Sixty years ago, a player-manager from the Cleveland Indians named Lou Bodreau came up with a defensive strategy to stop Ted Williams' brilliant hitting.

At the time, Williams was playing some of the best baseball ever -- even compiling a .408 batting average in a single season.

In an attempt to stop Williams, Bodreau came up with a defensive shift which was unorthodox but ended up effective:


The shift has taken over baseball this year. The number of balls in play hit with a defensive shift on went from under 5% in 2011 to almost 30% of all balls in play this year.

As offensive numbers go down, there is some talk of banning the shifts in order to boost offensive numbers as one of many rules changes.

But so long as they're here, are you using defensive shifts in MLB The Show 16? If so, how effective have they been vs. a more traditional defensive alignment?

As I dive into NBA 2K17, I'm reminded once again about how deep the modes in the game are. Right now, look for my full review of NBA 2K17 sometime around Tuesday.

For now, if you are unsure about whether you are jumping in or not, here's a look at a few quick impressions after a few games:

• The gameplay and presentation still continue to be just so smooth. Its not like that wasn't expected but it does need to be stated for the record. There's a lot more to explore on the court but I'm definitely hooked to the on-court gameplay.
• Look-wise, the game looks better with more varied body types as one addition. The other tweaks are adding nice touches as well. Overall the game looks a hair better than last year.
• There are still instances where you get stuck in animations -- I had one instance at the end of a game I drove the lane and tried to fire up a quick shot at the buzzer and instead my player went into a lengthy drive-layup animation which resulted in time expiring before the shot went up. That wasn't particularly good considering I was in a position to win the game.
• Commentary seems solid enough still. I haven't played enough to form a good judgement on it but I don't see any reason after a few more games I won't be coming away with a positive vibe.
• The only mode I've dove into enough to write anything on has been MyPLAYER. The story and background are a fun setup but the mode has some serious issues which I think will leave me thinking its a negative this year. I'll need to play a bit more but it just feels the mode goes out of its way to mire you in tedium.
• I played a game of 1-on-1 in MyPLAYER and it felt just so right. To me its impressive the game can play a good brand of basketball be it 5-on-5, 3-on-3, or 1-on-1. That means its getting a few things right with gameplay.

Final Thoughts

NBA 2K17 is looking like a winner on the court at least. The game right now seems to have done a lot more right than wrong, but we still have a lot of time until the final review is published. For now, I'm definitely optimistic about NBA 2K17's prospects.

Now this is a funny and completely fun video made by YouTube user YoBoy Pizza which features two completely polar opposite teams to see just how important speed is in the game.

On one sideline are the New York Giants -- a team full of guys rated 10 in speed, acceleration and release but 99 in every other attribute.

On the other sideline are the San Diego Chargers -- a team full of guys rated 99 in speed, acceleration, and release and 10 in every other attribute.

Seriously, this is a fun experiment. Check it out and let us know what you think!

The Cover Four is a defense your opponent will typically dial up when they are expecting you to try to throw it deep and/or when you have a long way to go to get a first down.

This umbrella coverage, if called correctly by the defense, will typically keep an offense from converting on a 3rd and long scenario (as just one example).

The beautiful thing about football, and Madden, is that every coverage has something which can beat it. The cover four is no different.

You'll want to attack the Cover Four (and Cover Three for that matter) in situations where its appropriate for your opponent to call it. That's usually long yardage situations. Routes like slants and curls are good -- but anything which results in multiple players attacking the intermediate and short areas of the field will result in at least one player being open. Ideally that one player will be your best open field receiver who can run with the ball.

Throwing over the top against a cover four, especially this year, is going to be a bad idea almost always. To convert a long yardage situation against a cover four, you'll want to try to run concepts which results in the intermediate routes being open and having some running room. I've also had some success with screens in these situations.

It goes without saying, but your odds of converting first downs when you face long yardage are long to begin with -- but at least you have a fighting chance versus throwing deep into double coverage.


Video: Sports Gamers Online on YouTube