Prepare for the Mariners’ new defensive alignment: The trap
Mar 1, 2017, 10:46 AM
The Mariners relied heavily on subtle shifts of their defensive alignment in 2016, and it wasn’t always popular among the players.
That is, until the results came in.
“You can talk all you want about process, but when people see results then they buy into the process quicker,” Mariners third base coach Manny Acta told 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Brock and Salk” on Monday. “And last year, at the beginning of the season, some of the people weren’t so into it because it doesn’t look right. You’ve been seeing baseball for over 140 years and you don’t see four people on the side of the infield and all that kind of stuff.”
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Under first-year manager Scott Servais, the Mariners implemented infield shifts more than ever before. According to Lookout Landing, Seattle’s defense converted 70.8 percent of balls put in play into outs and 71.6 percent into outs when utilizing a defensive shift – good for eighth best and 10th best, respectively, in the majors.
Acta credited the Mariners’ analytics department for the work last year, which led to the team leading the league in runs saved. He said the team will employ shifts as often, if not more, in 2017, adjusting based on hitter, pitcher, situation, etc.
“You play percentages,” he said. “Whether a guy hits a ball 90 percent of the time to the right side, he still has a 10 percent chance to hit it to the left side, so when guys see that dribbler go through, some guys don’t like it. But guess what, what do you want to defend? Do you want to defend 10 percent or do you want 90 percent? And it really worked for us. We were top in the league in runs saved and when the results show, and we were able to show it to the players, then everybody stopped the complaining and went about it the right way.”
Acted added that the team may use an even more dramatic infield shift that’s called the “trap,” which is short for trapezoid.
“It’s going to involve the shortstop,” Acta explained. “Instead of being just on the other side of the bag, he’s going to be on the other side of the bag but also back in the outfield like the second baseman.
“You’re not going to see it as often,” he added. “It’s only going to be against guys that are really, really slow.”
Acta on the impact of speed
The addition of speedsters including Jarrod Dyson and Jean Segura will lead to runs the Mariners could only dream of last season, Acta said. While the general philosophy of not making the first or last out at third base holds true, he said the team should see improvements in scoring from second base.
“With Dyson, he’s gonna score 90 percent of the time from second base; it doesn’t matter how many outs there are,” Acta said. “And he’s going to score from first base on doubles also close to 90 percent, which the average guy doesn’t do at such a high percentage. He’s gonna make it easier on a guy like me. But still, you have to be cautious that those three guys in the middle of our lineup should hit with guys in scoring position. With that being said, Leonys (Marin), Segura, and Dyson give us an opportunity to push the envelope a little bit even if it is no outs. Some of those guys are going to be able to be to score and you don’t have to be as cautious as we were last year.”
Acta said taking the extra base is especially important because of how surprisingly difficult it has been for the Mariners to score when there is a man on third with less than two outs.
“I even thought it was easier to drive a guy from third with less than two outs, but when the numbers were thrown at us last year, it’s only 50 percent of the time that a guy gets driven in from third with less than two outs,” he said. “It should be higher than that. You think, hey, the infield is in … come on, just hit a ground ball up the middle, drive him in. It’s not that easy.
“A lot of times because you don’t have the speed, you hold a guy at third base, and guess what, your chances of scoring, it’s just 50-50.”
Other highlights from the conversation:
On the Mariners’ culture shift: Acta said he has embraced manager Scott Servais’ team meetings and somewhat unconventional approach to team building. “The players nowadays are different, and you do have to do different stuff to keep people involved and get their attention. This is fantastic. It’s a process. You hear that word a lot here but it’s working. It worked last year and it continues to grow here. And it’s not only the way Scott (servais) goes about his business and prepares us, each coaching staff (member), to go about our business, but the way Jerry (Dipoto) does stuff, it’s night and day, the difference in the ball club this year from last year. And we felt like we had a pretty good season last year, but we have so much depth coming into spring training this year, it’s a total different ball game.”
On being a bilingual coach: “It’s very important because a lot of the guys they can commute in English but that doesn’t mean they understand the meaning of a lot of things.” That included a conversation about “competing,” which Acta said some Spanish-speaking players didn’t want to hear. “Because they were feeling like, OK, I’m going to compete but I’m not going to win. Competing is not winning and they felt like they needed to hear the word win. So a lot of times when Scotty or some of the guys want to get their message through properly to some of these guys, it comes in handy that you can speak to these guys in the same language, because it’s not the same to say ‘I need a taxi’ or ‘I need a pizza’ to comprehend. It’s not speaking, it’s also comprehending.”
