© Jerome Miron | 2015 Jul 31
Though known for his devastating breaking balls during his time with the Giants, Jeremy Affeldt brought the heat when he joined Murph & Mac on Friday morning.
Affeldt was asked for his thoughts on the defensive shift, something that has started to become the norm across baseball. The Giants employ the strategy frequently, but it backfired during Wednesday’s ballgame, when confusion between Brandon Crawford and Evan Longoria extended the second inning, leading to six unearned runs for the Braves.
The former Giants reliever didn’t mince words when breaking down why he thinks the strategy is flawed. We’ll let him take it the rest of the way.
“I don’t care where I am, I’m going to protest the shift, so I’m talking to everybody about why I hate the shift,” Affeldt began. “Here’s the problem with the shift: Yes it takes away hits from time to time, but what are you really trying to avoid? And everybody’s like ‘well we’re trying to keep them from hitting a ball to that part of the infield and getting a single.’ Okay, but the guys you’re shifting on most of the time, if you give up a single to the guy you’re okay with it. Like whatever. It’s okay that he hit a ball in a spot where no one was at if you’re playing normal depth or maybe you’re shading, and he gives up a single.
“For (Brandon) Belt, you do a major shift. What are you shifting for? Cause he hits the ball on the ground to the right side so he hits singles. Well if he learned to bunt, he’s going to hit a single down the third base line. So really you’re not taking away anything major. You can’t shift a guy on the top of the fence to keep a homer from happening. So for me, most of these guys you’re trying to take away a single.
“Your second baseman and shortstop are your most athletic guys. So you take away a single ’cause the ball is right at them, but what if he was shading a little bit where he could adjust either way, and now all of the sudden they still take away that single because your shortstop or second baseman made a great play. Because they’re supposed to be the most athletic guys on the field, and they’re supposed to take angles on the balls correctly, to be able to cut some of those balls off.
“When you do a major shift like that, you have communication errors, you have big holes. So a guy can mishit a ball now and no one can even adjust to that at all. Cause your best athletes can not cover 30 feet. They might be able to cover 10, but they can’t cover 30, and then you have those miscommunications between Longoria and Crawford.
“I don’t really see where it’s taking that many hits out of the game. Especially if you’re a guy like Samardzija or a late inning reliever that throws a lot of sinkers, and he’s not trying to spot up a ball, he’s just trying to throw a ton of movement to get a ground ball, and that’s what a lot of guys like Samardzija is. He’s just trying to get the ground ball.
“If you’re a (Greg) Maddux, and you’re going to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to throw this ball, and I’m going to put it right on that freakin rat’s butt, right on the outside corner of the plate,’ yeah you can shift on a guy like that, because he can actually hit the spot. Most guys cannot hit the spot right there and they’re just trying to create movement to get a ground ball. Which means you need to have guys who have the ability to ‘maybe he didn’t pull the ball this time, maybe he was kind of late and he nubbed it to the left of the shortstop, rather than the right of the shortstop, and you can recover.’ But these major shifts are not allowing for that.
“It’s stupid. All the way around.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Affledt on the shift, start from 3:00:
