re: "TEAM BUNT" is now on notice!!

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but I think we should have bunted.

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Look. I didn't make this thread to call out people who would have bunted in that situation. I'm sure many coaches would have. I happen to think that's mathematically retarded, but that's not the real point.

The point is to chastise all the people who were calling Mainieri's decision not to bunt stupid and unjustifiable. I mean, come on, people. By the numbers, it's clearly the right call to make, and everybody knows that he's had a tendency to try to overbunt this season.

Miguel Cabrera hit into a league leading 28 double plays last year. Should he bunt when there is a runner on first less than two outs? See how silly that would be.

Now Raph isn't quite Cabrera, but he was still one of the best hitters in baseball last year and he sports an OBP over .400 this year. Anyone calling for him to bunt in anything, but the most extreme circumstances doesn't understand percentages and probabilities relating to baseball. It is just retroactive, outcome based thinking.

I used to think it was mostly dumb luck, and maybe it is, but I am starting to lean in the camp that thinks it is definitely possible to coach a batter to hit into less double plays.

I think the key would be to focus on poking slap shot line drives more than trying to pull big hits, and to realize that the pitcher is going to specifically try to throw you a lot of sinking pitches low in the zone.

If you choose to stand tall and take the same pull swing that you do with high fastballs, you will end up grounding a lot of sinking low pitches right up the middle.

If instead you choose to look for low pitches and try to poke line drives to opposite field, you will likely hit more line drives and fly balls rather than pulling ground balls up the middle with futility.

All that is still just percentages though. Obviously there is still a lot of luck still involved with double plays no matter what you do.

I think top 9 down by one in a game where he had already hit into 2 DPs is as extreme as it can be.

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I guess he should have bunted in the same situation against Ole Miss last Saturday? Oh wait.

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Home game.

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Home game.

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Almost the same situation then. I think the point I was trying to make still stands.

I don't give a crap about the top or the bottom. Bunting decreases your expected run potential. Not only that it decreases your chance of scoring one run. Plain and simple.

We may be talking about different things because top/bottom is nearly irrelevant to me.

No doubt. I've never seen such tunnel vision from fans in my life. Raph is one of the best pure hitters in LSU history and some of these guys are handling him like he's a young punk that needs his technique corrected, batting order changed or even benched. Have mercy you people are clueless.

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Those statistics don't assume anything.

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This is true...it is people who assume things about statistics.

The statistics presented about bunting would be like having statistics for all NCAA football teams combined for 3rd and 3 situations. So if the statistics say that passing on 3rd and 3 is more successful on average than running on 3rd and 3...this must mean every team should pass every time on 3rd and 3. I would say that assumption would be false.