Bunting is Stupid and the Numbers Prove It 

Personally I think going on a rally and stringing a few hits together is more exciting than a solo HR

The last 3 minutes are really key. Bunting runners over and “small ball” late in games is something I agree is going to be the key in close games and can be huge especially in the playoffs when runs are even tougher to come by.

But you haven't seen me drag bunt with Rickey Henderson in MLB The Show. I get a base hit 90% of the time.

The math here is a little suspect. If the average for position players bunting since 2015 is .479, then it's a very useful tool, at least for those position players who use it because I can guarantee you none of them have an on base percentage above .479.

This guy sounds like a three true outcome enjoyer

king of juco is gonna love this

My college team probably has the best profile for a team that should bunt. No real power threat, steal a lot of bases, a lineup able to get clutch hits, and most importantly, really good at actually getting bunts down. Basically all season we would get a guy on, they steal second, bunt them to third, then bring them in on a hit or sacrifice. It was so predictable yet because of our speed and effective bunt placement, teams would constantly struggle getting the actual bunter out.

You didn't mention the times when people bunted to beat the shift. Cano got a double off the Red Sox doing that.

all the things that made baseball weird and fun are being torn down and replaced with strike outs and home run derby.

You need to consider the probability of trying to hit and lead to double play, and strike out that couldn’t advance runners at all

When playing Home Run Derby leads to winning more than playing Baseball, that's when you know the sport is broken.

With the ghost runner on 2nd base in extra moving over the runner with a bunt as the home team is more useful than, joey gallo striking out

I'm glad you brought up the "late in games" bunting as being significant. Like you said, if all you need is the runner on second to score, bunting is a good move, especially with no outs. As long as the person bunting is somewhat skillfull. Back when pitchers did hit, Foolish Baseball did a video called The Dodgers Mastered the Sacrifice Bunt and No One Cared. It was about how great their pitchers were at sac bunting. If you haven't seen it, give it a watch.

Kevin from Momentum is frothing rn.

Being a Marlins fan watching Jazz, a man with .900 OPS potential, bunt for no reason is liable to give me an aneurysm.

The most important takeaways I got from this are that Mike cares about Backyard Baseball 2005 and M&S at the OWG, two sports games I love

I honestly feel like you’re missing the point of bunting, or at least you didn’t bring up statistics that counteract this point. The point of bunting, at its core, is to advance a runner. It can also be used to avoid a double play, and occasionally (but not often at all) to beat the shift. I’d be very interested in the stat comparison of the first two categories for bunting vs attempting to get a hit, because the main stats you provided were just looking at bunting as a way to get on base. Regardless it was a well scripted video, and I appreciate the comparison, stats, research, and evidence used for the area of bunting you tackled.

Bunting owns because you can do it to break up a no-hitter and piss off the "Unwritten Rules" guys.

Old man comment. I'm almost 60. I remember the Mets playing the A's in the 73 World Series. The game has changed so much that you can't really call it Baseball anymore. Up until the late 80's and early 90's starters actually completed games. In 73 Jim Palmer had 16 complete games. Most pitchers threw 280-290 innings and I never remember hearing stories about them blowing their arms. Baseball used to be exciting. Now it's all about home runs and strike outs. Every hitter is trying to go yard and strikeout totals have more than doubled. Pitchers are all trying to throw 100mph fastballs. Many amateur draft picks wind up needing Tommy John surgery before they are even drafted.

The climax of the movie Major League demonstrates your final point perfectly.

This method is used as kind of a mind game to pressure the pitcher and infielders to keep on their toes as it’s mainly used to advance runners on base and bring home the third base home on an affordable sacrifice play. The Japanese has been using this and masterfully executed it. Their overall skills in worlds tournament has been proven us wrong that we baseball is also and could be very statistical and technical to win games.

Bunting is down and the Yankees demand their pitchers throw sliders all the time. Neither is a good thing.

I love the Jonah hill “because he gets on base” clip. I can see that meme a million times and it will still be funny to me

It doesn't help that because of the focus on home runs that most players don't actually spend time learning how to bunt. If you watch players footwork you can tell if they know how to bunt or not. If you pull your front leg out the head of your bat tends to dip, which leads to popups. I never liked the pure sacrifice bunt... the ones where the batter doesn't really leg it out to try to encourage the throw to go to first. That is giving away the out. Leg it out. I've seen guys get thrown out on what should have been errors. Put some pressure on them even if you are slow. I never liked the hit and run either... run and hit. In a run and hit you put more pressure on the catcher and if your hitter misses the runner isn't a dead duck. Never give away outs. I wish they hadn't killed the shift. I like that someone who could bunt could negate it. If MLB wanted to encourage small ball a bit would be to get rid of the third strike foul for bunts. The risk would be that some people might use it try to just keep fouling balls away, but you still have a chance to catch the popups or foul tips, but right now the risk of going up to bunt is that you are likely to fall behind in the count and then be forced to swing with 2 strikes. When the other easy option to get to first is to draw a walk bunting is a risk if you aren't really fast.

If the batter bunt and the ball is landed into the foul territory it counts as of strike regardless, and it even called for the third strike as of strikeout after committing two strikes. Is that true?

It’s only stupid when You aren’t good at it. Don’t do it if you’re not good at it. It works in a lot of situations.

Never would i have thought “a video all about bunting is actually going to be intresting” but you have proved me wrong. Keep up the great work

Calling a HR a feat of strength? Maybe in the 50s.

Yeah, you're right, and I've been saying this to baseball fans for a while. Bunting is often not the best strategy, and it shouldn't be overused. However, it's so unexpected that when used in a high-pressure situation, it can really catch the opposing team off guard.

Saying that players hit .233 when bunting for a hit is flawed. It's assuming that everyone doing this is good at it and taking out the idea that there are different skill levels involved.

So batters could strikeout with runners in scoring position instead.

absolutely criminal that there wasn't a coach kent murphy cameo

stunlocked hearing the Gamecube Backyard Baseball OST

The players are making too much money now too be asked to bunt. I'd bet 75 percent of guys who are asked to bunt end up striking out.

Literally the only time it ever made sense was in the NL with a pitcher who couldn't hit a softball lobbed their way. At least your runners got a base out of it. But for literally anyone else it was so stupid.

"Each lineup has guys who can do this" - shows replay of the cleanup hitter hitting a home run...

I remember when Luis Matos had his fingers broken trying to bunt.

Having not followed baseball in over 25 years, I just noticed something in this video. When did catchers start kneeing on the ground with one knee? (instead of squatting)

Is that music Super Nintendo, “Mario Paint”? If so, awesome.

Was that a bad bunny instrumental in 11:10 ???👀

Is that backyard baseball music I hear???!!!!

Sacrifice bunting Is a dumb play, but people underestimate bunting for a hit like if you fast it's a 50/50 chance

Kent murphy’s been saying this for a decade

All I got from this is that batters have become worse at actually hitting and just mindlessly swing for the fences.

I dunno man, my main takeaway from this video is that the average obp for bunting since the universal DH rule .032 HIGHER than the average leaguewide obp across those 3 seasons

Bunting still has a role in the game imo, I think diversity in ideas to reach base is better for the game than not.

I miss non-DH baseball...

The way game theory works, it will be optimal to bunt at least _some of the time_ as long as the value of bunting _when the defense does nothing at all to anticipate it_ is greater than the value of not bunting in such a circumstance. It's a "mixed strategy Nash equilibrium", similar to rock-paper-scissors

11:08 why is Bad Bunny playing in the background💀😂

You could bunt on the shift. But no they took it away. Bunting is a great tool of used correctly. You are wrong

But,Takahiro Arai-yes, the same power-hitting corner infielder who won the '06 World Baseball Classic-do a bunt-heavy approach during this year's Central League Climax Series. Explain.

Tomorrow’s headline: “RU-vidr Stark Raving Sports’ Car and Home Vandalized Overnight.” Suspect left behind a “King of Juco” bat and spray-painted “Lift Small, Bunt the Ball” on hood and front door.

i think you may mean "counterintuitively" than "paradoxically" I'm not sure what the paradox between bunting showing up less yet being more impactful is, but i do think the intuition would be that if you do it more it would be more effective therefore less effective strategies won't show up, such as bunting.

Forgot about the Mariners bringing back the turn ahead the clock uniforms

Another thing you forgot to mention is how much better defensively most 3rd baseban are now. So many more great athletes are out on the field.

Lift Small Bunt The Ball.

Speaking of bunting Game 2 of the ALCS I kinda of wish when the bases where loaded 0 outs and they brought Diaz in to PH they would of told him to bunt.

This is like saying "The QB sneak doesn't make sense." Situationally, bunts can be incredibly useful and also minimize risk of bad outcomes. Guy on 1st, no outs, late in the game? I'd rather bunt him over rather than hope that I don't get rolled up into a double play. 3 true outcome people are irritating as shit.

Idk, man. Trout has a .375 BA on bunts (granted, small sample size with 8 ABs and 3 hits) and he's still got 96th percentile speed... it would be fun for Trout to catch the defense off guard by laying down a bunt. Although his recent injury troubles might keep that from happening. And his first hit was a bunt single, which is also cool.

Two types of people: those who love curling and those who haven't heard of it yet

My guy is playing Bad bunny and Tainy Callaita ??10:46

Mark Lemke would go ballistic over this video.

A lot of bunts are bad and unsuccessful because a lot of players don't actually know how to bunt correctly. You don't need to be very precise to get a hit with a bunt when you're fast, and you don't even need to be that fast. There are so many pitchers that are comically terrible at making a good throw to literally any base for what should be easy outs, so why not take advantage of that when one of those pitchers is on the mound? Power hitters are more common than ever, but if teams could fill most of the lineup with power hitters, then why wouldn't every team just be the Braves?

the thing I will never get from Baseball fans is the fact that they don't understand how much the game changes over time. Rule changes are as much a part of baseball, as the fuckin mud.

Have to disagree with you. The coolest bunt of all time is any bunt Ichiro did during his career because he made them look so cool.

I think you also have to factor in how some players use bunting to get out of a slump, improving their overall numbers as well.

Bunts for hits have always been relatively rare in my life time and Im in my late 40s But moving the runner into scoring position if Im deeper into the lineup is still sometimes the right call imo Lot of factors including your pitcher and the opposing team goes into it I would use it on MLB the show more often if it weren't so easy to steal bases You worry about missing out on the guy hitting a double and i worry about hitting into a double play Of course NONE of this matters if the batter can't bunt and that's sadly a reality The easiest thing to do in a really difficult sport Many managers don't care if their players can't do it I remember a story where David Ortiz did it successfully to move the runner along early in his career and he was basically reprimanded But that was his mindset at the time. He's right around my age btw

Sac bunting to move a player to 2nd doesn't make sense anymore either when the current success rate for stolen bases is about 80%.

Damn, did Big Z dirty on the shout out.

"This video is sponsored by the king of juco"

you didn't talk about the squeeze play

Ketel Marte throwing down a first inning bunt against Bobby Miller was ruthless

The changes to base size and pickoff rules also make it sillier to bunt. Its easier than every to move a runner from base to base.

The art of bunting has been lost over the years because hitting HRs is sexier. The bat is not suppose to move when the ball is hit and it should stay in the infield and stop where the pitcher or 1st baseman must go retrieve it.Grassy fields are ideal for bunting

Remixing wake me up huh

This video sumed up: "if you don't agree with three true outcome baseball, you're dumb"

and now with Francona's retirement, we're going to see even FEWER bunts

So my question is what about bunting against the shift. I know that isn’t a thing anymore but when there isn’t a third baseman to field it with a lefty up that success rate has got to skyrocket

Its interesting how the amateur advance metrics guys are so exact with their data and holistic in their knowledge of effective strategy in MLB.. Yet lack the self awareness to realize they're presenting their case in an overtly smug and condescending tone...

Just because no one takes the time to learn the skill doesn't mean the skill doesn't have value.

Really good video

Baseball needs to get back to some of it's core fundamentals. Ghost runners have no place in the game.

I think it's because they just don't practice it enough, so they are not good at it. And the fact that teams realized that bunting isn't better than hitting a home run just made the players not practicing the bunt therefore not being good at bunting

Coach Kent Murphy approves this message

Shout out to John Locke.

Small ball is what makes baseball so great

So the difference between swinging out of your shoes and bunting is only 16 points of batting average? That is really not that much of a difference.

As someone who hates the bunt, I totally understand what you said at the end, but that means it still has to be so rare that it surprises people.

That title is terribly misleading. The way a team is built matters with bunting. And of course.. the situation at the time does even more so. A team like Texas bunting heavily in a game will look A LOT different from a team like Arizona bunting heavily.

*Grabs heart* .. Omg no... not the Otis Nixon last out bunt in a World Series elimination game. I can't take many more video reminders of how my Braves have done something dumbfounding in the playoffs. 😢

It wasn’t the point of the video but I just realized how the traditional leadoff hitter has become almost an ideal 9th batter in the modern game

How can bunting be bad at the same time K’s are so high? If there’s such a high chance for a weaker hitter to strikeout, then it makes sense to bunt a guy over or in during a critical moment because at least it accomplishes something

Maybe with the devaluing of speed and the stolen base, pro players got worse at bunting.

A runner on 2nd with 1 out is about as likely to score as a runner on 1st with 0 outs. You only sac a guy from 1st to 2nd if the upcoming hitters are significantly better than the bunting hitter. A runner on 3rd with 0 outs is much more likely to score than a runner on 2nd with 1 out. Runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out are much more likely to score than runners on 1st and 2nd with 0 outs. We're talking about 5% increase in chance to score by bunting the guys over. Unless the current hitter has a 5% greater chance to knock the runners in than the future hitters, bunting makes a lot of sense. Especially when you add in that possibility of the bunt resulting in a hit, and swinging resulting in a double play. None of these uses of the bunt were addressed. Just a disappointing bunt hit piece.

bunt average went up after universal designated hitter bc the pitchers were also bad at bunting duh

You haven’t seen dalton varsho

Bunting still has value depending on the player using it, and why he is using it. Altuve bunting to beat the shift with his speed, Maldy who bats below the mendoza line putting a runner in scoring position.

In 10 years the bunt will be most exciting play in baseball

If a player can bunt it is better than a strike out.

It's weird how you used math to say bunting is dumb then showed numbers that mattered at the end then bunting is now awesome