Actually 2 questions. All Sox fans are familiar with the exaggerated “shift” that takes place with some left-handed hitters (in the White Sox case – Jim Thome) where the shortstop plays either straight up-the-middle behind second base or in some cases on the first-base side of second base and the 2nd baseman plays more towards first base.

The question got raised the other day when I was watching a game (don’t recall which game the question came up in) why it would not be more appropriate to actually move your third baseman over to that spot behind second or the first base side of second and leave your shortstop as the lone fielder between second and third. This actually seems to make sense given that generally your shortstop is the guy on the infield with the most range. I guess in order for this to really make much of a difference, the guy they are putting the shift on for would actually have to make a more concerted effort to “go the other way” a bit more often than they do. If he was doing that, I guess they wouldn’t put the shift on in the first place. Any thoughts on this?

The second part of my question is on the same lines. I don’t recall ever seeing this take place (doesn’t mean I haven’t seen it but I sure don’t remember it if I have or I just haven’t paid that much attention to it), but has anyone ever seen the exaggerated shift like that put on (the opposite way of course-3 fielders on the 3rd base side of the infield) for a right-handed hitter? Obviously this would most likely not happen if there was a runner on first but have any of you seen this?