Question for Tigers fans

by Matt Swartz on Aug 13, 2010 10:03 PM EDT

My name is Matt Swartz, and I’m an author at Baseball Prospectus. I’m doing some research on the infield shift (where three infielders play on the right side of second base for a left-handed hitter), and the data is a bit hard to come by. Since I know what a great resource the SBNation blogs are, being a former writer at one myself, I thought that some of you could give me some help.

I am curious who has gotten shifted against on your team MOST of the time, AND who your team regularly has shifted against in your division over the last 18 years. To jog your memory I am listing the lefties and switch-hitters that your team has had in the last 18 years that have hit at least 20 home runs.

Thank you for your help.

LHB

Curtis Granderson
Carlos Pena
Bobby Higginson
Luis Gonzalez
Cecil Fielder
Kirk Gibson

SHB

Carlos Guillen
Dmitri Young
Tony Clark
Melvin Nieves

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Bless You Boys writing staff.

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The Tigers don't seem to cause other clubs to use the shift very often.

Probably the batter that causes the Tigers to shift most often is the biggest Tiger killer of all, Jim Thome.

If you survived 2003, you can get through this!

by Tigerdog1 on Aug 13, 2010 10:47 PM EDT reply actions

Yup

Thome was the first guy who came to my mind, too. Can’t think of anyone else.

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by BrianCMU. on Aug 13, 2010 11:01 PM EDT up reply actions

Thome was there instantly.

If it happened against us (which I don’t believe it did) was either Dmitri Young or Matt Stairs in his short stint.

by Elfuego51 on Aug 13, 2010 11:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Cecil sure had a funny way of batting left-handed........

by Elfuego51 on Aug 13, 2010 11:33 PM EDT reply actions

Pretty short list of LHB's, eh?

And Cecil wasn’t even a lefty!
There was Steve Kemp, but he’d punch the ball to LCF more than anything, and maybe is a bit before the time frame we’re looking into.

How about Marcus? If ever there was a straight pull hitter- “Country Strong” was it!

If you survived 2003, you can get through this!

by Tigerdog1 on Aug 14, 2010 1:31 AM EDT reply actions

Matt Nokes

Dead pull lefty. Was he good for long enough to earn the shift?

Granderson was my Tiger, then Sizemore, then Willis. Since they're all gone, I'm taking Raburn and hoping the pattern holds.

by momotigers on Aug 14, 2010 9:38 AM EDT reply actions

Darrell Evans

Might be a little outside the time frame, but he is the first guy I remember teams using the infield shift against, and it seemed to be used against him a lot.

by MarkL on Aug 15, 2010 10:33 PM EDT reply actions