MLB Sunday by Dave Sheinin 104 Points Behind the Pirates’ Freddy Sanchez in This Year’S NL Batting Race
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9BLACK E9 DAILY 07-30-06 MD RE E9 BLACK The Washington Post x R Sunday, July 30, 2006 E9 Years since Ed Delahanty of the Washington Senators won the American League batting title, making him the last player to win batting crowns in each league. The Dodgers’ Nomar Garciaparra (1999, 2000 AL batting champ) currently is 2 MLB Sunday By Dave Sheinin 104 points behind the Pirates’ Freddy Sanchez in this year’s NL batting race. SERIES OF THE WEEK CASE STUDY NO. 2 Shifty Washington Nationals vs. Barry Bonds CF Strategies BONDS VS. NATIONALS IN 2006: 6 at-bats CF BRAVES AT REDS LF RF 2 walks Managers play the percentages 1 strikeout LF Friday, 7:10 p.m. .000 average Saturday, 1:20 p.m. and rearrange their fielders, Used this past Sunday, 1:15 p.m. sometimes in downright RF SS 2B week at RFK 24% Great American Ball Park disorienting ways, to defend 3B NORMAL Stadium against the 15% 31% The Braves were dead on June against some of baseball’s best left- 1B DEFENSIVE Giants slugger, the of Bonds’s batted P ALIGNMENT Nationals shifted their balls go to this area 22, at the end of a 10-game handed pull hitters. Some shifts used of the outfield 2B infielders but kept their 8% losing streak that had them 13 recently against Jason Giambi, Barry in 2006 3B SS games under .500, in last place C outfielders in relatively 4% 18% in the NL East and nine games out Bonds and David Ortiz: straightaway positions. RF 1B of the wild-card hunt. D-E-A-D, Austin Kearns even crept in toward dead. When GM John Schuerholz x% = Approximate percentage of balls hit by respective the infield at times. The shift made P brazenly claimed they were still batter to various areas of the field in 2006. for some memorable moments, such alive, our reaction was a smile of as 1B Nick Johnson snaring a surefire pity, the kind you give to an double down the line, SS Felipe Lopez converting a 6-3 ground out from the C eternal optimist who simply CASE STUDY NO. 1 cannot face the dark reality. second base position, and 3B Ryan Well, golly gee, whaddya Boston Red Sox Zimmerman handling a throw at second on a BONDS know? By Wednesday, the Braves vs. Jason Giambi stolen base attempt. CF had pulled within five games of GIAMBI VS. RED SOX IN 2006: the .500 mark and had cut their 33 at-bats LF CASE STUDY NO. 3 wild-card deficit from nine to 7 hits 1 3 home runs 21% Tampa Bay 4 ⁄2. And next weekend, with RF 8 RBI LF these three games against the .212 average Devil Rays vs. wild-card-leading Reds, they can 15% 31% David Ortiz This is the 3B CF reduce that deficit even further. of Giambi’s batted 20% standard infield ORTIZ VS. DEVIL The Reds, though, are not balls go to this area RAYS IN 2006: “overshift” used by of the outfield going away; they are 9-5 through 53 at-bats RF many teams for left- in 2006 13 hits Friday since their big eight-player SS 17% 30% trade with the Washington handed sluggers such as 3B 2B 4 home runs Giambi, David Ortiz, Carlos 14 RBI of Ortiz’s batted Nationals. balls go to this area Delgado and Barry Bonds. The 8% .245 average 5% 20% 1B of the outfield 3B plays in the normal SS This wacky alignment, in 2006 SS 2B position, the SS swings around to P which, as best anyone can 20% the opposite side of the second base tell, has no precedent, is 5% 9% NEWS & NOTES bag, the 2B moves into shallow right nicknamed the “3-4” defense, 1B field and the 1B hugs the line. The both for its three-infielder/four- P outfielders similarly shift to the right. With C outfielder alignment and for Ortiz’s Wild-Card runners on base, the infield shift usually is uniform number. Devil Rays Manager not so extreme, because fielders have to be Joe Maddon hit upon the idea while prepared for stolen base attempts. riding a stationary bike in April. Does C Race Starts GIAMBI it work? Well, Ortiz is hitting .245 with four homers in 53 at-bats this Getting Wild SOURCES: Stats Inc., ESPN season against Tampa Bay, but in It was during the all-star break recent games Maddon has switched ORTIZ that New York Yankees third to a more traditional shift. baseman Alex Rodriguez said with conviction, “The [American League] wild card will not come out of the East, period.” Sure about that, Alex? “One hundred percent,” he said. Turns out, Rodriguez is as good as prognosticating as he is at hiding his fear of failure. It’s true that when Rodriguez spoke those words, it was difficult BY DAVE SHEININ to imagine the AL wild card coming AND LARRY NISTA — from anywhere besides the Central THE WASHINGTON POST Division. The Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox had the two best records in baseball, the Tigers were two games up on the White Sox and the White Sox were six games up on the Yankees for the Big Swing to the Right wild card. But since the all-star break, the White Sox have plummeted and the With Radical Defenses, Opponents Try to Neutralize Powerful Left-Handed Hitters Yankees have surged. And this week, when the former got swept By Dave Sheinin lengths necessary to neutralize the tionals Manager Frank Robinson, “We even shift against some guys the Angels’ shift. at home by Minnesota and the Washington Post Staff Writer enemy, namely left-handed sluggers who used the shift successfully this that most people leave alone,” said Ortiz said he sometimes makes a latter swept the Rangers in Texas, with a propensity for pulling the ball past week against Bonds. “You want Red Sox Manager Terry Francona, bigger effort to hit to the opposite the Yankees moved ahead of the The first time he saw Tampa Bay’s to the right side. to keep him from swinging the bat naming Philadelphia Phillies reserve field against the shift, but teams pitch White Sox in the wild-card third baseman take off toward left Its targets are mostly obvious: In and going for his natural power, keep outfielder David Dellucci as an exam- to him in such a way as to make that standings. field, Boston Red Sox slugger David addition to Ortiz, shifts are frequent- him from hitting one out, or hitting ple. difficult. The White Sox, as you might Ortiz went into your basic sniper-on- ly deployed against Barry Bonds, one to the gap.” Although shifts are now common- “They pitch me soft away, and recall, suffered a similar stumble at the-roof mode — ducking for cover, Carlos Delgado, Adam Dunn, Jason Former Cleveland Indians manag- place, no one had ever recalled seeing hard inside,” Ortiz said. “And when almost the exact same point in the flinging his hands up to his face, look- Giambi, Ryan Howard and Jim er Lou Boudreau is credited with in- anything as radical as the one Tampa it’s soft away, I can only hit that in the season last year, but recovered to ing around to see where the shots Thome. In the standard shift, teams venting the shift in 1946 as a way to Bay Manager Joe Maddon deployed air, not on the ground.” hold off Cleveland for the division were coming from and where he load up the right side of the infield defend against Red Sox slugger Ted against Ortiz the first time the teams “The guys who you use it against, title, then won the World Series. could go to hide. with three infielders (the second Williams. Other teams soon followed played each other this season — the you’re just trying to take away the ex- And so, instead of a runaway, “I didn’t know what was going on baseman typically plays on the out- suit, and in subsequent years, it was one with the third baseman playing tra-base hits,” San Diego Padres the wild card is now a four-team — the dude just took off,” Ortiz said. field grass in shallow right), and the widely used against Roger Maris, left field and everybody else on the shortstop Khalil Greene said. “If they race, with the Yankees (through “I thought maybe somebody was outfielders also shift to the right. Willie McCovey and others. right side. After several games, Mad- laid down a bunt for a single, you’d Friday) holding a half-game lead shooting. So I was ready to get out of Many teams also shift the other But in this era of increasing so- don eventually went to a more con- take that from them every time.” 1 over Chicago, 1 ⁄2 over Minnesota there. And the security guy [near one way for Albert Pujols, the most phistication of statistical analysis, in ventional shift. Ortiz does have two bunt singles 1 and 4 ⁄2 over Toronto. of the dugouts] was fooled, too, be- feared right-handed hitter in the which all it takes is a “spray chart” — “I try not to think about it — this season against the shift. But of Looking at strength of schedule cause he came out on the field.” game. showing a hitter’s tendencies to each they’re trying to mess with my course, the best way to beat the shift over the season’s final two months However, what Ortiz was witness- “You go about it thinking, ‘Let’s part of the field — to indicate which mind,” said Ortiz, who figures the is the same as it ever was.