If you thought defensive shifting in Major League Baseball had reached its peak in creativity and absurdity, check out the shift the Kia Tigers of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) attempted to pull off during Tuesday's game KT Wiz.
The ever classic '3rd baseman behind catcher' shift. Full video at https://t.co/iUQAKotBdO #KBOMetrics pic.twitter.com/hkPTcWLCbl
— Dan (@MyKBO) May 13, 2015
Your eyes do not deceive. That's an infielder — in this case, the third baseman — attempting to set up shop behind the catcher.
Why would a third baseman play behind the catcher, you ask? To guard against the always embarrassing, though highly unlikely wild pitch in the middle of an intentional walk.
Re: The Shift: KIA manager Kim Ki-tae says the plan was to protect against a wild pitch on an intentional walk. http://t.co/Jx6NMYfqHK
— Dan (@MyKBO) May 13, 2015
Not much faith in the pitcher there, huh?
Of course, it does make sense to guard against possibilities, but there's a reason that strategy has never been used before: It's illegal.
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Only the catcher is allowed to be in foul territory. The seven defenders behind the pitcher must have both feet inside the white lines, though they can obviously play as close to the line or home plate as they wish.
With that in mind. perhaps a better strategy would be to move the first and third basemen in even with the pitcher and have them charging just in case of a wild pitch. Then again, you risk distracting the catcher or the batter actually taking a hack and putting the ball in play.*Both could be bad and/or quite dangerous, so our best suggestion would be playing a normal defense and advising the pitcher to hit the target.*
We do admire the creativity though, and we encourage them to continue thinking way outside the lines.*

BLS H/N: Cut 4*
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813