During yesterday's exhibition game when Yankee lefty batter Greg Bird came up Toronto played four outfielders and three infielders. What was even more unusual is that the three infielders were all between first and second base, so there no fielders between second and third base.
Greg Bird never gave any indication that he considered bunting to the left side for a sure hit. None.
Now you may say that Bird was trying to impress second year Yankee manager Aaron Boone by giving himself a chance to drive the ball, possibly for a home run. At the very least Bird might impress by hitting the ball hard.
The objective is to get on base. Hitting the ball hard at a fielder is not a victory for the batter, especially if the fielder is standing where the batter usually hits the ball and everybody knows it. Nor is it about the batter showing skill by hitting the ball to all fields. It's about getting on base.
One way to beat the shift is to hit a home run. But the odds of that are pretty low. For his major league career Greg Bird has 31 home runs in 576 at bats. That's one home run every 18.6 at bats. Bird's home run average is .054. Compare that to at least a .500 batting average bunting to a completely empty side of the infield. Any major league batter should be able to do that at a very minimum.
What Greg Bird showed his manage is that he's an idiot, that he is likely to be an idiot not just in spring training but during the regular season. More disturbing is that Aaron Boone, just like his predecessor Joe Girardi, has no inclination to change Bird, even though Bird is a young inexperienced player and not a ten year veteran like the two most conspicuous idiots Girardi refused to educate: Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann. Apparently that's not the reason the Yankees changed managers.
Of the recent rule changes being considered limiting where fielders may play is by far the most ridiculous. It encourages limited power oriented skills at the expense of varied baseball oriented skills. It makes players look like idiots.
Why not just give the batter the right to tell fielders where they may play or not play? Hey, don't stand there, that's where my limited swing is likely to drive the ball and if I hit the ball hard I'm entitled to a hit or didn't you know?
The fielder's attitude should rightly be: so, you don't want me to stand there? That's exactly where I'm going to stand until you convince me otherwise.
How is this different than a pitcher throwing a pitch that the batter cannot hit until the batter shows the pitcher that he can hit that type of pitch? Otherwise, why not let the batter instruct the pitcher what and where pitches may be thrown. In the 1800s in the early days of baseball, the batter could instruct the pitcher to throw the ball either high or low.
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