Twins Upset with Sisco Bunting

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 hour ago, theocean said:

It's insane to me that every player doesn't do this. For example, I saw a replay of the Astros four-man outfield the other day: the batter hit right into it! The entire left side of the diamond was open.

The Astros only do that shift when there is no one on the base paths - so whatever batter is up in that situation should be trying to get on base and that's it.

I guess some of these guys just don't know how to bunt?

You don't even have to bunt, just hit the ball the other way.  I can't believe hitters are that stubborn and will hit the ball into the shift no matter what. 

[Legend_Of_Joey]

Really, who cares? So the Twins got upset about it. They still won the last two games by a combined 13-2. 

The Orioles should be more worried about being down 7-0 in the 9th (or 6-0 in the 3rd.)

[DrungoHazewood]

11 minutes ago, Going Underground said:

They said Williams had only three infield hits when he hit .406. Probably not bunts. Also sacrifice flies where counted as at bats back then.

They changed the sacrifice rules quite a lot in the pre-1950 era.  Some years they lumped in sac hits and flies, some years a sac fly was an at bat.  I think there were some years where any time any runner advanced on a fly ball you got credit for a sacrifice.  Good SABR article here. It appears the current rule stuck in both leagues starting in 1955.

Also, you get some weird religious cult kind of results when you type "history of sacrifice rule" into Google.

[Beef Supreme]

45 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

How often did Mantle, or Mays, or Frank Howard or Boog Powell bunt?  I know Ruth bunted some, but he came up in the deadball era, where it would take 40 or 50 sac hits to lead the league.

The large majority of bunts over the last century have been sacrifices.  When people starting doing the math and realizing that position players sacrificing was overwhelmingly counterproductive the main reason to bunt went away.  The deadball era, say 1890-1920, is the only time we've seen good batters regularly bunting.  It's only been six or eight years since the shifts really took hold, and baseball changes glacially.  If it turns out to make sense it'll come back.

Brett Butler
Maury Wills
Rod Carew
Ichiro
Juan Pierre

All excellent hitters.

[Tx Oriole]

4 hours ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2018/04/the-sisco-bunting-controversy-and-other-notes-off-first-series.html

I agree with every bit of Roch's commentary on the issue. Why is a shift not against the unwritten rules but bunting away from it isn't? I felt like it was one of the few things we did right yesterday. I hope Davis was watching.

What a load of crap. Twins won two of three. They whine about a bunt? That's baseball you whiney ass babies. 

[SilverRocket]

 

[TheWall]

Loved it. Want to see more of it. If Chance can figure out the defensive part of the game -- he'll be one heck of a player. Seems to have real skills at the plate. 

[NashLumber]

3 hours ago, Il BuonO said:

Molitor needs to explain to Dozier that one-hitters aren’t a thing. Certainly not something you spout off about because you didn’t like your opponents tactics. 

If there was a no hitter I can understand how I might be bothered if someone were trying to  bunt (against a regular defense) to get the first hit. But if you’re shifting and the hitter makes a choice to beat it, you’ve got nothing to complain about.

A one hitter? That’s laughable. I’ve never heard another player refer to his team and pitcher working on a one hitter. 

Yeah, what’s the clubhouse rule of decorum for one-hitters. Inquiring minds want to know. Can’t be silence, as that’s reserved for no-hitters and perfect games. Only verbs? Adverbs? Onomatopia?

[Tx Oriole]

2 hours ago, theocean said:

It's insane to me that every player doesn't do this. For example, I saw a replay of the Astros four-man outfield the other day: the batter hit right into it! The entire left side of the diamond was open.

The Astros only do that shift when there is no one on the base paths - so whatever batter is up in that situation should be trying to get on base and that's it.

I guess some of these guys just don't know how to bunt?

Maybe that's part of it.

[DrungoHazewood]

29 minutes ago, Beef Supreme said:

Brett Butler
Maury Wills
Rod Carew
Ichiro
Juan Pierre

All excellent hitters.

So I obviously need to be more minutely precise. In 1909 Honus Wagner was the best hitter and player in baseball and sacrificed 27 times. If Mike Trout sacrifice bunts 10 times this year I'll eat an Oriole pennant.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

You don't even have to bunt, just hit the ball the other way.  I can't believe hitters are that stubborn and will hit the ball into the shift no matter what. 

Take something you do every day without thinking, then do it a very different way with everyone watching. Like next time you give a presentation at work in front of a huge audience and your bosses, work the mouse and pointer and everything left-handed.

[NashLumber]

4 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Take something you do every day without thinking, then do it a very different way with everyone watching. Like next time you give a presentation at work in front of a huge audience and your bosses, work the mouse and pointer and everything left-handed.

Funny you mentioned the left-handed thing. To this day, I eat left-handed because of Eddie Murray. I read somewhere when I was a kid and during his playing days  that he was given the advice to do everyday things like use a fork, shave or draw with his left hand to increase his overall dexterity for switch-hitting. I think this was when he was first learning to switch-hit.I believe it actually works. 

[Can_of_corn]

19 minutes ago, NashLumber said:

Yeah, what’s the clubhouse rule of decorum for one-hitters. Inquiring minds want to know. Can’t be silence, as that’s reserved for no-hitters and perfect games. Only verbs? Adverbs? Onomatopia?

Always assume alliteration.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

How often did Mantle, or Mays, or Frank Howard or Boog Powell bunt?  

I don’t know about those guys, but I remember Frank Robinson bunted one time in the early seventies and it was reported in the paper as his first sac bunt in 12-13 years or so.

[interloper]

Just another weird Orioles-related drama. There's always a couple per year, so why not get one going right out of the gate. What is it with teams starting beef with the Orioles?