(670 The Score) White Sox general manager Rick Hahn knew the question was coming. He was just surprised it took so long to be asked in his media session Friday, the first time he spoke publicly since his team was eliminated from the playoffs.
Can you explain the White Sox's philosophy behind defensive shifts and why you don't use them more often?
Hahn was ready with an answer, knowing the White Sox's approach toward shifting – they do it among the least in MLB – was a talking point in the wake of the Astros bleeding them to death with repeated contact that led to a series of game-changing hits on slow-rolling balls in the American League Division Series, which Houston won in four games.
"When you shift, the goal is to convert balls in play into outs," Hahn said in starting a long spiel. "When you look at our shift number – I'm not sure where you said we ranked, I've actually seen something from Baseball Info Solutions that had us actually 30th in total number of shifts last year, in gross number of shifts. That said, we were ninth in terms of net balls, hits saved as a result of shifting. That number is the number of balls that you get to because of a shift and turn into outs minus the number of hits that you give up because you were out position, so to speak, those groundballs to where the shortstop should've been. So even though we did not have a high gross number of shifts, we were actually in the top third in the league in terms of effectiveness when we did – the ninth-highest total of net outs.
"So there's a sweet spot to hit. We may not necessarily be there because obviously being ninth isn't being first. So perhaps with some more shifting, we could increase that number. But obviously, if you do too many shifts, then you're going to start giving up too many hits to the areas you would've been covering had you not shifted. The previous year, 2020, we were 20th in the league in net number of shifts and also, I believe, seventh – or we were in the top 10 in terms of that net out number. The year before that, we were middle of the pack in terms of shifts and we were also in the top 10 in terms of that net out number.
"The decision to shift is obviously driven in large part by getting those outs. But keep in mind, it's also about how your pitching plan is going to approach that opposing offense. You can't shift guys based on historically where the ball has gone if you aren't going to attack them from a pitching standpoint in a way that's going to lead into them hitting into that shift. So those two things have to align, which means the defensive game-planning in terms of positioning has to match what the pitchers and catchers and (pitching coach Ethan Katz) and his group are recommending in terms of the ability to get a guy out. Long story short at this point, from an effectiveness standpoint, despite the number of shifts, all that worked better than it did for two-thirds of the league. It doesn't mean we can't improve on that, and it is something we've talked about and will continue to talk about, especially come next spring. But it's a matter of getting that all aligned to get that gross out number as high as possible. So again, the long story short if that's possible, don't let the 30th number (in number of shifts) be the only one you look at. You got to look at how the outs are converted based upon those shifts. And yes, there's still some room for improvement."
