Recently, Royals manager Ned Yost said his team will be more defensive shifts in 2018. The Royals' analytics department believes using more defensive shifts — putting three defenders on one side of the infield — over the long run will result in fewer hits by the opposition.
Here’s the rationale.
If a left-handed batter hits 70 percent of his ground balls to the right side of the infield, why not put three defenders between first and second base? Sure, 30 percent of the time the batter might hit ground balls to the left side of the infield, but over the course of a season, isn’t playing the odds and putting more defenders where the batter tends to hit the ball a smart move?