Adams this spring has dropped a bunt against the shift to take an easy base hit, and he squared to bunt again against the Astros on Saturday.

Houston, led by Jeff Luhnow’s data gurus, have become one of baseball’s biggest shifters. The Pittsburgh Pirates are also an aggressive shifting team, so much so that they will move infielders around based on the count. The Pirates have even positioned an infielder behind second base at times and watched as that player gobbled up base hits from Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta a few times.

The shift gets the most attention and is, arguably, at its most extreme when it comes to the lefthanded-hitting sluggers, the David Ortizes of the game. Carpenter has never been confused for that kind of hitter – one so pull conscious for power that a shift would work. This past summer, he led the Cardinals in homers and RBIs, and Matheny suggested that maybe the shifts he’s seeing in spring are responses to his 2015, not his history.