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Auggie

(31,798 posts)
Wed Jul 12, 2023, 04:26 PM Jul 2023

Here's who has been helped (or hurt) by the shift limits

mlb.com

One half of the way through the first season with baseball’s new shift limitations on the books, the rules have done more or less what they were expected to do.

They’ve definitely made some impact (batting average on balls in play is up by 7 points), but not by an earth-shattering amount (it’s only back to what it was in 2018-'19). It's helped very specifically on certain types of balls (pulled grounders and liners from lefty batters, which are up by 36 points), while not affecting strikeout rates (which are slightly up, though not by much).

SNIP

By evaluating Statcast data in a similar way as we did back in the spring when previewing who might be most likely to benefit, we’ve been able to come up with a list of the hitters who have gained the most hits that were likely due to positioning.

Most estimated hits gained due to positioning rules, 2023

14: José Ramírez
13: Jarred Kelenic
12: Josh Naylor, Kyle Tucker Anthony Santander
10: Anthony Rizzo, MJ Melendez
9: Bryce Harper
8: Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Jason Heyward, Adley Rutschman, Shohei Ohtani, Ryan McMahon

https://www.mlb.com/news/players-helped-or-hurt-by-shift-limits-in-2023

Nota bene (from the link): Estimates based on Statcast data, since there’s never going to be an entry in the box score that reads this exact ball definitely wouldn’t have been a hit last year.

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Here's who has been helped (or hurt) by the shift limits (Original Post) Auggie Jul 2023 OP
Ban innovation bucolic_frolic Jul 2023 #1
Should Pujols have stuck it out for another year, as the shift hurt him? brush Jul 2023 #2

brush

(57,480 posts)
2. Should Pujols have stuck it out for another year, as the shift hurt him?
Wed Jul 12, 2023, 05:15 PM
Jul 2023

Maybe not. He had a long, productive career, got to 700 hr. He did ok.

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