'Just give me a kid who can play the game'

So what? I'm right, they're wrong.

And the teams mostly won.

 

No, Starman is right.

The kids who make the high school team are the kids who grew up as the studs of their Little League -- which means there should never have been a time for them to be bunting.

Anything a kid needs to learn about bunting can be accomplished with a day or two of practice at the start of the season, or a few minutes of BP every day on a consistent basis. It isn't some art that needs to be perfected over an eight-year span.

Relying on the sac bunt in youth leagues is also overmanaging to the extreme because it relies on the odds calculated according to MLB games. But in youth leagues, the chances are very high that a runner can steal a base or advance on a wild pitch or passed ball. So you're giving away an out in exchange for a base that you're probably going to get anyway.

 

There is a hell of a lot of territory between teaching kids to bunt and having them do it every time there is a runner on base. You might want to learn that if you are going to continue coaching.

I'm not even saying you ever use it in a game, but even a little time in practice is part of the skill building a youth coach should be doing.

 

A couple of these teams I was coaching were Connie Mack/PONY teams, not tee-ball or midget leaguers, and let me tell you at that level it's a million-zillion times easier to teach a kid who can hit to bunt than it is to teach a kid who can't do anything but bunt to hit.

 

Back to the original post for a moment: Why the fuck would anyone care what a columnist from a publication that serves the fine people of Batavia, New York think about sabermetrics? I mean this primarily from the Deadspin perspective. I mean, good lord, I know some Gawker drone wants his $10 a post so he can make rent on the one bedroom he shares with four other hipsters on Williamsbug, but how are there not better targets than this?

 

Deadspin editor fancies himself a Keeper of the Flame where baseball is concerned.
Baseball needs this guy on that wall.

 

Again, it is not teach the kids to hit or teach them to bunt. At least it shouldn't be.

 

Well, this whole deal was 29 years ago now, I don't remember every detail precisely down to the last notebook line, but basically the deal was that we had each of these teams for about two hours a day -- either a practice or a game.

So we ran a good deal of BP and every once in a while we would spend a little time on bunting. Usually the kids who were real good at hitting tended to be the best at bunting, too, but everybody on the team had taken at least a few taps at it.

Playing pepper is actually a pretty good way to practice bunting. We played 'hot pepper,' where when you tossed the ball back to the hitter, you put a little speed on it -- made it a medium-speed chest toss rather than a lob.

But we really didn't waste much time on that stuff. Basically it was learning to hit.

 

I agree. Bunting is not a skill a boy will need to reach or succeed at the next competitive level.

 

Never said coaches have to spend hours on it. Just include it in the skill development. Given that you did that, which you hadn't mentioned earlier, I'm not even sure why you are arguing other than to find further opportunity to rage against the crime against baseball that is the sacrifice bunt.

 

This is humorous.

 

Well this topic is somewhat warm in my mind because I have a 12-year-old, 7th grade niece who plays travel softball, and last summer, at her games, half the times anyone got on first base there was one dad who continually shouted, "time to lay down a sacrifice!!" One time he starts hollering when my niece was coming up.

The coach, in the 3B coaches' box, turns around and says, "when it's time to sac bunt, I'll give them the signal. How about you let me coach the team?"

Big Dad keeps it up, "Well anyone who knows any softball knows if you get a runner on first you bunt her over to second."

I finally get pissed off enough to butt in, "Forget that crap, get up there and hit!"

Big Dad of course freaks out, "When would YOU bunt, smart guy?"

I said, "Never. At this level throwing outs away is stupid. Oh by the way I was coaching softball before you were born."

It went on fairly predictably from there. My niece hit a double and they ended up scoring seven runs that inning. Big Dad quieted down pretty good, although a game or so later he was right back at it.