The Lost Art

I've been asked a lot lately what I would do differently if I ran the Twins. One of the first things I would do is establish that ALL my players learn how to bunt. And not at just the major league level either.

Our minor league system is filled with  speed. Our centerfielders (up until this season anyway) have been speed burners for over two decades. Most of our middle infielders have shown that trait as well.

And I'm not talking about sacrifice bunts either. I'm talking about "getting on first base with a single" type of bunting. I'm talking "Rod Carew leading the league in hitting" type of bunting. I'm talking about "messing up the ace of the other team so he can't simply plow through the lineup" type of bunting. Bunting that disrupts pitching. Bunting that causes defenses to pause and reposition. Bunting that causes defensive mistakes that leads to errors that leads to big innings.THAT type of bunting.

Modern baseball has gotten away from bunting. I guess they feel that third basemen have gotten so much better at fielding them. But the truth is, that a good bunt will get you on base far more often than swinging away. IF you were successful at it just three out of ten times, you would have a better average than everyone in the Twins line-up last year.

And the truly great bunters, the ones that know WHEN to bunt, not just how, can have success rates far greater than that.

I watched the first two Twins games and part of the third, and all I could think of is, "Why don't they bunt instead of going 1, 2, 3 (like clockwork) every single inning?" Of course the major reason is that NONE of them know how. They don't practice it. They never learned it. And no one seems to care. They couldn't even pull off a successful sacrifice bunt if called on to do it. If you watch  a lot of Twins games you know this.

At the very least, ALL guys with speed should know how to bunt well. I'll give guys like Vargas a pass. Bunting is the great equalizer for teams that have losing records. It's a lost art that needs to be rediscovered.

Bunts lead to big innings, rattled aces, and second-guessing. And it's far more exciting to watch than another weak fly to right. Need a little excitement? Snap into a drag bunt.