In a conversation passed on by ESPN New York’s Mike Mazzeo, Mark Teixeira was quoted saying the following,
“I’ve been so against it my entire career, but I might lay down a few bunts, if I can beat the shift that way, that’s important.”
While I despise bunting by sluggers in most situations, I never understood the strategy surrounding pull-hitters refusing to lay down a squibbler on major defensive shifts. Statistically, an infield single off a bunt is equivalent to any other single or walk, and the defense will be forced to play a more regular position with such a threat. In my opinion, refusing the free bunt single is a stubborn act of pride handed down through baseball tradition. When you participate in such antique practices, there’s more to be ashamed of in your inferior batting average than learning to drop an occasional slow roller between unsuspected infielders. After a season sporting a .224 batting average as a lefty (.191 with no men on, and the defense available to shift), Teixeira has grown tiresome of this unnecessary baseball etiquette.
So will bunting help Teixeira? The free single on the massive shift will obviously add to his batting average and on base percentage, but the defense returning to a normal position should make a huge impact on Texeira’s BABIP. In 2011, his .222 BABIP from the left side was significantly below his career .281 BABIP. In this case, he may be seeing the first signs of an early drop off by hitting an absurd amount of ground balls or fly balls with a lack of line drives, but his 17.7 LD%, 34.1 GB%, and 48.3 FB% are all within respectable ranges. Instead, the major culprit for such a low BABIP is likely the extra defensive infielder and outfielder on the right side catching line drives, ground balls, and fly balls that would usually result in base hits.
“We play 30 spring training games and I’ll play in about 20 of them, maybe I’ll lay down 20 bunts. But if I go 1-for-20, I may have to go back to the drawing board.”
The key is for Teixeira to learn the bunt to beat the shift, and to beat the shift ONLY! If his bunt work pays off, it may set an example for the team to drop their indifference towards bunting on defensive shifts. For one, Nick Swisher could improve after seeing a modified defensive shift in 2011 with the second baseman playing to their right side and shortstop positioned up the middle. Although not as bad as Teixeira’s, Swisher’s left side BABIP also fell from a career .283 to .259. With any success, hopefully, this ends a counterproductive baseball tradition for lefty pull-hitters.
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9 Responses to Let the Sluggers Bunt
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TIQ IQ
Anecdotally it seems like Tex hit a lot of popups last year while batting lefty. Any idea if that is the case? If his pop fly frequency did in fact increase, that would seem to indicate an issue of approach/mechanics rather than simply getting robbed by the shift.
Since entering Yankee Stadium, it appears Teixeira’s has seen more flyballs. (2009: 46.1%, 2010: 48.3%, 2011: 48.3%, Career: 42.7%) This makes sense since he’s aiming for that shallow rightfield wall. Teixeira’s BABIP numbers do not correlate well with his flyball rates though. (2009: .290, 2010: .255, 2011: .222, Career: .281) If flyball rates had the impact of dropping his BABIP by over .060 points, 2009 would have seen a more obvious drop in his BABIP. Instead, 2009 was a season where you saw a few teams run an extreme shift on Tex, 2010 a few more, and 2011 almost every team had a shift on him. I remember, in game 4 of the World Series when Damon stole two, being surprised at how extreme of a shift the Phillies put on Tex, now it seems like every team has followed that example.
While there may be some merit to bunting occasionally against the shift, I think it is very unlikely that a few well-placed bunts will make teams stop shifting on Tex. It will probably require a few hard hit line drives and ground balls to the left side to do this.
“It will probably require a few hard hit line drives and ground balls to the left side to do this.”
Agreed. As long as he’s trying to pull everything, it’ll be very hard for him to get rid of the shift. A more open-field approach as a LHB would serve him well.
I guess he could bunt…or he could try to take advantage of the gaping hole on the left side of the infield and take a few pitches the other way. Seems the latter would carry a greater reward.
I’d rather have the $180m batter learn how to bunt, than revamp his swing.
But didn’t he used to hit more balls that way as a lefty? It seems to me that he already has revamped his LH swing to try to pull and lift the ball more. Using more of the field would be going back to what he used to do.
The Bombers haven’t been any good at bunting since Scooter passed away…. Then again, maybe since Scooter was playing…
:)
It’s not that easy to bunt, especially for a guy like Tex who has been an elite hitter his entire life and probably never even thought about bunting, already in his 30′s. He should work on it, but it just feels like people are making too simple a deal out of it.