Pull hitter
In baseball, a pull hitter is a batter who usually hits the ball to the side of the field from which they bat. For example, a right-handed pull hitter, who bats from the left side of the plate, will usually hit the ball to the left side of the field, termed "left field", from the batter's perspective. The opposite of pull hitting is known as "hitting to the opposite field". Hitters who rarely hit to the opposite field or "up the middle" are often described as dead pull hitters.
Shifting
When a pull hitter with a high batting average is at the plate, it is common for the manager of the defensive team to implement the defensive tactic known as "shifting", moving one or more infielders or outfielders to the side of the field to which the batter usually hits, with the number of moved players being proportional to the increase in likelihood of the batter's hitting to that side of the field. For a left-handed power hitter such as the Chicago White Sox' Harold Baines or the Boston Red Sox' Ted Williams, a full "shift" involves placing the third baseman in the shortstop's normal position; the shortstop between the first and second basemen, usually in shallow right field; the left fielder in left-center or center field; and the center fielder in right-center field. Conversely, managers often call for the opposite shift when a strong right-handed pull hitter is at bat for the opposing team. With more batter tendency data being provided to major league clubs, coaches, and managers about what batters usually do with balls that they put in play, the number of plays which involve a shift have increased drastically, from around 3,000 in 2010 to about 33,000 in 2017.[1]
See also
- Baseball positioning
References
- ^ Greenberg, Neil (2018). "MLB's Opening Day featured unconventional lineups and bizarre defensive shifts: Analytics continue to leave its mark on Major League Baseball". ProQuest. ProQuest 2019974930. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
- v
- t
- e
- Ball
- Bat
- Batting cage
- Batting glove
- Batting helmet
- Cap
- Doughnut
- Glove (defense)
- Pitching machine
- Protective cup
- Shin guard
- Stirrups
- Uniform
- Uniform number
- Batting order
- Innings
- Out
- Positions
- Run
- Pace of play
- At bat
- Baltimore chop
- Bat flip
- Batted ball
- Batting count
- Batting out of order
- Bunt
- sacrifice bunt
- slap bunt
- squeeze play
- Charging the mound
- Checked swing
- Cleanup hitter
- Designated hitter
- Double
- Double switch
- Foul ball
- Foul tip
- Golden sombrero
- Ground rule double
- Hat trick
- Hit
- Hit and run
- Hit by pitch
- Hitting for the cycle
- Home run
- Grand slam
- Inside-the-park
- Walk-off
- Moonshot
- Chinese
- Infield hit
- Leadoff hitter
- Lefty-righty switch
- Line drive
- Mendoza Line
- On-deck
- Plate appearance
- Platoon system
- Pull hitter
- Sacrifice fly
- Single
- Strikeout
- Strike zone
- Sweet spot
- Switch hitter
- Triple
- Walk
(softball)
- Balk
- Beanball
- Breaking ball
- Brushback pitch
- Changeup
- Curveball
- Eephus
- Emery ball
- Fastball
- two-seam
- four-seam
- cutter
- sinker
- split-finger
- Full count
- Immaculate inning
- Inside pitching
- Intentional balk
- Intentional walk
- Knuckleball
- Maddux
- No-hitter
- Perfect game
- Pickoff
- Pitch count
- Pitching position
- Pitchout
- Quick pitch
- Screwball
- Shutout
- Slider
- Spitball
- Strikeout
- Strike zone
- Striking out the side
- Time of pitch
- Wild pitch
- Balk
- Bases loaded
- Caught stealing
- Hit and run
- Lead off
- Left on base
- Obstruction
- Rundown
- Safe
- Scoring position
- Slide
- Small ball
- Squeeze play
- Stolen base
- Tag up
- Tie goes to the runner
(positioning)
- Appeal play
- Assist
- Blocking the plate
- Catch
- Caught stealing
- Covering a base
- Defensive indifference
- Double play
- Error
- Fielder's choice
- Fifth infielder
- Force play
- Fourth out
- Hidden ball trick
- In-between hop
- Infield fly rule
- Infield shift
- Interference
- Neighborhood play
- Passed ball
- Pickoff
- Putout
- Rundown
- Tag out
- Triple play
- Uncaught third strike
- Wall climb
- Wheel play
- Baseball card
- Baseball statistics
- Bench jockey
- Bench-clearing brawl
- Dead ball
- Doubleheader
- Jargon
- Injured list
- List of baseball films
- Pepper
- Scorekeeping
- Series
- Seventh-inning stretch
- Shagging
- Sign stealing
- Slump
- Streak
- Variations of baseball
- Category
- Portal
- WikiProject
This baseball-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e