Bunting in the first inning with your best hitter?
- Thread starter Philly Dawg
- Start date
Bunting
Never would I bunt with my best hitter with 0 outs in the first inning and men on first and second. Perhaps late in a close game but not that early.
Never would I bunt with my best hitter with 0 outs in the first inning and men on first and second. Perhaps late in a close game but not that early.
Looking like it may be another "have to win in spite of our coach" game. Big 1st inning to get to Turnbull would be really 17ing nice right about now.
No parties in Toronto tonight?
The hit and run there in the 9th was equally as head scratching.
Yeah
we obviously aren't privy to all of the data Cohen has, but he felt good with it so I'll have to defer to his knowledge. I'm more upset with CT whiffing. You've got to make contact at all costs.
we obviously aren't privy to all of the data Cohen has, but he felt good with it so I'll have to defer to his knowledge. I'm more upset with CT whiffing. You've got to make contact at all costs.
The problem is it is not at it's FINEST. This is the first game I "tried" to watch all year and that **** is just not watchable. You would think if bunting is a big part of your game, someone could lay down a GD bunt. Bunting is not hard people.
On another note, and this is about all teams, this "safety ********" has killed the game. There is only 1 guy in all of NCAA baseball with over 20 HRs. You can't hit the ball hard enough to get it through the infield. And for <17>n' sake stop taking <17>ing pitches down the middle of the GD plate. (Especially with 2 strikes on you). For all the knowledge these kids get passed on to them from day one, you would think they would be better than this.
This dead bat era is frustrating to watch. It's why I think bunting with your best hitter with two men on and nobody out early in the game is a decent move.
But with as much as we emphasize it you'd think we would be better at it. We've made a lot of bad bunt attempts this year.
Cant argue with our conference record though.
Exactly Bruce. I've pointed this out before. For a team that supposedly works so hard at the bunting game, we absolutely suck at it. If we could at least consistently get the bunt down instead of getting to 0-2 or1-2 in the count, it would be a little more tolerable.
I disagree with it being a decent move in that situation. Bunting is statistically even less redeeming in this dead bat era. I don't like that move -- and wouldn't even had it "worked" and gotten the guys over. Especially with the 3B crashing hard like he was there. That's a situation where(if you are just determined to play small ball and apply "pressure") you ideally see Bama give you that aggressive crash look, take the strike, and go slash hit and run on the next pitch and basically try to kill the 3B. They are giving you a huge hole with the 3B crashing and the middle infielders having to cover 2nd, when I'm not sure that 3B could have even gotten back to the bag in time if you swung through it...
That said, I can leave my complaints about this stuff in game threads -- and can still see the bigger picture with our general overperformance under the bright lights. Baseball is funny like this -- and such "attempts" are heavily scrutinized when they fail, while barely being noticed when they succeed...
That said, I can leave my complaints about this stuff in game threads -- and can still see the bigger picture with our general overperformance under the bright lights. Baseball is funny like this -- and such "attempts" are heavily scrutinized when they fail, while barely being noticed when they succeed...
I'm with both of you guys on this. I think it subconsciously probably has something to do with our hitters disagreeing with those decisions to bunt too. Fans aren't the only ones that know what SABR says not to do in those situations. If you don't trust the decision to bunt, you are far more likely to screw it up...
It kinda comes back to this team seemingly having trouble "buying in" to what they are as individuals and what they do well -- as can be seen by all the homerun approaches and popups we've had at the plate this year from guys that are basically zero threat to hit a ball deep.
That said, it's still not too late for us. Pitchers have definitely bought in of late...
I totally agree.
Cohen just took the bat out of Pirtle's hands with two men on base in the FIRST inning. This is a guy who has ~ a .450 OBP and has gotten on base in practically every SEC game of his career- let him try to get on or drive in the runs. It's just crazy to bunt Pirtle there and force him to make an out when there's an almost 50% chance he's going to get on base anyway. Bunting Pirtle in just about any situation (unless he's bunting for a hit) absolutely blows my mind, considering he gets on base half the time anyway.
And yes, it is not small ball at its finest when we can even get the bunt down half the time. All the numbers that say the bunt is a bad play don't even take into account the amount of times we try and fail to even get it down, so they're even worse than they appear. If this bunting stuff is going to be part of our identity, we better make damn sure that we're good at it and can get it down on a consistent basis. I'd be much more understanding of the strategy if our players would just execute, but as a coach, you need to take the possibility of failure into account when making that decision. It seems like we are terrible at bunting, yet we try to rely on it so much- it's very frustrating.
Agree with all of this. Cohen gets asked about taking Ross out in the postgame interview (which was the right call) but NEVER gets asked to defend why he chooses to bunt so much given its documented great rate of failure and the hit and run last night.
Where are the "What did you base bunting Pirtle in the first" or "Why do you hit and run there in the 9th" questions. He has never been asked this. Ever. Thats the frustrating thing. I'd just like to see what the hell he bases his decisions on other than wanting to "be the reason" himself that we win, or the heaping praise from the announcers that love that ****,
There is no justification for bunting Collins in the 8th there to play for a tie..
1. CT was up next who hits lefties for around .100
2. Lindgren is probably our last reliable arm left today, why play for a tie and possible extras
3. Collins has gap power
4. Its a bad percentage play in general
5. Did I mention its not the winning run that we are trying to manufacture, WE NEED MORE THAN ONE
1. CT was up next who hits lefties for around .100
2. Lindgren is probably our last reliable arm left today, why play for a tie and possible extras
3. Collins has gap power
4. Its a bad percentage play in general
5. Did I mention its not the winning run that we are trying to manufacture, WE NEED MORE THAN ONE
And of course we don't score. This team has enough trouble scoring when it had 3 outs to work with in an inning. Giving away outs is just stupid, especially with one of your best hitters at the plate. Cohen is Croom level stubborn when it comes to bunting.