Comments on: Great Moments in Consistency: Mark Teixeira-against-the-shift edition

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:22:33 +0000

This is precisely why he shouldn’t bunt: there’s greater upside with the slap-swing.

By: needtoplay

needtoplay — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:22:12 +0000

It is a little… frustrating… to watch a trained professional balk at change, especially one who is paid over $22 mil per year. He sees what they are doing, but does nothing about it. He needs to hit to the left, or at least attempt to, each time they use the shift. If he does, they will soon stop shifting. Will they be satisfied with holding him to singles to left instead of potential HR’s to right ? Possibly. But if he starts getting those hits, they will change. And a few well-placed hits down the vacant 3rd base line into the vacant left field, will result in some number of doubles. He is an excellent base runner and could easily take advantage of that.

A quick look at his relativistic statistics: he hit only .224/.325/.453 left-handed vs .302/.380/.587 right-handed. That is too large of a difference to ignore. The real problem is that he hits twice as often left-handed as right-handed. And he does so with a lot less relative productivity. Yes, he hit more total HR’s and had more total RBI left-handed, but that was only due to that same fact: twice as many at-bats left-handed.

Let’s hope he at least, and finally, starts trying to go to left. We do not need another Giambi for the next 5 yrs… and $120+ mil.

By: randygnyc

randygnyc — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:41:19 +0000

Ironic this article lands today. On MLB.com today, Tex finally says that he will be bunting this year and going the other way to defeat the shift. He said that he hasn’t hunted since high school, but will bunt every game during the grapefruit league.

By: Francisco (FC)

Francisco (FC) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:34:43 +0000

It occurs to me that if he becomes proficient, he can get a few doubles off those singles to LF. The shift also occurs in the outfield. The Left Field corner has to be tempting…

By: bigharold

bigharold — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:17:12 +0000

Yeah I meant hitting into the “teeth of the shift”.

Once again I demonstrate that the only thing worse than my typing is my proof reading.

By: goawaydog

goawaydog — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:15:34 +0000

“… to hit into the teeth of the shit without success.”

assuming you meant “teeth of the SHIFT” this has to be my favorite typo in awhile. Probably because I hate the shift and that no one seems to be able or want to hit around it

By: ptfu

ptfu — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:10:19 +0000

I once saw Adrian Gonzalez bunt down the third base line. It was an OK bunt and it was plenty good enough. Adrian’s pretty slow but he could have walked to first base and been safe.

Tex should take what he can get and bunt to the left once in a while. Take your guaranteed base until the defense backs off. Tex, can you really beat a 2.000 OPS by hitting into the shift?

By: bigharold

bigharold — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:15:09 +0000

Part of it is that short right field wall. Every left hander with decent pop looks at that wall and thinks I don’t even have to get it all to put one out there. Giambi was the same way, he got to Yankee Stadium and fell in live with that wall, .. like Teixeira. Both of these guys had MUCH better averages before they got to the Yankees. They didn’t just forget how to make contact.

To some extent I would think that it’s also, they get the big contract and feel like they have to hit more HRs. And, perhaps on some level they are being told either directly or indirectly that their job is to hit the ball hard and do damage, .. not to worry about their average. Regardless, as a Yankee fan it’s infuriating to watch Teixeira, and Giambi before him, to hit into the teeth of the shit without success. It’s as if they are completely unwilling to even entertain a strategy that might make a defense play them honest. You’d think that they’d realize that Don Mattingly made a pretty good name for himself driving the ball the other way.

“So this spring should be fun in Tampa.”

Spring is ALWAYS fun in Tampa during ST.

By: cur68

cur68 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:00:22 +0000

Good point Yanks: but never mind bunting. Just slap them into left once or twice and really hurt the opposition, like your coaches want. Stubbornly doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is not the definition of madness but of stupidity. As a Beaver Lovin' fan of the Blue Jays I hope he keeps up the "I'm too good to slap hit" BS: the shift will continue to reduce his BA to Adam Dunnsian levels and my boys will continue to send hm back to the bench looking sour.

By: Reggie's Bush

Reggie's Bush — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:53:00 +0000

^^Kyle I’ve thought the same thing forever.

I do remember Carlos Delgado, while on the Mets, try to bunt for a hit against the shift but he could never pull it off

By: yankees177

yankees177 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:46:04 +0000

I just dont understand why he cant stick out his bat and bunt towards third. He starts doing that and teams have to respect that and the shift comes off and his BA rises 40 pts. instead of hitting .240 hes now hitting .290 and still mashing hrs.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:35:51 +0000

I don’t know why every slugger who gets shifted doesn’t just bunt for a base hit until the defense cuts it out. Even a few foul balls would probably scare them into realigning.

By: Detroit Michael

Detroit Michael — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:28:54 +0000

Bad link to this article from the Hardball Talk home page.