Wednesday, August 15, 2007

bunt (bŭnt) Pronunciation Key
v. bunt·ed, bunt·ing, bunts

v. tr.
1. Baseball
1. To bat (a pitched ball) by tapping it lightly so that the ball rolls slowly in front of the infielders.
2. To cause (a base runner) to advance or (a run) to score by bunting.
2. To push or strike with or as if with the head; butt.

v. intr.
1. Baseball To bunt a pitched ball: The batter squared away to bunt.
2. To butt.
n.
1. Baseball
1. The act of bunting.
2. A bunted ball.
2. A butt with or as if with the head.

[Dialectal, to push, strike.]

bunt'er n.



If you don't understand the purpose of posting a definition here, allow me to explain the situation.

The Indians and the Tigers are tied for first place in the AL Central. The Indians and Tigers are playing each other on Tuesday in Cleveland. The Indians and Tigers are tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 9th.

The Indians have a man on second with no outs. None. Not even one. Zero. No outs. Man on second. No outs. What do they proceed to do? Let's swing away shall we! It will be a grand ole time. Let's swing all night long. What proceeds to happen? It goes something like this... in order:

Strike out.
1 out.

Strike out.
2 outs.

Strike out.
3 outs.

Let's play extra innings shall we? Then the Tigers score 4 in the top of the 10th and win 6-2.

Hence, my suggestion to BUNT THE FREAKING BALL! Bunt like your life depends on it, because it does. If you keep playing like dung then you will miss the playoffs again. BUNT! When you only need one run, and you have a man on second with no outs, you bunt. It's simple really. They're major league baseball players. They should all be able to bunt. So bunt. Just bunt. For the love of God, bunt the ball.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tim's back! I was starting to wonder...

J Money said...

A lot of sabermetric research has suggested that bunting is, well, stupid. With a guy on second and nobody out, all you need is a base hit or two fly balls. Why give away an out? Especially when the bunt could be popped up or otherwise screwed up? Sure, it didn't work out for the Indians this time but bunting is dumb and swinging away is far more successful.

Anonymous said...

So swinging away results in a hit what percentage of the time? How about what percentage of runners are advanced with a bunt? I am guessing the higher results would be for a bunt. A popped bunt is the same thing as a strikeout.