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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Sunday, April 01, 2018
It’s never too early in the season for the “unwritten rules” to rear its ugly head… We already knew that bunting for a hit with a no-hitter in progress is against baseball’s so-called “unwritten rules.” This, however, was only a one-hitter.
What’s more, the Twins were putting their shift in action against Sisco, meaning they clearly still saw merit in going out of their way defensively to prevent the catcher from getting on base. If Minnesota feels justified in doing that, why is Sisco in the wrong for taking advantage of their defensive alignment and getting himself an easy single? You don’t get to employ a certain strategy in a blowout and then get upset when an opponent exploits it instead of rolling over and playing dead. It’s a silly controversy, and the Twins don’t look good for whining about it afterward.
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1. shoelesjoe Posted: April 01, 2018 at 10:46 PM (#5646613)Hard to believe a team run by Paul Molitor has turned into such a low class outfit.
So if the defense is allowed to employ a non-conventional method to prevent runs in a 7-run blowout, why is it "bad for baseball" for the offense to employ a non-conventional method to get guys on base (in order to score runs)? This seems like a really dumb thing to be upset about.
Shifting is the current standard procedure, so this is tantamount to asking in 1983 why a team with a big lead bothers having its center fielder shaded toward left. Meanwhile, transparent stat-padding is transparent stat-padding, and will always be called out for what it is.
why were they employing a shift in a blowout? also, this seems like a golden opportunity for the batter to practice - if he blows it, no relevance to the game. if not, maybe another quiver in the arrows in a more important spot down the road. it would have been stupid for him not to try this.
I assume this is sarcastic because it's ridiculous, but I'll bite anyway. Is bunting against the shift not considered a legitimate means of getting on base?
Or, to look at it from another perspective, showing the league that you're able to bunt to beat the shift will make them think twice about doing it going forward.
Hey, stupid: doing this when you're winning might be considered "stat padding," but doing it when you're losing is, you know, trying to win.
Minneapolis is getting a half a foot of snow over the next couple of days. Just in time for the home opener on Thursday. That’s pretty sobering. No warm up in sight either.
I guess the field is heated, so the grass will be fine. It’s going to be cold out there for the platers and fans though.
Couldn't agree more. I'm still a firm believer in the unwritten rules and instilled them into my teams when I coached. Then again, I like the old fashion slash line - though I'd add OPS at the end.
Makes Molitor and his team look pathetic. Why bother playing the 9th? I've never even heard of this as an unwritten rule, when there's not a no-hitter on the line. Was there a new edition (not) put out to address the influx of shifts? If so, I didn't get to (not) read it.
Is this about the glory of a one-hitter? Serious question....I'm not sure what their irritated over.
(Ironically, last week was asked by my son and his team's announcer for my top 5 managers and I put Molitor -barely ahead of Counsell- in over Madden and was ridiculed over that. (Cubs fan but I'm not big on shtick or bad post-season managing.) The others we agreed on being Francona, Buck, Bochy and Scioscia.)
Stat-padding stats get you paid just as much as clutch performance stats. I feel like all players should understand this and be cool with it. Would they be mad if he swung really hard too?
Even up 7 - it still makes all kind of sense for a guy facing a lot of shifts to use it as practice.
But bunting for a hit against the shift is stupid! The Twins should be happy about it.
This would be my response: "hey #######, I'm making the minimum trying to look good enough to get paid and you're making $9 million bucks this year. How bout you pay me $50K not to bunt. Or shove it up your ass."
Does anybody know if the Rangers ever use Zeppelin's "Gallows Pole" as walk-up music for him? If not, they should. The lyrics would fit very well.
Dozier's doubled down since then, it was not just about prolonging a game.
From this article on twincities.com:
When you find yourself using the phrase "that's just how" in consecutive sentences, your argument is ####.
EDIT: Also, Berrios's "not good for baseball" quote is a pretty strong value judgement of the bunt, and it takes a lot of mental gymnastics to spin it to mean "because it prolongs the game".
"Nice bunt, kid."
His bunt was the first in a series of at bats that immediately loaded the bases as the heart of their order was coming to bat. One of those guys gets into a granny and you're sitting at a 7-4 game with a starter who's just been rocked (finally) in the 9th, and a pen that hasn't really been up and warming. Which is to say, it's not a good bet, but if I'm playing a baseball game to win, I play it that way every time. Dozier seems to think that the O's not holding a runner means they have to stop trying to get runs themselves. That's not only stupid from a practical standpoint, it's also stupid from "the unwritten rules" standpoint. If you're not playing to get hits, you need to get a job selling cars.
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