Pena getting shifty to counter defenses

It has been called the "Williams Shift" after Ted Williams, and the "Boudreau Shift" after Lou Boudreau, who devised the defense in 1946 to stop Williams from lining hit after hit into right field.

Carlos Pena calls it something else:

"Illegal."

Its popularity in the game today can be traced to his boss, Joe Maddon, who resurrected the shift in 2006 during his first year as Rays manager.

It seems silly to Maddon that teams would intentionally leave an area of the field undefended when all available data says certain left-handed hitters make a good living lining baseballs into that very area.

"We're just going off information," Maddon said. "Why try to protect a part of the field that a hitter never utilizes? That makes no sense to me."

So Maddon borrowed a page from Boudreau's managing book and moved the third baseman to shortstop, the shortstop to the second base side of the infield and the second baseman into short right field in an effort to turn line-drive singles to right into groundouts.

Maddon was mocked by baseball's old guard, but the shift proved its value against such lefty sluggers as David Ortiz and Jason Giambi, pull hitters less inclined to go the opposite way. Actually it was Dan Johnson, then with the A's and now with Triple-A Durham, who got Maddon thinking about a defense that was used into the 1960s.

"He used to just wear out that hole between first and second, and I was getting tired of it," Maddon said. "You get tired of it. Why? Why not? It's so maddening. Why not? And now it's up to the hitter to make an adjustment if he chooses to."

The first time Pena saw the shift was in 2006 during his brief stint with the Red Sox.

"I thought it was odd," Pena said.

Now Pena sees it often. While he loves it on defense, he hates it at the plate.

"I think it should be illegal," Pena said. "It's like being offside in football or an illegal formation."

Maddon used his own football analogy.

"If a team throws 57 times and runs three times, why would I have eight men in the box?" Maddon asked.

But, as Maddon said, it's time for hitters to make the adjustment, and Pena is trying. His first hit of the season was a perfectly executed bunt up the third-base line against the Orioles on Opening Day. Third baseman Miguel Tejada was too far away to get the ball, and Pena bunted it hard enough that pitcher Kevin Millwood had no chance.

That is one way to beat the shift.

"I'll do that when the opportunity presents itself," Pena said. "But that's not my game."

Another way is to become better at hitting line drives to left. The problem is left-handed power hitters tend to swing with an uppercut. That allows for long blasts to the right-field seats, but usually produces weaker fly balls when they try to hit to left. That's why managers are comfortable leaving the left side of the infield unprotected. It's their way of telling the hitter, "Go ahead, we want you to do something you're not very good at doing."

Pena is working on that. He's a career .461 hitter when he pulls the ball to right field, but is hitting .242 for his career when going the other way. Last year, though, Pena batted .317 when hitting the ball to left.

Also, his opposite-field home runs have increased from two (of 46) in 2007, to four (of 31) in 2008 to six (of 39) last season.

So, take that, shift.

"I'm good with him doing that," Maddon said.

If Pena was able to use the whole field while hitting, he would be a better hitter. He also would make the shift less effective.

He won't, however, make it illegal.