Reasonable people can disagree, but I'm not a fan of the bunt except in very few situations. It makes sense when the hitter is weak (such as a pitcher in a National League game). It makes sense in a late inning 0-out situation when you need one run to tie or win. It may make sense if the defense is particularly bad at defending the bunt (rarely).

In my mind, coaching is all about bringing out the best in your players and inspiring confidence in them to do things they didn't think they could do. Asking a batter to bunt may be statistically sound, but it is not confidence inspiring. It sends an indirect signal to the batter that future batters have a better chance of driving home the baserunner than they do. Or, even worse, in a squeeze situation, it tells the batter that the coach is pessimistic that the batter will drive home the runner by swinging. To me, that deflates the batter and in a sacrifice situation, it places more pressure on future batters to drive the run home. From a psychological perspective, I think both outcomes are negative. I'd like to see this team play looser, and be more confident of themselves. One great example of this was in the playoff series versus Oregon a couple of years ago when Christian Stringer was doing the ape scratch motion from the basepaths after getting hits. That might seem trivial, but it was a signal that he and others on the team were loose and confident. That's important to win. When our players are pressing and fearful of making mistakes (looking at you middle infielders) -- that's when we crumble.

We need some yin and yang to the coaching, in my view, to balance out Coach Graham's tough style. Coach Pierce represented that counter balance in years past. I'm not sure we have a substitute for that now. Just some ideas.

(03-07-2015 02:05 AM)austinowl73 Wrote:  

(03-06-2015 10:54 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Walt and I disagree on things about 90% of the time. I think this might be in the 10%.

I cannot understand how we can be so bad at bunting. If we are going to use it, we need to learn to execute it.

(Now here Walt and I digress.)

If we can't execute it, we need to forego it.

So either learn to do it right or do something else.

JMHNBGO.

here is a radical concept. We could run -- steal bases and hit and run. We have speed. We seem to get pretty good leads (when the coaches are not signalling to shorten them) -- so let's try to use our speed -- even more than half a stolen base attempt per game. Just a thought.

Agreed. I have noticed that our leads off 1B are considerable better than prior years (but not off 2B or 3B). We ran in the UT series, but have all but stopped running ever since. Strange.

On the other side, we are doing a much better job, IMO, of holding runners close on 1B, but continue our recent trend of allowing runners on 2B and 3B to get huge leads. We are one of the few teams I have seen that doesn't position the SS or 2B near the 2B bag with a runner on 2B. While this does help our defensive positioning against a hit ball, it allows runners on 2B to get enormous jumps on us....and I wouldn't be surprised if as the season progresses (and teams get films to study) more teams do not attempt to steal 3B on us. I believe yesterday's steal of 3B (double steal) was the second of 3B against us this year. Expect more.

(03-07-2015 09:31 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 02:05 AM)austinowl73 Wrote:  

(03-06-2015 10:54 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Walt and I disagree on things about 90% of the time. I think this might be in the 10%.

I cannot understand how we can be so bad at bunting. If we are going to use it, we need to learn to execute it.

(Now here Walt and I digress.)

If we can't execute it, we need to forego it.

So either learn to do it right or do something else.

JMHNBGO.

here is a radical concept. We could run -- steal bases and hit and run. We have speed. We seem to get pretty good leads (when the coaches are not signalling to shorten them) -- so let's try to use our speed -- even more than half a stolen base attempt per game. Just a thought.

Agreed. I have noticed that our leads off 1B are considerable better than prior years (but not off 2B or 3B). We ran in the UT series, but have all but stopped running ever since. Strange.

On the other side, we are doing a much better job, IMO, of holding runners close on 1B, but continue our recent trend of allowing runners on 2B and 3B to get huge leads. We are one of the few teams I have seen that doesn't position the SS or 2B near the 2B bag with a runner on 2B. While this does help our defensive positioning against a hit ball, it allows runners on 2B to get enormous jumps on us....and I wouldn't be surprised if as the season progresses (and teams get films to study) more teams do not attempt to steal 3B on us. I believe yesterday's steal of 3B (double steal) was the second of 3B against us this year. Expect more.

Not to mention the steal of home.

Walt, does this reflect a certain coaching choice, i.e. a choice for better defensive positioning as opposed better holding of runners? Could it be that what we lose in stolen bases and extra bases taken by runners we regain in double plays and getting outs without runners advancing?

(03-07-2015 10:29 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 09:31 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 02:05 AM)austinowl73 Wrote:  

(03-06-2015 10:54 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Walt and I disagree on things about 90% of the time. I think this might be in the 10%.

I cannot understand how we can be so bad at bunting. If we are going to use it, we need to learn to execute it.

(Now here Walt and I digress.)

If we can't execute it, we need to forego it.

So either learn to do it right or do something else.

JMHNBGO.

here is a radical concept. We could run -- steal bases and hit and run. We have speed. We seem to get pretty good leads (when the coaches are not signalling to shorten them) -- so let's try to use our speed -- even more than half a stolen base attempt per game. Just a thought.

Agreed. I have noticed that our leads off 1B are considerable better than prior years (but not off 2B or 3B). We ran in the UT series, but have all but stopped running ever since. Strange.

On the other side, we are doing a much better job, IMO, of holding runners close on 1B, but continue our recent trend of allowing runners on 2B and 3B to get huge leads. We are one of the few teams I have seen that doesn't position the SS or 2B near the 2B bag with a runner on 2B. While this does help our defensive positioning against a hit ball, it allows runners on 2B to get enormous jumps on us....and I wouldn't be surprised if as the season progresses (and teams get films to study) more teams do not attempt to steal 3B on us. I believe yesterday's steal of 3B (double steal) was the second of 3B against us this year. Expect more.

Not to mention the steal of home.

Walt, does this reflect a certain coaching choice, i.e. a choice for better defensive positioning as opposed better holding of runners? Could it be that what we lose in stolen bases and extra bases taken by runners we regain in double plays and getting outs without runners advancing?

Yes, it's definitely a coaching choice. Other teams, most notably Arizona and Texas, take the opposite approach and positioned either their 2B (Arizona) or SS (Texas) almost at the 2B bag to hold the runner close, leaving a gaping hole on one side of the infield or the other. UT got away with it, but we successful exploited Arizona's positioning repeatedly.

For me, it boils down to: if something is the right thing do do, and easy for everyone to see, then our coaches probably don't need 4+ years to figure that out. Conversely, if our coaches haven't done something, then maybe there is a reason for not doing it.

I haven't always given that benefit of doubt to coaches in all sports, but I think Graham has earned it.

I might be wrong. There might be something that all other college coaches, and several posters on this forum, know, but our coaches don't. And maybe one more year of broken-record complaining will help them figure it out.

(03-07-2015 08:18 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  There is one glaring obvious solution - whatever was done for Lewis, do for the whole team. I think it would be cost-effective, too.

If you mean that we should use very small data sets to extrapolate to broad conclusions, then I believe that this group has it covered already.

(03-07-2015 12:12 PM)temchugh Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 08:18 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  There is one glaring obvious solution - whatever was done for Lewis, do for the whole team. I think it would be cost-effective, too.

If you mean that we should use very small data sets to extrapolate to broad conclusions, then I believe that this group has it covered already.

what I mean is what I said.

Whatever was done for Lewis was not done before that day. I wonder why that was. I wonder if it has been done for the others, and they just don't have the capability to improve like Lewis did. Or maybe it hasn't been done. Yet.

But I know the current failure in bunting should not be the acme of our abilities.

JMHNBGO.

Let's see if Kirby gets the same treatment after yesterday's failed bunt attempt (after which he was immediately pulled from the game) that Greyson got a couple weekends ago.

(03-07-2015 12:42 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Let's see if Kirby gets the same treatment after yesterday's failed bunt attempt (after which he was immediately pulled from the game) that Greyson got a couple weekends ago.

Well, if he does, and it works, and the same for the rest of the team, then this should become a much more pleasant place. Unless we find something new to complain about.

(03-07-2015 01:41 PM)Gravy Owl Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 12:42 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Let's see if Kirby gets the same treatment after yesterday's failed bunt attempt (after which he was immediately pulled from the game) that Greyson got a couple weekends ago.

Well, if he does, and it works, and the same for the rest of the team, then this should become a much more pleasant place. Unless Until we find something new to complain about.

ftfy

(03-07-2015 02:14 PM)sts60 Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 01:41 PM)Gravy Owl Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 12:42 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Let's see if Kirby gets the same treatment after yesterday's failed bunt attempt (after which he was immediately pulled from the game) that Greyson got a couple weekends ago.

Well, if he does, and it works, and the same for the rest of the team, then this should become a much more pleasant place. Unless Until we find something new to complain about.

ftfy

We even gripe about the radio guy, the ticket-takers, the bathrooms, the weather, the schedule, the marketing, whatever. it won't be a long search to find something to complain about.

It's sports. Always something that can be improved.