Doc's Morning Line: Should MLB ban the shift? Here's what Joey Votto says

Baseball is closer to banning the shift than I’d thought. According to ESPN.com, as soon as 2023, we could see a return to two infielders on each side of 2B and none playing in the outfield grass. At least that’s what it sounds like. It’s sure being studied rigorously.

MLB consultant Theo Epstein wrote in an e-mail to ESPN, "Ultimately, the new joint competition committee will determine whether the benefits of banning extreme shifts are worth the new 'intrusion' of limiting where teams can position their fielders within fair territory."

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In other words, is it a good idea to limit how much teams can use their brains to override the other team’s brawn?

There are other concerns. Aesthetics for one. Some argue that baseball simply looks better when its players are configured traditionally. The game is easier to explain to kids who aren’t asking why major-league shortstops are playing in short right field.

To me it comes down to this, and it’s the same logic I used to advocate for the DH in the NL: I’d rather watch a player play than a manager think. As Epstein explains:

“It’s better when games are won or lost by players making big plays ... rather than by front offices developing just the proper algorithm to make sure that third infielder on the right side is positioned exactly where the ball is going to be hit.’’

Barry Larkin’s signature defensive play – one I watched him make hundreds of times – was him sprinting to behind the 2B bag to glove a couple-hopper, pirouette and throw the guy out. That’d never happen now. Larkin would be behind the base before the ball was pitched.

Yawn.

Those who suggest that solving the problem is as easy as making hitters go the opposite way have never tried to hit a major-league breaking ball the opposite way.

Joey Votto, rational as usual:

"It's opportunity vs. cost. I can attempt to hit the ball the other way or put the ball in play in lieu of taking shots at hitting the ball out or off the fence. And because homers were so much more available over the last few years, you would be a fool to take shots at hitting the ball the other way or trying for soft contact."

If you believe banning the shift would make for more athletic and spectacular baseball, why would you be against it?

Now, then. . .

SLIM’S SON IS DOING POPS PROUD. . . Chris Henry Jr., an incoming high school freshman at West Clermont, just got an offer from Ohio State to play football. The Buckeyes follow Akron, Marshall, Connecticut, Grambling State and West Virginia, the alma mater of his late father Chris Sr.

We can debate the, I dunno, strangeness of offering a scholarship to a high school freshman. What’s not up for discussion is the young man’s talent. Best of luck to him. If he’s half the receiver his dad was, he’ll have a notable college career. All good things to Slim’s son.

KID SPECIAL is my new name for Hunter Greene, who simply decimated the D-backs for 7 innings last night. You might get tired of reading this, but probably not of watching it:

Greene is thisclose to becoming one of the best pitchers in the game. At times, he already is. Last night, the only blotch on his record was a leadoff bunt single in the 1st inning. That’s it.

Kid Special didn’t even throw lightning bolts. None of his 87 pitches topped 99 mph. He was erasing the Diamondbacks by pitching, not throwing, and his baseball intellect is such that at 22, he understands that getting out big-league hitters is more than throwing flame.

(Especially when those hitters swing the way Arizona’s did last night. Very, very few hitters do well against high fastballs, but they love to swing at them. The air currents in the Tristate are still whipping around this morning, at gale force.)

"There are times where I try to simply do too much," Greene said. "It’s being able to trust what I’m doing in between my outings. Trusting the work that I put in and my ability. I think that’s important for every professional and every person, to trust themselves."

A regret I have about retirement is that I will not have the privilege of writing about Kid Special's career.

AS FOR DUSTIN JOHNSON AND THE REST. . . He resigned from the PGA Tour Monday, to pursue the Saudi thing full time. He still expects the USGA to allow him to play in the majors for which he qualifies now: The US Open, for which he has a 10-year exemption thanks to his 2017 win; the lifetime invite to the Masters, which also includes 5-year exemptions to the British Open and the PGA.

I’m softening some on this. No one should feel sorry that the PGA Tour is getting some competition. And no one should begrudge (at least not much) a player being allowed to choose where he plays.

My big issue was, and is, the choice of the alternative.

I’m not going to spend a million words defending my take. The points made re the NBA’s relationship with China ring true. A reason I didn’t cite them was because I don’t like the NBA, don’t follow the NBA, couldn’t care less about the NBA. Therefore, the NBA wasn’t relevant to my argument.

Plus, running to the LIV Tour seems nothing more than a money grab for players such as Johnson, who is already fabulously wealthy. I believed naively that principles should speak more loudly. I was wrong.

But the man’s allowed to choose and he has made his choice. I’ll root against every shot he takes in every major championship he plays for the rest of his career. That’ll be fun.

SPEAKING OF DEFECTORS. . . Phil was a degenerate gambler. Not in the Art Schlichter sense. In the he-lost-$40 mil-over-four-years sense.

Mickelson told SI.com that is all in the past.

"My gambling got to a point of being reckless and embarrassing. I had to address it," he said. "I’ve been addressing it for a number of years. And for hundreds of hours of therapy. I feel good where I’m at there. My family and I are and have been financially secure for some time.’’

Man, that makes Pete look like a walking $2 Nassau.

Phil is supposedly getting $200 mil up front from LIV to play its tournaments for at least three years.

THE NEW CAR is very nice. After a two-month delay for supply chain reasons, my wife has a new, hybrid Camry that’s getting a cool 48.9 mpg. It’s so quiet that when you turn it on, you can’t hear the engine start up. It has a 13-gallon tank that took her 620 miles before the first fill-up. Have mercy.

I talked to a car-salesman buddy of mine a few weeks ago. He said the car-buying world is so topsy-turvy now that Kerry could sell the Camry in six months, for more than she paid for it.

Would you do that?

I get attached to my cars. Not for stupid, Irish-weepy reasons. For entirely practical, Johnny Thinwallet ones. They’re paid for. My previous car was a 2002 Toyota Solara I traded in with 290K miles on it. Still ran great, never needed a thing but tires, oil and batteries. J. Thinwallet was in deep love with the midlife-crisis red Solara.

The same fate hopefully awaits the current car, a ’17 Mazda3, currently living comfortably at 66K miles. Agile, sporty, good mileage (35 highway) but nothing like the wife-mobile.

And finally. . .

WEIGHING A BUCKET-LIST OPTION that would involve a very long trip in a very cumbersome vehicle. Any thoughts/experiences re the mode of transport? Winnebago? Airstream? Class A Motorhome? We wouldn’t sleep in it every night. Maybe half the time. I don’t want a trailer involved, I want the length to be as short as possible.

Your thoughts, Mobsters.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . As the days wind down, there’s a chance the tunes could be a bit more reflective. I’m not one to throw parties, especially for myself. Retiring in itself is not the issue for me. How the years have moved is. So breathtakingly fast and irretrievable. The one thing I’m learning more each day is, quality matters. Taking the time, making the time, for quality. That can be as simple as paying more for a nice bottle of bourbon or reflecting more thoughtfully on how I’ve lived my life. I lean on the final scene in Saving Private Ryan, which I’ve watched many times and which leaves me weeping every time.

You know the one: Ryan returns to the American cemetery above Omaha Beach, where he’d landed more than half a century before. He gathers with his family and bends softly to his knees at the grave of Capt. John Miller, who “saved’’ him in the days after June 6, 1944. As Miller (Tom Hanks) lays dying in the street of a destroyed French village, he looks up to Ryan and says, “Earn this.’’

In the cemetery Ryan turns to his wife and beseeches, “Tell me I’m a good man.’’

Nothing else matters.

Here’s a tune from Jackson Browne.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Should MLB ban the shift? Reds star Joey Votto weighs in