Hal Steinbrenner brings up bunting as an example of how the Yankees will change their minor league development:
In a bizarre moment during his Zoom press conference with reporters on Tuesday, while he was being pressed for specifics on substantial changes the Yankees might make, Hal Steinbrenner finally offered an example.
“So one thing that was discussed in August is bunting — I think Aaron Boone thinks that we’re not teaching the young players to bunt enough,” Steinbrenner said.
Steinbrenner went on to say that, yes, in line with where the game was heading a few years ago, the Yankees “cut back on the bunting skills” in the minor leagues.
“But Aaron Boone feels it’s becoming a bigger part of the game again,” Steinbrenner said. “He feels it’s important. So we’re gonna start right up again at the player development level, with everything we were doing a few years ago.”
NYPost.com
Brian Cashman walked back those comments a bit. Teaching bunting is also very different from using bunting. I can’t help but remember the signing of Dave Collins before the 1982 season as George Steinbrenner decided the Yankees needed to be a speed team:
In planning this year’s strategy, Steinbrenner emphasized that the Yankees would become a team of speed. He did such a good job of emphasizing that, he gave credence to the contention that the Yankees lack the power they will need to fight off such challengers as Milwaukee, Baltimore and Detroit.
NYTimes.com
The Yankees finished fifth, four game under .500, behind all three of those teams.
It’s also not clear what bunting means in this scenario. Bunting has two uses; advancing runners to increase the chance of scoring a run, or taking advantage of the defense to reach base. Mickey Mantle would bunt for the latter reason. His occasional bunts kept the defense honest; they couldn’t play farther back to take away hits.
Of course, the previous decade showed that most players and organizations didn’t think bunting against the shift was a better strategy than going for the home run.
Most people think of bunting in the first sense, however, advancing runners. This used to be an early game strategy. In low scoring eras, getting that first run on the board was important, so having a number two hitter who bunted well worked. In high run eras like today, the sacrifice is a late inning strategy for close games, where one run might mean a win.
Finally, why do MLB organizations need to teach bunting? It’s catching the ball with the bat. This is something that should be learned at a young age, then a few bunts in batting practice to keep the skill honed. Learning to drag a bunt for a hit might take more skill, but I remember a piece ESPN did on Brett Butler in the 1990s where he said he could teach anyone to bunt like he did. Speed leading to infield hits were a bit reason for his .377 career OBP.
There are players who might benefit from learning to bunt well. There are players for whom it doesn’t matter. Concentrating on the former likely makes the most sense for any organization.
