Benjamin Kabak from Riveraveblues.com writes a Yankee game write up after every single game going through the in's and out's of what took place over the course of the nine innings of Yankee baseball. It's always interesting and I would definitely tell whoever is reading this, to read that as well, because it's a great site and the writers over there provide great, modern insight on the Yankees. One of the recurring themes of the Joe Girardi era that they love to point out is his weird fetish for sacrifice bunting. Kabak describes last night's 9th inning like this:
"I have spent far too much time wringing my hands over the Yanks’ bunting tendencies under Joe Girardi. An NL player who cut his teeth managing an NL team, Girardi loves to give up outs at inopportune moments. The Yankees, who entered the game leading the majors in runs scored, are seventh in the AL in sac bunts while the Red Sox, who started tonight with 670 runs, are last in the AL in bunts. The value of out, especially when only three remain, cannot be overstated."
I can't agree with that statement anymore. Andrew Bailey's inning before the Jeter bunt went as follows: Jorge Posada homered, Russell Martin doubled and Brett Gardner reached on an error. Derek Jeter comes up, is 3-3 and is absolutely on fire. He's going to be hitting .300 before you know it and what does he have to do? BUNT! Bailey's pitches were all over the place, but the Yankees gave him a gift wrapped out. How can Jeter give us anymore memorable moments if he has to bunt every time he's in a situation like this? Sure, 2nd and 3rd with one out is a good situation and a hit ties the game, but 1st and 2nd with no outs, a struggling pitcher and a hot hitter is a better situation.
Well Jeter kinda is the king of GIDPs. Having a man on 3rd with 2 outs doesn't do the team any good. Plus if Bailey really was that erratic, wouldn't you want to have 2 men in scoring position for your leading RBI man in Granderson? Girardi's move makes perfect sense to me.
ReplyDeleteJeter hasn't hit into any double plays lately. He's hitting almost 400 since coming off the DL. Outs are valuable and if a pitcher can't get any then you can't just give them away especially with your hottest hitter up. Why would you give a free out to someone who can't get one. Outs are way too valuable.
ReplyDeleteHELLO LOOK AT YESTERDAYS GAME. the yankees are fast now with nunez and gardner, they can beat out bunts, jeter is slow and only hits liners and ground ball hits so hes prone to DP's, so him bunting guys over to 3rd and 2nd and getting an out is what u want, especially with a erratic pitcher , a past ball or wild pitches scores the guy at third and who's to say the catcher or 3rd basemen doesn't throw the ball away when they try to field it? The yank's mix of power, speed,plate discipline and bunting makes them the most complete Yankee offense in a long time and its showing in their run production in the year of the pitcher.
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