Will Lack of Bunting Skills Hurt the Indians this Season?

[Alex]

Will Lack of Bunting Skills Hurt the Indians this Season?

YES! Our season, at some point, whether it be during our run towards the playoffs or after making the playoffs, will hinge on our ability or inability to move a runner over via bunt.

Our inability to double steal may also hamper us either towards our run to the playoffs or once we make the playoffs.

The more accomplished managers seem to get their ballplayers to bunt. Mike Scoscia, Frank Robinson, to name a few. Joe Torre gets his ballplayers to move on the basepaths very well.

I don't see Wedge in the same league as the managers mentioned above. I hope I don't have to read this off season how Wedge will emphasize the bunting more next season, it would be quite annoying if Wedge is keeping that excuse in reserve when most of Cleveland already knows this team can't bunt.

However, I must also caution that bunting can lead to broken fingers, so lets be careful out there.

[Alex]

Well, I have company now in my lament, 28 days later.....

The Dying Art of Bunting is Killing Indians


The dying art of bunting is killing Indians

By Tom Reed

CLEVELAND - Even in the mid 1990s, when Central Division titles seemingly were won with ease, the Indians viewed good bunting as tri-colored decoration that hung from the Jacobs Field facade in October, not a dying offensive art worth reviving.

Who was going to tell Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez or Jim Thome to sacrifice a potential bases-clearing swing to advance a runner?

These are not the ball-crushing, wall-rattling Indians of yore. But a decade later, the same problem exists for Eric Wedge's plucky, young ball club. They are not proficient at moving runners by undervalued, often overlooked means. And, it could cost them a shot at the playoffs.

The Indians' season-long inability to bunt contributed mightily in a 1-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Wednesday at Jacobs Field.

The sacrifice bunt might be as sexy as John Kruk in a sundress, but it becomes an imperative fundamental in autumn baseball.

The Devil Rays executed one to perfection in the eighth inning following a leadoff double by Toby Hall, and it enabled them to score the game's only run. In the bottom of the inning, Aaron Boone, failed to convert two bunt attempts after Ben Broussard led off with a double, before grounding out.

``They were able to get the runner over and we weren't,'' Wedge said, after the Tribe dropped its third consecutive game.

``The bunt is obviously something we haven't done a good job with all year.''

It's the little things that usually become magnified by the glare of a September playoff chase.

In the past two nights, the Indians had the tying run in scoring position during the late innings and couldn't capitalize. They had runners at first and third, trailing 5-4 in the ninth inning on Tuesday night before Ronnie Belliard hit into a game-ending double play.

It's unfair to say Belliard should have hit a fly ball to right. After all, this isn't slow-pitch softball, and you can't just place a 94 mph Danny Baez fastball into the outfield.

So you would think depositing a bunt somewhere in front of the plate might seem like an easier proposition. Except this is 2005 -- and it's the American League. Asking a modern-era AL player to bunt could prompt a call from union president Donald Fehr.

Not in Boone's case. He is a selfless player. He also is the team's best bunter, a player who has demonstrated good bat control in similar instances. Boone said he could count on one hand the number of sacrifice-bunt situations he has botched.

He fouled off two pitches, including a curveball he probably should have laid off. Easy to say from the confines of the press box.

``It's something in my career I've been pretty good at,'' Boone said. ``It's something I'm comfortable doing. I just didn't get it done.''

Some will second-guess Wedge for not forcing Jhonny Peralta to sacrifice Coco Crisp to second after a leadoff single in the ninth. Such is the grist on which talk radio nourishes itself. Peralta grounded into a double play.

Wedge reasoned that Peralta ``is hitting in the No. 3 hole for a reason.'' Fair enough, but Peralta probably is one of several players in the lineup the manager doesn't think could execute the sacrifice in that pressure-packed environment.

Asked why the Indians struggle with bunting, Boone said: ``I don't know, I don't know. I can only speak for myself.''

These Indians never will be mistaken for the St. Louis Cardinals of Whitey Herzog. Playing small ball requires more speed than the Indians possess after Grady Sizemore and Crisp.

But a team that uncharacteristically has ridden the long ball these past few weeks could supply no sufficient alternative the past few games.

Bottom line: The Indians got a six-hit gem from Cliff Lee, the defensive jewel of the season from Belliard in the seventh inning and still couldn't beat the Devil Rays.

Hopes of catching the Chicago White Sox are fast fading. Suddenly, Indians faithful are facing the prospect of becoming New York Yankees fans this weekend in the Bombers' showdown with the Boston Red Sox, who are tied with the Tribe for the wild-card lead.

The Indians have gotten the pitching all season. The hitting has been much improved since August.

But if the fundamentals continue to fail them, there will be no bunting of any kind next week at Jacobs Field.

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Indians second baseman Ronnie Belliard (left) leaps over Devil Rays runner Nick Green to complete a double play in the first inning Wednesday night at Jacobs Field.
Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal
Indians second baseman Ronnie Belliard (left) leaps over Devil Rays runner Nick Green to complete a double play in the first inning Wednesday night at Jacobs Field.
The Dying Art of Bunting is Killing Indians

[Alex]

The Dying Art of Bunting is Killing Indians


The dying art of bunting is killing Indians

By Tom Reed

``They were able to get the runner over and we weren't,'' Wedge said, after the Tribe dropped its third consecutive game.

``The bunt is obviously something we haven't done a good job with all year.''

It's the little things that usually become magnified by the glare of a September playoff chase.

But if the fundamentals continue to fail them, there will be no bunting of any kind next week at Jacobs Field.

<font size="3" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">When a ballplayer's average is below .250, they MUST be able to bunt. It's as if being below .250 is some kind of excuse to not have to bunt.

It's lame. Sure Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome probably never bunted, but you're also talking three potential hall of famers as well who kept their batting averages over .270 AND drew many many walks as well.

Do the guys practice bunting each and every day, or is it a spring training thing and then not again?

Or is it a once a month that they practice?

[Alex]

Roger Brown is on the "buntwagon", along with Mark Shapiro. UM, three weeks too late and only a few dollars short.

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Shapiro pondering his options to fix Tribe's abysmal bunting
Friday, October 07, 2005
Roger Brown
Plain Dealer Columnist

No, it hasn't escaped Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro that the team must do something about its horrible inability to bunt, but the GM can't say yet whether the club will bring in a specialist to hammer the skill into players next season.

In an e-mail, Shapiro says bunting is "an area we have to address, but [Indians manager Eric Wedge] and I have not gotten down to details on the plans of how we will address it."

During the season, the Indians were consistently bad at putting down bunts in key situations. That haunted the team during its final week collapse, when third baseman Aaron Boone failed to bunt successfully in a critical loss to Tampa Bay.


Shapiro Pondering His Options to Fix Tribe's Abysmal Bunting...

[Alex]

Back in the swing
First-inning fireworks support Sabathia's gem
Friday, September 30, 2005
Burt Graeff
Plain Dealer Reporter

The Indians can't bunt.

Oh boy, can they hit home runs, though.

The Tribe played long ball -- hitting three homers -- to dispatch the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 6-0, on Thursday night at Jacobs Field.Back in the Swing

[Alex]

I believe where the Indians failed last season (2005) was not being able to bunt when there were runners on first and second no outs, and the bottom of the order was up.

I just don't think we were successful even a handful of times all season bunting with two runers on base. During our hot streak last season when we went close to 37-13, I think our GIDP's decreased and that masked our inability to bunt two runners over from time to time.

So I believe it's not just the amount of times a team bunts that matters, it's the ratio of bunting with two runners on versus one runner on that matters just as much, AND if the hitters on the team that don't have high OBP's are at least able to bunt that are two key components.