At least new commissioner, Rob Manfred, knows when to back down. The feedback he's gotten on his suggestion of limiting the amount of shifting an infield can do has been overwhelmingly negative. Baseball might think it needs more runs for fans to be interested in greater numbers, but he found out that fans, management, and players don't want to give up those recently developed cool shifts that help pitchers and defense.
Even the Twins are doing more of these shifts nowadays. The Twins had 66 in 2013. They had over 500 last season. New manager, Paul Molitor convinced Gardy more were needed. Manfred was quoted as saying this week, "I'm not certain I'd even consider it anymore."
On Thursday, against the Red Sox, Trevor Plouffe (our third baseman) was playing RIGHT of second base when David Ortiz was up. It'd be hard to not be there, now, knowing that Ortiz ALWAYS pulls the ball.
Baseball is learning. So is Manfred.
That's a very good thing.
Baseball doesn't need more runs it needs to not have 4 hour games.
ReplyDelete