Brian McCann working to beat the shift
by Chris Zolli | Thu, Feb 12th 4:49pm EST
Brian McCann saw his batting average drop mightly in 2014 and he is making ever effort to remedy that issue in 2015. Of the 76 players that qualified for the AL batting title, McCann finished in last in Batting Average in Balls Played. Some of that was attributed to a lack of solid contact but most of that is because of the heavy shifts that he faced. (New York Post)
Fantasy Impact:
The easy way out would be for Rob Manfred to ban shifts, assisting both McCann and Yankees teammate Mark Teixeira. In lieu of that mandate, McCann is looking to shorten his swing to regain his past successes. In the first seven years of his major league career, McCann produced a .286/.358/486 slash line. In his last three seasons, he dropped to .238/.305/.419; he started his Yankees career with a .232 batting average. McCann has averaged 22 home runs over the past nine seasons, only once going under 20, and had an .823 OPS coming into 2014. There is still a lot of potential with McCann and if his batting average can even creep over .250, his home run and RBI totals could be enough to make him a top-five catcher.
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