One Cohen observation from this weekend....

[RebelBruiser]

I noticed that your infield and your outfield had some of the most dramatic shifts I'd seen all year. I guess I hadn't seen many of the UK-Ole Miss games recently live, but I noticed that Cohen liked to shift his infield a whole bunch. Just an observation. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it backfires. I was wondering if he's done that all year, or if it was just something he saw in our scouting reports for this team.

For the record, for Jordan Henry at least, I would do exactly what he did and shift to the opposite side. He rarely pulls the ball, so your best bet is to overshift to the left side like you did on him all weekend.

 

[8dog]

ole miss loves the groundball down the third base line.

 

[rebel law]

I saw one shift on Sunday where MSU shifted itself out of the play. Every other one that I paid attention too had MSU lined up perfectly. It didn't really matter on Saturday because we didn't show up, but on Friday I thought we hit alot of balls hard right at people and the only reason they were right at people was because of a shift.

 

[Todd4State]

that we are actually scouting and doing it somewhat effectively.

 

[graddawg]

***

 

[8dog]

when they showed the infield, it looked llike we were just giving up entirely too much. One time yesterday, there was a runner on 1st and Powell noted that if a DP ball were hit to second, Butler would have to touch second himself b/c Rawdow was so far shifted to 3rd base he would've never gotten there for a throw.

 

[rebel law]

I can't remember who was batting but when I watched it again at home on tv last night, the SS wasn't even in the picture. He had to be within 5 feet of the third baseman.

 

[JohnDawg]

could be wrong though.</p>

 

[El Diablo Blanco]

This late in the year, tendencies are pretty well known. Certain guys tend to hit certain pitches to certain places.

 

[RebelBruiser]

Yea, shifting the infield will open holes somewhere. Playing straight up is obviously the best way to minimize the holes on your infield. However, if you scouting reports that have hitters hitting consistently to certain areas, shifting is a good idea.

I was just commenting because I haven't seen a team all year shift as much or as dramatically as you did. The trick with doing dramatic shifts is having your pitchers be able to force the hitter to hit into the defense. If you play a guy to pull and your pitcher keeps throwing pitches on the outside corner, the shift isn't going to work very well. Overall though, I'd say all the shifts worked more in your favor than not this weekend.

Has it been that way all year?

 

[SoxFan343]

Bianco is certainly one you can do it with.

Ya'll played your infield way back on almost every single one of our guys except for Henry. I can think of several coaches who would have told every player they had to bunt until you brought your infield back in to normal depth. Ray Tanner has been playing his infield in the grass against Bianco for years. He dares him to bunt and Bianco never does. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Bodaski]

Om had a stel on and it turned out to be a perfectly executed hit and run. The ss went to cover the bag on the steal and the batter hit it right back where the ss was. A great piece of hit and run.</p>