Joe Maddon has a knack for making zany concepts work for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Now other major league clubs not only have taken notice, they’re following his lead.

Maddon, who has been known to use what-in-the-world-is-he-thinking batting orders, is using funky new data-driven defensive alignments to frustrate opposing hitters.

No, the Rays aren’t the first team to overload the right side of the infield to slow down some of baseball’s most potent left-handed batters. The reigning AL manager of the year, however, has taken infield shifts to a different level by utilizing similar tactics to stifle right-handed hitters, too.

“Joe is a guy that thinks outside the box a little bit,” says Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. “People think he’s nuts, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. He was the first one I’ve seen play a three-man infield on the left side.”

The Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets and Chicago Cubs are among the teams also taking a more aggressive approach to defensive positioning, relying on computer-generated data, statistical analysis and spray charts to put the clamps on both right-handed and left-handed hitters.

Others such as the St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins utilize defensive shifts to a lesser degree. Gonzalez says the Braves are somewhere in the middle.

“We’re subtle. ...,” Gonzalez says. “I’m not a riverboat gambler on it, you know what I mean? But we do shift.”

The Rays were one of the top defensive teams in baseball a year ago while making the playoffs for the third time in four years. They’ve thrived using data to position players in spots where they are able to turn a high percentage line drives and ground balls that might ordinarily be base hits into outs.

They’ve always used infield shifts against left-handed hitting sluggers such as Josh Hamilton, David Ortiz and Mark Teixeira. They have become even more aggressive this season, particularly against right-handed batters such as Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Jose Bautista, Miguel Cabrera, Ian Kinsler and Dustin Pedroia.

And it’s not just stars or power hitters who are getting extra attention. Lesser known players such as Minnesota’s Ryan Doumit, Detroit’s Ryan Raburn and Seattle’s Justin Smoak and Kyle Seager have encountered the shift, too.

“The philosophy is to go with the data — to go with information, to not walk away from it, to not be afraid to utilize it,” Maddon says. “And in order to do that you have to get everybody on the same page. It’s not as easy as just saying you’re going to do it. You have to have the pitcher on board, infielders, the front office, everybody.”

Chipper Jones beat one of Maddon’s shifts by lining a single to center field. Jason Heyward did it by drawing a walk. Tampa Bay’s persistence paid off in the same inning, though, when the left-handed hitting Eric Hinske hit a grounder toward shortstop and the Rays turned a rare 5-6-3 double play.

Two nights earlier against Boston, the defensive positioning changed on consecutive pitches against the right-handed hitting Pedroia. The Rays began with three fielders camped on the left side, but wound up shifting one of the defenders back to the right of second base before Pedroia flied to left.

Maddon, though, may have saved his most interesting move until the end.

With two outs, a runner on first base and Tampa Bay clinging to a 2-1 lead, the manager had third baseman Sean Rodriguez and second baseman Jeff Keppinger swap positions because Rodriguez has more range covering ground balls.

Maddon wound up looking good when a perfectly positioned Rodriguez scooped up Daniel Nava’s grounder just to the right of second base for the final out.

The manager said Keppinger’s willingness to accept a spur-of-the-moment switch in that situation is an example of the type of cooperation needed to play the way the Rays do.

“If you’ve got a big ego guy that you’re trying to do that with, it can actually be counterproductive. But Kepp gets it,” Maddon says, stressing that the entire team has bought into what the Rays are trying to accomplish.

“I think that’s understated in this whole thing. This is something we didn’t do just haphazardly. We talked about it in spring training. We made sure we presented the information visually and verbally to everybody, so that they understood what we were going to do and why, and how we thought it would impact us in a positive way,” he said.