@Smitty28 posted:Or hitters could go the other way against the shift. What would Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn, Pete Rose etc do today vs the shift? My guess is they would be feasting on it and hitting .400 every year.
Edited to add:
But would the front office now tell hitters like Carew and Gwynn that they will be replaced by 30 HR per year hitters because they are more statistically valuable? I think this is the issue Price may have with the trend towards analytics.
My guess is that the singles hitters of yesterday wouldn't face a shift very much because they sprayed the ball around and took advantage of the bigger parks and spacious outfields of that era. As you note in your edit, the financial incentives have changed over time. In 1979 Rod Carew was the highest paid player in the game, the last time a non power hitter held that distinction. If those guys were coming up now they would probably have a different approach.