In baseball, while there are nine named fielding positions, players may move around freely. The positioning for the nine positions is very flexible, although they all have regular depths—distances from home plate, and sometimes lateral positioning. A shift means that a player is playing in a noticeably different location than the norm for his actual position.
Infield and outfield in
Infield deep
A fielder who is playing shallow or in is playing closer to home plate, while a player playing deep is playing farther from home plate than normal.
Double play depth
Corners in
Regular terms are used for some positionings, for example, double play depth is used when there is a force play at second base. This means the shortstop and second baseman are playing slightly closer to second base and sometimes a little bit shallower. This position makes it easier to turn the double play. Bringing the corners in means the first and third baseman are both playing in, this will often be used with runners at third base.
Sometimes in the bottom half of the ninth inning (or later), when a team has a man on third base and less than two outs, the defending team will pull the outfields in very far, almost creating three extra infielders. This is sometimes known as do or die depth.
Pull_hitter shift
There are also some very irregular positionings. For example, versus excellent left_handed pull_hitters like Ted Williams and Barry Bonds, teams will move more players to the right side of the field. They sometimes play with the shortstop behind or even to the right of second base. The second baseman may simply move to the right, in which case this just qualifies as a shift, or he might move deeper into shallow right field—this particular formation is called the wishbone defense, because of the shape the shortstop, first baseman, second baseman, and right fielder make.
Baseball is played between two teams of nine players each on a baseball field, usually under the authority of one or more officials, called umpires.
Although baseball is considered a non-contact sport; a runner may be allowed to make potentially dangerous contact with a fielder as part of an attempt to reach a base, unless that fielder is fielding a batted ball.
Baseball history is full of heroes and goats—men who in the heat of the moment (the "clutch") distinguished themselves with a timely hit or catch, or an untimely strikeout or error.
Baseball players must often throw immediately after catching the struck ball (for example, the double play), while this is unnecessary in cricket due to the ball being "dead" when an "out" is achieved.
Baseballpitchers, by contrast, must use changes in ball speed and movement caused only by air friction and spin to deceive batters, as most pitches which come near touching the ground are ineffectively allowed to pass as balls.
In baseball, though only the positions of pitcher and catcher are prescribed by the rules, fielders' positions are dictated closely by custom, and shifts in fielders' positions according to circumstance are less dramatic; the strike zone and smaller angle of fair territory limit the usefulness of some strategies which cricket makes available to batters.
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