2014 Most Shifted Players
I have been asked a few times to list the hitters who where shifted the most in 2014 along with their results. Well, here they are along with a few thoughts.
Hitters who hit into a shift 100 or more times during the 2014 season.
| Name | Bats | Hits vs Shift | Batted Balls into Shift | Shift BABIP | No Shift BABIP | BABIP | Diff | XBH% w/ Shift | XBH% w/o Shift | XBH% | Diff |
| David Ortiz | L | 93 | 369 | 0.252 | 0.150 | 0.251 | 0.102 | 6.8% | 5.0% | 6.6% | 0.018 |
| Ryan Howard | L | 87 | 318 | 0.274 | 0.467 | 0.293 | -0.193 | 5.4% | 6.7% | 5.8% | -0.013 |
| Brian McCann | L | 67 | 311 | 0.215 | 0.268 | 0.226 | -0.053 | 3.9% | 7.1% | 4.2% | -0.033 |
| Albert Pujols | R | 79 | 271 | 0.292 | 0.254 | 0.271 | 0.037 | 6.6% | 4.9% | 7.6% | 0.017 |
| Brandon Moss | L | 70 | 255 | 0.275 | 0.268 | 0.278 | 0.006 | 7.1% | 7.3% | 7.3% | -0.003 |
| Lucas Duda | L | 62 | 245 | 0.253 | 0.321 | 0.292 | -0.068 | 8.2% | 7.1% | 7.9% | 0.010 |
| Mark Teixeira | B | 52 | 238 | 0.219 | 0.222 | 0.228 | -0.004 | 3.8% | 5.6% | 4.1% | -0.018 |
| Adam LaRoche | L | 65 | 232 | 0.280 | 0.317 | 0.284 | -0.037 | 7.8% | 3.3% | 6.0% | 0.044 |
| Mike Moustakas | L | 52 | 230 | 0.226 | 0.214 | 0.220 | 0.012 | 5.7% | 7.1% | 5.9% | -0.015 |
| Chris Davis | L | 53 | 230 | 0.230 | 0.353 | 0.236 | -0.123 | 6.1% | 17.7% | 6.6% | -0.116 |
| Matt Adams | L | 83 | 222 | 0.374 | 0.333 | 0.342 | 0.041 | 9.9% | 10.6% | 9.8% | -0.007 |
| Adam Dunn | L | 68 | 221 | 0.308 | 0.300 | 0.296 | 0.008 | 8.1% | 10.0% | 8.0% | -0.019 |
| Anthony Rizzo | L | 70 | 219 | 0.320 | 0.300 | 0.308 | 0.020 | 7.8% | 6.7% | 8.2% | 0.011 |
| Carlos Santana | B | 59 | 217 | 0.272 | 0.250 | 0.246 | 0.022 | 5.5% | 6.8% | 6.0% | -0.013 |
| Kyle Seager | L | 65 | 204 | 0.319 | 0.244 | 0.282 | 0.075 | 9.3% | 6.3% | 7.0% | 0.030 |
| Victor Martinez | B | 67 | 202 | 0.332 | 0.318 | 0.329 | 0.014 | 6.4% | 8.4% | 7.4% | -0.020 |
| Jose Bautista | R | 50 | 199 | 0.251 | 0.323 | 0.281 | -0.072 | 5.5% | 5.1% | 6.3% | 0.005 |
| Jay Bruce | L | 54 | 189 | 0.286 | 0.216 | 0.263 | 0.070 | 7.4% | 0.0% | 6.7% | 0.074 |
| Garrett Jones | L | 50 | 184 | 0.272 | 0.292 | 0.280 | -0.020 | 8.2% | 11.2% | 9.5% | -0.031 |
| Edwin Encarnacion | R | 48 | 184 | 0.261 | 0.209 | 0.244 | 0.052 | 7.6% | 5.8% | 7.2% | 0.018 |
| Curtis Granderson | L | 52 | 183 | 0.284 | 0.315 | 0.269 | -0.031 | 8.7% | 8.7% | 7.1% | 0.000 |
| Pedro Alvarez | L | 50 | 156 | 0.321 | 0.222 | 0.278 | 0.098 | 3.9% | 7.9% | 5.5% | -0.041 |
| Chris Carter | R | 45 | 155 | 0.290 | 0.279 | 0.271 | 0.012 | 8.4% | 10.1% | 8.0% | -0.017 |
| Freddie Freeman | L | 44 | 154 | 0.286 | 0.352 | 0.337 | -0.066 | 7.1% | 13.3% | 9.8% | -0.061 |
| Adrian Gonzalez | L | 45 | 151 | 0.298 | 0.277 | 0.294 | 0.021 | 9.3% | 10.2% | 9.2% | -0.009 |
| Raul Ibanez | L | 27 | 144 | 0.188 | 0.250 | 0.208 | -0.063 | 6.9% | 10.0% | 7.1% | -0.031 |
| Evan Longoria | R | 36 | 143 | 0.252 | 0.290 | 0.291 | -0.038 | 4.9% | 4.9% | 5.9% | 0.000 |
| Seth Smith | L | 38 | 142 | 0.268 | 0.279 | 0.307 | -0.011 | 6.3% | 6.3% | 10.3% | 0.000 |
| Alex Avila | L | 47 | 136 | 0.346 | 0.333 | 0.319 | 0.012 | 10.3% | 11.9% | 9.4% | -0.016 |
| Matt Joyce | L | 36 | 135 | 0.267 | 0.338 | 0.318 | -0.071 | 5.9% | 14.3% | 8.4% | -0.084 |
| Alex Gordon | L | 41 | 132 | 0.311 | 0.296 | 0.303 | 0.015 | 4.6% | 8.6% | 8.2% | -0.040 |
| Colby Rasmus | L | 40 | 129 | 0.310 | 0.267 | 0.304 | 0.043 | 10.9% | 13.3% | 10.6% | -0.025 |
| Josh Hamilton | L | 48 | 129 | 0.372 | 0.367 | 0.348 | 0.005 | 13.2% | 6.7% | 9.8% | 0.065 |
| Carlos Beltran | B | 28 | 127 | 0.221 | 0.261 | 0.250 | -0.040 | 8.7% | 6.5% | 7.6% | 0.021 |
| Yoenis Cespedes | R | 42 | 126 | 0.333 | 0.304 | 0.295 | 0.030 | 11.9% | 10.7% | 9.5% | 0.012 |
| Oswaldo Arcia | L | 41 | 124 | 0.331 | 0.255 | 0.297 | 0.075 | 8.9% | 6.4% | 9.5% | 0.025 |
| Juan Francisco | L | 34 | 120 | 0.283 | 0.353 | 0.301 | -0.070 | 10.8% | 11.8% | 11.0% | -0.009 |
| Kendrys Morales | B | 31 | 118 | 0.263 | 0.250 | 0.247 | 0.013 | 5.9% | 8.3% | 7.3% | -0.024 |
| Prince Fielder | L | 30 | 108 | 0.278 | 0.250 | 0.284 | 0.028 | 9.3% | 6.3% | 8.2% | 0.030 |
| Justin Smoak | B | 24 | 106 | 0.226 | 0.270 | 0.249 | -0.044 | 7.6% | 10.8% | 7.7% | -0.033 |
| Adam Lind | L | 32 | 106 | 0.302 | 0.475 | 0.380 | -0.173 | 9.4% | 13.6% | 10.6% | -0.041 |
| Josh Reddick | L | 30 | 104 | 0.289 | 0.389 | 0.305 | -0.100 | 9.6% | 7.8% | 8.9% | 0.018 |
| Ike Davis | L | 32 | 104 | 0.308 | 0.232 | 0.262 | 0.076 | 4.8% | 5.8% | 6.8% | -0.010 |
| Nick Swisher | B | 25 | 100 | 0.250 | 0.275 | 0.271 | -0.025 | 6.0% | 8.8% | 7.8% | -0.028 |
Thoughts
• The number of players hitting into a shift over a 100 times has doubled since 2012. The total has gone from from 20 in 2012, to 16 in 2013 to 44 in 2014.
• Some hitters are beginning to make adjustments when facing the shift as Eno notes in an article at Fox Sports.
• Of this 45 hitters, the average difference in BABIP between when they hit into an infield shift and not hitting into one was 9 points worse.
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Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
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