Feb
13
What a novel idea! Gardner’s learning to bunt
ByFile this one under the “what took so long” category: Brett Gardner, the likely left fielder going into 2010, has spent this offseason developing his bunting skills. I mean, what’s the point of having a speed guy with little power work on his bunting game as he climbed the ladder in the minors? “Now it’s just a matter of being comfortable enough with it,” said Gardner, “not to be scared to do it in a game and have confidence that I’m going to put it where I want it. Not only can it be a tool to get on base, but it keeps defenses honest and can bring the corners in and maybe I can shoot some balls by them.”
Better late than never, I guess.
46 Comments»
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This idea excites me.
If punchless Brett Gardner can manage to become an excellent bunter, I’m quite certain that Ozzie Guillen will fall in love with him and force Ken Williams to trade Gavin Floyd for Brett, straight up.
Actually I think Brett Gardner would fit in better with Rick Ankiel and Scotty Pod over in KC, he seems to have the same skill set as those guys.
That works too. Gardner for Eric Hosmer and Tim Melville.
Hosmer would have no position here. I’d rather they go for Montgomery and Melville, though Hosmer might be valuable if they were to trade him. He’d need to seriously step it up, though. He’s struggled so far.
Screw it. Gardner for Soria.
Check this post. Gardner goes into a lot more depth about this subject.
http://www.prosportsdaily.com/.....p?t=446840
But I thought he was the best bunter in baseball! /McCarver’d
I pretty certain “/’d” has jumped the shark.
NOOOOOOOOOOO
I don’t think so. You just have to do it right. bexarama just messed up a bit by not doing the /’d thing on the line after. On the same line it just clutters.
Not skipping a line hurt her case, but also, it has to be a declarative statement dripping with hyperbole. “But I thought…” doesn’t have enough force. There’s a certain blend of art and science to the /’d.
It’s cool, bex. But you better figure this shit out or your commenting privileges will be revoked. You’ll be forced to comment at WasWatching.
That’s like spending a decade at a prison in Myanmar.
is WasWatching worse than ESPN or the tabloids?
“It’ll always be Berma to me.”
Now I wouldn’t mind tossing a ” /J.Peterman’d but would that no longer be funny? Who has the number to TBS?
i remember him saying that in the world series
I am glad Brett read this blog and took my advice.
wow…maybe next Brett will tell us that cigarette smoking can cause cancer.
This has come up before.
He didn’t work on bunting as much in the minors because he always needed to develop his hitting skills to move up. If he’s bunting 40 times a year (in games), then that’s 40 lost at bats in terms of hitting development.
I am happy to see they moved onto plan B.
Realistic estimate on successful bunt singles? 6? 10??
Estimate on impact, successful bunting, has on how pitchers pitch him and defenses treat him? UNKNOWN
But it can’t hurt right?
I’m more curious as to the quantitative results of an increase in bunt attempts. For instance, who led the league in successful bunt singles last season? And at what number? I would think it’d be low.
Since i read this post, i’ve been trying to find a stat for bunt’s for hits, but i can’t find any. If someone knows of one, could you share the link.
http://www.google.com/
I keed.
Why i oughta…
Brett Butler had 40 bunt singles in 1992 which i think is record or at least the most since 1957.
I think Melky had one or two. Hard to remember anyone else. Did Brett have any last year? What about Grandy? A fast leadoff batter with 30 HR”s last year -bet he didn’t drop too many down..
I know Swisher tried to in a game against Texas…
ducks for cover
Jeter had a bunt single that tied Gehrig, I believe. Then Johnny tried to do the same and ended up with a pop up.
How didn’t he learn this in the minors?
Can someone please slap the Yankees with the stupid stick?
With his speed with any skill BG should get 20 bunt hits
Well, you can run like Hays, but you hit like shit. With your speed, you should be hitting the ball on the ground and be legging them out. Everytime I see you hit one in the air, you owe me 20 push-ups!!!!
The Yankees have a weaker line-up (much weaker in my opinion), weaker bench, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see Gardner not make the make the major league roster (this assumes Nick Johnson is not on the disabled list).
Do you have any basis for that opinion? Do you really expect Granderson to hit MUCH worse than Damon? Johnson to hit MUCH worse than Matsui?
Granderson offensively is an upgrade over Melkey, defensively I give the edge to Melkey. Granderson is not even close to being as good a hitter as either Matsui or Damon, both of whom are clutch players.
Johnson is an accident waiting to happen, I hope all the supporters of Johnson will be up front about it when he’s sitting on the DL and the Yankees are shopping around during the season for a replacement who will come at a high price.
Defensively you give the edge to Melky based on what? His arm?
Granderson’s range isn’t what it once was, but his “good” is better than Melky’s “above average.”
Wait until you see him play everyday and then come back here and tell me he’s better than Melky.
Seriously, how is Granderson worse than Melky or as you were saying, “Melkey”?
It wouldn’t cost too much to get Jesus to where ever the team is.
how? OBP for 10 hrs? (Johnson-> Matsui) 5 more hrs for 40+ steals (Melky ->Gardner) Only worried about adequate protection for Arod
Remmember Dave Collins, great bunter, slap hitter, a bust in NY. Gardner can’t hit so he might as well bunt. By May Cashman and Hal will realize they should have signed Johnny. Don’t underestimate power, Damon was a great combination, good speed, decent power, clutch hitter, great for the 2 hole and solid in the post season.
Don’t underestimate defense.
We got some problems in our outfield,it’s not that good offensively and defensively.Our bench is terrible,we might be in for alot of issues this year.
Uh so I guess the trolls came out in this post at night.
So true story, at the park just hitting fielding and whatever.
Some kid comes over and asks if he can hit, so no harm right?
We let him hit and man he was horrible, he probably thought it was easy to hit. So my friend is just throwing the ball over at about 50-60 mph? All of a sudden the kid tries to drop a bunt and the baseball hits him right where he put his fingers on the meat of the bat. He screams out in pain and his sister comes over screaming. I assume he fractured/broke something or what not.
The moral of the story, it’s never too late to learn to bunt…GGBG is doing it, so should you.
I learned how to bunt in Little League. It amazes me how many guys at the ML level cannot bunt or are very poor at it.
[...] and that his 16% infield hit rate was tied for Ichiro as the best in the business. As soon as he improves his bunting, I’m hopeful that number will go up even [...]