Tell me theorys on bunting....

[kyler.jackson1]

Last tournament our coach was calling bunts every inning.......no reason in my eyes. Runner at first, two outs.....bunt. Nobody on base, two outs...bunt. Ive always thought of a bunt as a sacrifice, to sacrifice an out to move a runner. But what good is it with two outs in any situation. 14U, 16U level......what am I missing here? Let me know your thoughts, please!

I’ve had players who failed to make contact after many opportunities over the course of a season. At that point, I would burnt them just to put the ball in play and create a potential error situation which is much better than a strikeout.


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[RIZZARIJOE]

Last tournament our coach was calling bunts every inning.......no reason in my eyes. Runner at first, two outs.....bunt. Nobody on base, two outs...bunt. Ive always thought of a bunt as a sacrifice, to sacrifice an out to move a runner. But what good is it with two outs in any situation. 14U, 16U level......what am I missing here? Let me know your thoughts, please!

I guess you have to be there. Is it just two outs? When is the coach calling the bunt? Or does he do that a preponderance of the time? My feeling is that the bunt and the slap are two underutilized aspects of the game. Against great pitchers, what are the odds of stringing together three or four consecutive base hits? That is a rec league mentality where I'll play for that one big five-run inning. There is a reason that all D1 schools recruit speed and slappers - it gives the best odds for getting on base. Think about it this way, against a great pitcher; you're not going to string together numerous hits to push home runs. Bunters with speed and slappers with speed have a higher than average OBP. What I can't understand is why more coaches aren't taking advantage. Assume that a speedy runner either slaps on base or bunts on base. Even if you have a slow-footed player that can bunt, there's an excellent probability that the speedster on first will go to third on a bunt to the first base side.

 

[RIZZARIJOE]

I’ve had players who failed to make contact after many opportunities over the course of a season. At that point, I would burnt them just to put the ball in play and create a potential error situation which is much better than a strikeout.


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I'm also of the opinion that it is more challenging to bunt than hit. If a girl sucks at hitting, why have her bunt, unless its a sacrifice and everyone in the park knows it?

 

[_MIA_]

This has been discussed before on here. Sac. bunting (where you are willingly giving up an out) is statistically dumb unless a) you know for certain that the run you are trying to get is going to win you the game or b) the hitter is so bad that chance of them getting a hit is infinitesimal…(see NL pitchers..). You can make the case that at times putting that first run on the board if the pitcher is dominant might have a positive effect but it won’t be make sense most of the time if you take the “mental” part out of it (I say most of the time because the statistics, by definition, are based upon the performance of “average” players..not pitchers with ERAs of 0.2 and who average 2 Ks per inning..eg Black Swans..the NL pitchers are also Black Swans..)

If you want to argue that playing small ball via sac bunts leads to a more aesthetically pleasing game you can do it but in terms of scoring the most runs possible in a game it rarely makes sense.

Bunting for a base hit is somewhat different and whether it makes sense is dependent on a number of different things.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

What I can't understand is why more coaches aren't taking advantage.

Because they understand basic probability.

 

[Bullseye]

Highly doubt the naysayers ability to see past their nose great probability they can't.
It happens when people focus on what they grew up watching in baseball and not accepting the difference that softball has different speed elements in the game.

 

[Bullseye]

Proper analysis of utilizing small ball is evident by all the lefty slappers that are highly utilized. They are not sacrificing outs. They are forcing the defense and creating weak spots in it.
Stop trying to dismiss this part of fastpitch.

 

[_MIA_]

Highly doubt the naysayers ability to see past their nose great probability they can't.
It happens when people focus on what they grew up watching in baseball and not accepting the difference that softball has different speed elements in the game.

Run expectancy charts in baseball and softball tell a similar story when it comes to sac. bunting.

 

[Bullseye]

Run expectancy charts in baseball and softball tell a similar story when it comes to sac. bunting.

Move past sacrifice bunting and go do stats on lefty slappers.

 

[Bullseye]

There is nothing comparable in baseball to slappers in fastpitch. Nothing.