Most players don't know how to bunt. If you haven't seen that yourself, just listen to Jerry Remy. And in addition to poor technique, there are a lot of batters who think they can get a base hit when they are supposed to be sacrificing; they try to hide the bunt attempt until the last moment. If you know how to bunt, as a left-hander you can beat the shift and doing that enough times will change how they shift on you. And singles aren't outs.
Hitting the other way might not be quite as simple as you think: a 100-mph fastball is traveling at 146.6667 fps, which means it is in the strike zone approximately 9.7 microseconds.
Singles aren’t outs, of course, and I don’t mean to give the impression that hitting the other way is easy (especially if pitched to avoid that outcome). That said, no player is going to bunt successfully 100% of the time. Probably not even half the time and people are arguing from the perspective that it’s easy to do (they’re just stubborn!). I don’t think it’s easy to hit the other way, at all, but at least I’m watching someone hit and the player is broadening their actual hitting skills.
That link shows that pitchers, who are the very worst hitters in the game, can bunt just as well as the professional hitters. That to me seems to show that basically almost anyone, even a pitcher who can't hit .150, can become an average bunter with practice.
Wait, you think pitchers only practice bunting, that they don't spend practice time working on their pitching? I mean obviously that can't be what you mean, but I honestly don't know what you are trying to say here. Pitchers spend almost all of their practice time on pitching. And NL pitchers spend a tiny percentage of their time on bunting practice. That is the point.
If any Red Sox hitter is being troubled by the shift, then I would be fine with them taking extra time to work on bunting to attack the shift. Any of them. The idea is that they would be working on a tactic to have more success against something that teams are using to get them out. They would be making adjustments to try to beat how the other team is playing them. That's a big part of what major leaguers do.
The point of them practicing and then doing it more often in games is that they would no longer be not used to it.
Why do you seem to think that bunting is so dangerous, and more dangerous than all the other things that baseball players do? JD has fouled a ball off his foot like 5 times in the past few games. Players are going to get hurt, period, whether it's swinging the bat, getting hit by pitches, fouling a ball off themselves, or bunting, or running the bases, etc.
Oh come on. I am giving my opinion on this, just like you are.
Now maybe we are getting somewhere-- is shifting an actual problem that affects baseball negatively, as in are people under 40 watching less baseball because of shifting? I think it's much, much more due to other factors, and not because of shifting, but if there's evidence that fans are watching less baseball because of the shift, that would be a possible reason for looking at changing the rules.
I agree, that's why I am not saying that.
I am just fine with rule changes that are reasonable, well-thought-out attempts to solve actual problems. I'm not seeing an actual baseball problem here that changing the rules would fix. If people are turning away from baseball because of the shift, that would be a problem that might be worth tweaking the rules for. Your last post is the only one I've seen that even hints at that though, and I haven't seen any evidence that that is a big reason for people turning away form baseball.
I don’t think pitchers only practice bunting overall, poor wording. Just as far as their hitting goes they are likely to practice a lot of bunting and little swinging away. That’s what’s asked of them because they aren’t hitters, don’t have the practice time to be, and it’s how they can most easily and cheaply provide value at the plate.
I want my position players working on real hitting skills, at least my non-bench guys. Time lost to bunting is time that can’t be spent working on that up and in hole or laying off the slider away. Practice time is finite. You’re also ignoring the player quotes about bunting when pitchers are throwing for the shift and making it out to be far easier than it seems to be (I’ve never tried to bunt a 92mph inside cutter myself).
WRT past injury, let me present this surely awful analogy (my specialty): if you had a driving age child who had never, ever been in an accident, and not having car insurance was legal, would you advise your child to not have insurance? I’d assume you wouldn’t advise eschewing coverage because of the risk, and that previous outcomes wouldn’t be predictive for you. Are you willing to risk one of your best player’s seasons because few previous players have been injured doing it? Injuries happen, of course, but those you listed are applicable to all players, not just ones who are forced to do something they’re not used to doing and players can and do wear armor for like 90% of the injuries you listed. People went ballistic on this board over a pitcher injuring himself running the bases and a catcher and 1B getting injured playing the outfield and we’re supposed to be smarter than the average fans.
Those are my baseball reasons, but tbh the entertainment issue is the one that is more important to me as a fan.
I’m not sure it’s a *major* reason young people are turning away from the game, but they are. Baseball needs to nurture entertainment value aggressively wherever it can and shifts are not entertaining. It’s not great defense or wowing athleticism. I love baseball, it’s still my top sport. I’ve been watching for all but a few of my 40 years. I *hate* watching the constant, extreme shifting, why would someone just getting exposed to the game want to? If it was still being used with the frequency of Ted’s days no one would be talking about it.
I think someone said it upthread, the shift is an opportunistic flexing of a non-rule. These get closed up all the time in sports. My point about rule creation was exactly that, they very often come from results that weren’t initially anticipated.
Also, I should’ve done a winky thing on the discussing the rules.
Wink.