to make hay against a shifted defense.
A simple way to assess this is to compare the batting average on grounders and short line drives (BAGSL) against shifts to the numbers against standard alignments. This is only going to include full shifts, because Sports Info Solutions has concluded on multiple occasions that partial shifts aren’t as effective.
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Originally published: May 16, 2019. Last Updated: May 16, 2019.