Some folks around baseball think that the increasing trend of employing the infield shift is hurting the game. They say it kills offense. They say it has gone too far. The proverbial “they” would lose the freaking mind if they saw a MLB team try what this Korean baseball team attempted recently.
Yes, that is the third baseman standing behind the catcher. That, my friends, is an extreme infield shift. It looks crazy but the reasoning behind it is actually pretty sound:
Re: The Shift: KIA manager Kim Ki-tae says the plan was to protect against a wild pitch on an intentional walk. http://t.co/Jx6NMYfqHK
— Dan Kurtz (@MyKBO) May 13, 2015
Sound or not, it doesn’t really matter as the shift is extremely illegal. In the KBO, and MLB, fielders cannot be positioned in foul territory, so the umpire sent the third baseman back to his position while everyone stood around looking either confused or amused or both.
It should only be a matter of time before Joe Maddon trots out this strategy and prompts Rob Manfred to accelerate his plans to ban shifting from the game. When that happens, you can blame Korea.
