can someone explain to me

[krack1925]

Why would you bunt with two outs....  I was at the game on Sunday (friday and sat too) and DVH had our guys bunt twice with two outs.....  the georga coach did it once.....   WTH?  I don't understand that at all. Someone please explain why this is not boneheaded.

[hogfan13]

I thought it was stupid to

[hogfan064]

Well if the 3rd baseman is playing deep I guess it would make sense.  I've seen it work, but not something you see often.  I guess he was trying to catch them off guard. 

[krack1925]

I think it was Willard that made it to 1st on a bunt in about the 6th....  Other than that I saw 15 bunts or so this week.  One made it.  Lets say it works between 5% and 10% of the time, and that is optamistic, then someone would need to be hitting under .100 for it to make since right???  Is my logic wrong?  We have noone hitting that low on our team.  I am glad a few other people are confused to....  I thought I was going crazy.

[WhenPigsFly]

Obviously, some bunts are not intended for the batter reach base safely, only to move the runner(s) up.  However, as you say, that is not the case bunting with one or two outs.  A couple of times ARK was bunting to try to score the runner, but failed.  Many times the players are bunting for a hit, ala Gentry and Robison (who seems to be in love with the bunt).

Van Horn said after Sunday's game that he was disappointed that Robison tried to bunt in the 10th inning with a man on second and one out.  He said he would rather have two shots at driving the runner in, which is just good, solid baseball strategy.

[krack1925]

that means this guys are calling thier own bunts???  you have got to be kidding me!  I seems to me that the coach should be telling them when to steal, when to bunt and when to swing.

[HoopS]

The element of surprise is why.  A lot of factors go into this, but one may have been the match-up was one that they felt he had a better chance catching the 3rd baseman a little too deep than swinging away.  Not saying I agree, but I wasn't there.  Having played 3rd in college, I can tell you that even though that play looks simple, a lot of things can go wrong when you are quite likely bare-handing the ball and throwing off balanced.  I usually played behind the bag with 2 outs unless it was a very speedy batter up or a non power hitting lefty.   No matter what the situation is, a perfectly placed bunt is hard to defend... especially when it is a +speed guy.


With a man on second, I would almost always rather have the guy swinging away.   I will also say that I always had the green light to drop one down if the 3rd baseman was way back and if the pitcher is falling off to the 1st base side.  Same can be said for stealing.  I'm sure certain guys are given the green light if they feel like they can get the jump and if the situation is right.  I have been part of a game when our guy laid a 2 out bunt down the line and scored a guy from second on a wild throw to win the game.   Who knows if DVH called both the bunts but I think it is, or will become obvious that he likes to push the envelope.  Sometimes you just go with your gut even if the book says otherwise.

[spe450]

If a player has sees an oppurtunity, such as fielders playing back, some with speed will take the oppurtunity to drag bunt.  Contact in bunting is very high percentage and if done correctly can get you on base.  i don't think many coaches call a drag bunt, however, even professionals do it and reach base, such as ichiro, who does kind of a drag slap hit anyway, and brett butler used to do it as well.  It's like stealing bases.  Not every stolen base had the go ahead sign.

[spe450]

damn, beat me to it hoop

[HoopS]

Haha. Barely beat you to it.  Great minds you know?

Good answer, by the way.

[MCPeePants]

Obviously, they were bunting for a hit.

Who were the 2 players he had bunting with 2 outs? Apparently, DVH may not have much confidence in the way some of his players are swinging the bat right now, and it's hard to blame him.

 

[hogmary]

I have confidence in Van Horn, but I admit that I was puzzled when Gentry, who is batting over .400, kept bunting.  Robison's bunt turned out okay in the 10th, though.

[WhenPigsFly]

I think Gentry and Robison are a little bit too in love with the bunt, as they are both speed guys.  Hamblin has even been bunting some lately to reach base, which I don't get at all.  DVH had something to do with that, tho.  I remember in the first home series, DVH told Hamblin that if the laid one down, he could walk to first.  Now he's trying it a little too often, IMO.

[bulldog04]

Gentry and Robison can fly and are pretty good at bunting.  They could have been trying to bunt for a hit or they could have been setting the third basemen up.  If they thought the third basmen was charging in too hard they could pull the bat back and swing and put it down his throat.

[Chinese Emperor]

Well, since we're talking baseball, I'll chime in.  Went to the Sat-Sun games.  Didn't really like what I saw.  I listened to the Fri night game on the radio.  That game we just lost to a better pitcher which is saying a lot since Schmidt was pitching. 

The games I watched, we gave away or tried to.  That was very un-Van Horn like.  In each game we commit an error in the top of the ninth to allow an extra batter to come to the plate.  That batter either hit the winning or tying Home run/hit.  Also in each game, we had runners at third with less than 2 out several time and couldn't get them home.  I know we would have had 4 more runs on Saturday alone if we had been able to do that. 

I know we're down to our 3rd string second base man.  However, there's a few more problems than that I could see.  The main thing I thought we lacked was some serious power.  We've got Hambln and nobody else to supply the power.  Parker and Walker are a total void in the lineup offensively.  You have to keep  Walker in the lineup for defensive purposes, but Parker isn't even that good defensively at 3rd.  I liked the fact Van Horn started Forsythe at 3rd on Sunday.  Only problem was that he puts Parker in for defensive reasons in the ninth.  Parker immediately botches a hopper which allows the extra batter to drive in the tying run. 

Anyway, I think the pressure for Hamblin to produce has him trying to hit a homer every time he's at the plate.  I thought Van Horn's recruiting process was to get guys that could hit and run the bases or guys that could hit the home run.  Well, I can see the guys who can hit and run the bases, but I sure don't see the guys that can hit the dinger.  He needs to correct that in the next recruiting class. 

Pitching was OK.  However, I still think Boyce would be better coming out of the bullpen in long relief.  Make either Rhoads, Siebert, or Holloway the other two starters.  However, I also believe that either Rhoads or Holloway should be our closer.  I'll be honest:  I didn't get to see the entire staff pitch, so I can only judge who I saw this weekend.  Rhoads was awesome Saturday after relieving Boyce in the 6th.  Also Holloway was very good for the 6 that he pitched on Sunday.  One of those two needs to be there to close things out for us.  Maday sure wasn't the answer.   Make the other a starter and find someone else for Boyce.  With that rubber arm of his, he's better in the bullpen.

Bottomline:  this team's gonna' struggle for runs all year without the power it needs for SEC play.  Therefore Van Horn needs to put his defense on the field and that's not Parker.  We will also have to have some darn good pitching to compensate for the lack of power.  Hopefully Van Horn find put all the pieces together with his staff to do that. 

[spe450]

you can't blame DVH for an error.  Sure he put Parker in but if the ball can be fielded, he should make the play.  They are big kids now, let them take responsibilities. 

The hogs haven't had a consistent power hitting team in quite some time.  Ryan Lundquist holds the record for homeruns with 56 in four seasons whereas teams like LSU have had 40 and 30 hitters in a year.  Granted, this is a ton of hrs and balls fly out of alex box but this is a huge difference.  Arkansas has done it in the past without a middle lineup of strictly power hitters and will be able to do it this year once everyone is healthy.

I know, you are probably saying "we had a losing record in conference last year," but once again, this is the SEC, where ten of twelve teams are in the top 25.  It's gonna be tough to get through conference without losing a couple of series for every team.  I think things will pick up.

[pork and mindy]

Gentry is usually pretty good about getting the bunt down. It may not have worked well recently, but if a 3rd baseman is out of position and Gentry get's it down, he's on base easily.

[Chinese Emperor]

you can't blame DVH for an error.  Sure he put Parker in but if the ball can be fielded, he should make the play.  They are big kids now, let them take responsibilities. 

I was blaming Parker for the error.  I just think Van Horn should be able to see Parker's lost his swerve and should keep him on the pine till he regains it...if he ever does.

[spe450]

i understand what you are saying now, i thought you were saying the two late inning errors could be blamed on him.  DVH is a very good coach and probably had good reason to believe that Parker would step in and do fine.  Might be kicking himself in the rear now but hindsight's 20/20 and that's baseball at any level.