Real Men Bunt
Morning, folks. It’s July 3rd (my half birthday, year and a half till I’m 30 and life isn’t worth living), it’s 800 degrees outside and the office AC is broken, and the Yankees were *not* good last night. 0 for 11 last time I checked with RISP, but that’s not why we’re here today. It’s a tale as old as time. Students of the game are taught to do it before their balls (or lady parts) drop. It’s bunting.
For some reason that I’ve never understood (JK it’s the fragile male ego), the bunt is extremely underutilized in Major League Baseball. I mean, when you have guys shifting, they are LITERALLY, not “literally” as in “omg he’s literally so hot”, I mean they are actually daring you to bunt for a hit. They are giving hits away. And guys don’t take them. Why? Small peepees.
I mean, I’m only half joking. Think about it. A baserunner is a baserunner. A hit is a hit. What difference does it make if you get to first on a bunt or a line drive to center or a grounder in the hole (hehe in the hole)? The only explanation that I can think of is that players just don’t want to take a measly bunt for a hit. They want to show their worth and their strength. I kinda get it, but the game is about being smart. Sometimes, bunts aren’t necessary. Sometimes, they are.
For example, last night we had two situations where Gleyber got on first with no outs and Gardner was coming up. Gardner is the #1 bunting prospect on this team. He’s good at it, and he’s probably our fastest player. One instance was I believe in the 7th and then once in extras. Both times, Gardner should have bunted. Both times, he did not. The first time, he walked anyway. But the second time, in a situation where it was a crucial spot to get a runner into scoring position, he didn’t and grounded into a double play, killing the inning. Those opposed to a bunt there say that they’d intentionally walk Judge and we’d lose his bat. Well, yeah, but it’s not like you have scrubs coming up after him. We had Didi and Stanton on deck. Gotta have confidence in those guys.
Here’s the thing that I cannot stress enough. Bunting, and small ball in general, WORKS. It does! I know it’s crazy but believe you me, I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. I played softball growing up, and obviously varsity (humble brag) softball is not the same thing as Major League Baseball. But the general strategy often applies. There was this one team, that played small ball like you wouldn’t believe. They took advantage of every opportunity and made you make plays. They scored runs when they had no business doing so. And they were SUPER hard to beat. Then you could also look at a team like the 2015 Royals, who utilized small ball often in their path to the *WORLD SERIES TROPHY*. There are two situations where I believe bunting is extremely effective:
- Situations like yesterday with a tie game late in the game
- Generally close games with two aces on the mound, when even getting a baserunner is an ordeal
- When you're being killed by the shift
I already described the first situation. A perfect example of the second would be about, let’s see, every game in last year’s ALCS. When you’re having trouble getting any base-runners at all, you have to take advantage of the ones you get, ESPECIALLY with no outs. Bunt the player over, make them make that play, and hope you can string another hit together to get a run across. I genuinely believe if the team had bunted more in those super close games last year, the series could have gone differently.
I am speaking to my dearly beloved Greg Bird for the last bullet. They shift on him so drastically, and it WORKS. By successfully laying a few bunts down unexpectedly, your average will go up, and they may stop shifting as much. It's a win win. Granted, yes, he needs to start hitting in general, but he's had a lot taken away because of the shift in the first place. IF YOU SOMEHOW READ THIS PLEASE LORD TRY A BUNT PLEASE.
Anyway..I am putting a challenge out to ma boys called the #realmenbunt challenge. I am DARING you to drop a bunt down when it’s needed. (Or, in Didi’s case, when it’s not expected, like he did sometime last week, telling me that he has nothing to overcompensate for. Take that how you will.) Tweet it, hashtag it, get it trending, I'll make t-shirts, ANYTHING.
*Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are immune from the #realmenbunt challenge. Neither of them should ever be bunting in basically any situation ever.
