Ron Washington, Mike Scioscia, and the bunt

[Glen]

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/02/24/ron-washington-they-can-take-the-analytics-on-that-and-shove-it-up-their-bleepbleep/

 

 

Wow, we only bunted 56 times last year?  Seems like more than that.  That's about one bunt every three games.  Wonder how many Ayabr accounted for.

[WallyWorld]

 Wonder how many Ayabr accounted for.

 

Attempted bunts don't count.

[Blarg]

Aybar had 7 bunts.

[Stradling]

So, can we get rid of the notion that we bunt too much? Once every three games is perfectly fine. This is another one of those times where everyone's feelings about Mike are blowing this out of proportion.

[ScottT]

Other teams also bunt too much.

[yk9001]

According to that story, that is 56 successful sacrifice bunts.

 

That doesn't include the unsuccessful bunts.

Or the bunts for hits.

 

If someone bunted up in the air to the catcher for an out, is that a sacrifice bunt?

[bloodbrother]

The ones that drive me crazy are when Mike has them bunting in the 2nd/3rd inning.

[jshep]

The ones that drive me crazy are when Mike has them bunting in the 2nd/3rd inning.

Yeah, those are the worst of the worst.

[Angel Oracle]

What BB and jshep said, because this isn't the 1960s, where 1 or 2 runs was enough much more often.

Bunting early, unless it's for a base hit, is stupid.

[Brent Maguire]

Aybar is the only guy who should be bunting because he's been great at bunting for hits. 

 

I'm surprised the number is that low. I was assuming it was closer to 100. 

[Blarg]

I may be reading it wrong but it looks like from Fangraphs the Angels had 26 successful bunts. Maybe Washington was referring to attempts.

[gotbeer]

There is a joke here somewhere.  Probably involves coke, lasagna, and Aybar doing a bee dance.

[Docwaukee]

giving away outs is generally not a good idea.  as has been previously posted, the # of runs scored on average is higher with a man of first and no outs than a man on second with one out.  I have never been able to find whether sacrificing a guy to 2b increase your chance of scoring one run but I think it may.  So unless you are bunting for a hit or you are late in the game, tied or down by a run, and the guy on first can't steal a bag, and the hitter isn't very good at hitting but good at bunting, bunting is a bad idea.  

 

the halos had the 4th highest number of PA in the AL where a bunt was put into play at 91.  They had 22 hits and 37 sacrifices.  So they were 22/91 or .240 in not bunting for an out regardless of whether it moved a runner.  

 

They sacrificed 20 times with a man on just first, 14 times with first and 2nd, and 3 times with a man on second.  

They had 1191 PA with a man on at least 1st and less than 2 out, and laid down a successful sacrifice 34 times in those situations.  

They were within 1 run for 25 of those successful sacrifices. 

18 Sacrifices came in inning 7 or later.

 

So they made 54 outs bunting.  37 of which moved a runner or two over.  

 

The halos scored 628 times in 2772pa with runners on.  I am not going to take the time to calculate the numbers of runs they could have scored if they had swung away in those 91pa instead of bunting as some of those bunts were hits and some moved runners into scoring position but even a rough estimate gives you maybe 4-5 runs.  And that doesn't take into account the actual situation where probably half of those bunts were at least reasonable ie pitcher up to bat, tie game or down by a run in the 7th or later with a not so good hitter at the plate.  

 

My guess is that there were probably about 20-30 inappropriate bunt attempts that cost us an out and decreased our odds of scoring multiple runs (not just one run because that is different).  

 

Point is, even though it's annoying and sometimes bad baseball, it doesn't really account for that many runs.  Probably not even half a win worth over the course of a season.  

[Angel Dog and Beer]

There is a joke here somewhere.  Probably involves coke, lasagna, and Aybar doing a bee dance.

 

I liked this comment:

shutdownespn - Feb 24, 2014 at 11:35 AM

In fairness, the mind gets a bit cloudy when under the influence of cocaine.

[CaliAngel]

IMO this isn't about how many times they bunt, but when they decide to bunt.

 

So many times I'm scratching my head wondering why the hell they're wasting an out, when other times I'm screaming at the radio wondering why they're NOT bunting to get a run in.