God, I love small ball

[ranzino4three]

Baseball has evolved into a game driven by analytics, defensive shifts, launch angles, and high-tech pitching machines. That’s why it was so refreshing to see us execute the sacrifice bunt today.

I know there are plenty of people who hate the idea of “giving away an out” and would rather swing for the big inning, but when you can move a runner into scoring position for hitters who are hot or batting .350 or better, it just makes baseball sense to me.

Here’s to bringing the sacrifice bunt back where it belongs!

 

[ColoradoHeel]

Small ball wins in Omaha. Too many times we swing for the fences there and the wind makes it a flyout.

 

[ranzino4three]

With our pitching, 2 or 3 runs might win us a game. If we have runners on, with less than two outs and are at the bottom of the order, you have to get them in scoring position for Schaffner or Hull.

 

[mpaer]

Is that you Coach Roberts?
Just kidding

 

[UNC76]

Small ball has a place in the game, but not in the early innings, and typically it should be used at the bottom of the order. The objections to it by me and others was when some were suggesting we use it whenever the opportunity arose, regardless of the inning or where we were in the order.

 

[Heelium1]

Baseball has evolved into a game driven by analytics, defensive shifts, launch angles, and high-tech pitching machines. That’s why it was so refreshing to see us execute the sacrifice bunt today.

I know there are plenty of people who hate the idea of “giving away an out” and would rather swing for the big inning, but when you can move a runner into scoring position for hitters who are hot or batting .350 or better, it just makes baseball sense to me.

Here’s to bringing the sacrifice bunt back where it belongs!

Today, each time we moved a runner or runners over, you could see the physical, human toll on the Pitt pitcher at the time. His repertoire in pitching to succeeding hitters shriveled, as he concentrated on trying not to give up runs, instead of just getting outs.

Not coincidentally, seeing RISP emboldened Carolina's hitters, and, because of the cautious approach of Pitt's hurlers, they got better pitches to hit, and they cashed them in.

Small ball is more than the statistics say about it. Played aggressively, it is a mind game. It says to opponents, "We know more about baseball than you do." Not only do pitchers get nervous, but so do infielders. As a result, errors occur on routine plays.

Carolina put that game into the book to show that we can do it. And that's a credit to Coach Forbes. Carolina may need to rely upon small ball, if winning it all (and not conforming to somebody's template) is our objective. In tight games, runners create stress. So, get one on and move him over. Then see how the opposing pitcher and fielders deal with it.

Based on today's performance, I feel confident about how our hitters will deal with it.

 

[floridahighschoolcoach]

Looked good today lol . I even like the idea of 1 and 2 and no one out in the second inning if French is up bunting.

 

[CoachQue]

What better way to practice small ball than in an actual game, setting up for postseason, great time to work on it.

 

[UNC76]

Looked good today lol . I even like the idea of 1 and 2 and no one out in the second inning if French is up bunting.

That means we sent 6 to the plate in the 1st, and could already have scored as many as 3 runs. I see no reason to bunt in that scenario.

 

[tarboroheel1]

Coastal bunted multiple times against us no matter where in the order and beat the crap out of us. That being said, I do think it's situational in today's game.

 

[ranzino4three]

Disagree with me if you'd like, but the only time French is swinging away is nobody on with no outs, or with 2 outs. Dropping a bunt down and moving a runner into scoring position is a positive AB and puts pressure on the opposing team. I am tempted to do the same thing with Howe, although I am a little hesitant after the homer this weekend.

 

[goheels1117]

Small ball wins in Omaha. Too many times we swing for the fences there and the wind makes it a flyout.

Does it? Only 2 of the last 10 champions bunted a lot (Coastal and Oregon State) over the course of the season.

 

[goheels1117]

Disagree with me if you'd like, but the only time French is swinging away is nobody on with no outs, or with 2 outs. Dropping a bunt down and moving a runner into scoring position is a positive AB and puts pressure on the opposing team. I am tempted to do the same thing with Howe, although I am a little hesitant after the homer this weekend.

You have your opinion. That's fine.

The weird thing to me is you act like French is an automatic out when he gets on base 3 out of every 8 plate appearances.

 

[UNC76]

Disagree with me if you'd like, but the only time French is swinging away is nobody on with no outs, or with 2 outs. Dropping a bunt down and moving a runner into scoring position is a positive AB and puts pressure on the opposing team.

What would you guess French is hitting over the last 10 games? Most likely you wouldn't guess over .300. The actual answer is .321. He also heated up like this late last year, hitting .349 in the final 18 games.

 

[ranzino4three]

Y'all are in the Earl Weaver camp: pitching, defense, and the three-run homer. That's fine. Like Dalton said in Roadhouse, "opinions vary".

 

[goheels1117]

Can anybody provide proof that small ball is what wins in Omaha? The last 6 national champions have averaged 15 sacrifice bunts for the entire season.

LSU had 33 last year. 10 of those were by a guy hitting under .200 and hit 9th. Nobody's going to argue about bunting with that kind of player. And I have no issues with us bunting with French.

If we get into the 6th or later with Glauber on the mound and McDuffie available and the game is tied (like yesterday), absolutely. Play for 1-2 runs and get the lead.

Whether we bunt a lot or not, the absolute most important thing is getting guys on early in the inning and putting pressure on the defense. The 3 "ugly" games we've had this year ( UVA 2x and Coastal), we barely got the leadoff guy on at all. There's no debate about strategy if we continually have 2 outs and nobody on.

 

[CoachQue]

It is not a one size fits all, Forbes and his staff uses analytics and their guts, I trust them. Put yourself in a position to win the game by any means necessary. Go Heels!

 

[tarboroheel1]

Can anybody provide proof that small ball is what wins in Omaha? The last 6 national champions have averaged 15 sacrifice bunts for the entire season.

LSU had 33 last year. 10 of those were by a guy hitting under .200 and hit 9th. Nobody's going to argue about bunting with that kind of player. And I have no issues with us bunting with French.

If we get into the 6th or later with Glauber on the mound and McDuffie available and the game is tied (like yesterday), absolutely. Play for 1-2 runs and get the lead.

Whether we bunt a lot or not, the absolute most important thing is getting guys on early in the inning and putting pressure on the defense. The 3 "ugly" games we've had this year ( UVA 2x and Coastal), we barely got the leadoff guy on at all. There's no debate about strategy if we continually have 2 outs and nobody on.

I agree with this. Yesterday we knew we would go Glauber to Duffie. 1 or 2 runs was possibly all we would need to win the series. It was very refreshing to see us execute. We haven't executed this very well over the last couple of seasons when needed in my opinion.

 

[HeelYeah2012]

For UNC the small ball is all situational.

Absolutely bunt French, and maybe even Howe, if they come up in potential sacrifice bunt situations late in games.

Do not bunt Hull or Schaffner or Gallaher if they come up in those same situations, unless it’s like a *golden* sacrifice situation where getting the bunt down gets the winning run to third base with less than 2 outs.

 

[ColoradoHeel]

Does it? Only 2 of the last 10 champions bunted a lot (Coastal and Oregon State) over the course of the season.

I am also talking about singles and getting guys on base. I have been to every CWS game pre-finals since 2013. I watched us smack deep balls to dead center....for the out.

 

[unc80]

I'm just glad we've been able to add the sac-bunt to our repertoire. Just makes the Heels more versatile and dangerous. There doesn't seem to be anything this team can't do and do well.

 

[Mrtarheel1]

Using the bunt in the right situation like yesterday is very good strategy. Overall, I think unc 76 is correct. Bunt only late in the game with players at the end of the lineup in order to bring runners in scoring position for the top of the lineup.

 

[Heelium1]

Small ball has a place in the game, but not in the early innings, and typically it should be used at the bottom of the order. The objections to it by me and others was when some were suggesting we use it whenever the opportunity arose, regardless of the inning or where we were in the order.

Earl Weaver's approach may control the thinking at the MLB level.

But it seems to me that college baseball is different. The objective should be to get ahead and to stay ahead by any and all means necessary

. . . .

Whether we bunt a lot or not, the absolute most important thing is getting guys on early in the inning and putting pressure on the defense. The 3 "ugly" games we've had this year ( UVA 2x and Coastal), we barely got the leadoff guy on at all. There's no debate about strategy if we continually have 2 outs and nobody on.

The first sentence in the last paragraph in your post is THE key to winning college baseball games.

But, unless you move that first player to reach, he's just the first out in every manager's imagined double play. No pressure. No sweat. No big deal.

Standing at second, however, that same runner, with fewer than two outs, is the imminent threat of a run, and that absolutely changes the dynamics for the pitcher, and for everyone else playing with him, on most teams.

 

[floridahighschoolcoach]

76 French has given us 4 years of data . He is a great defender and base runner but a career 200 hitter with zero homers. So if you want to use analytics fine that means he has a 80 percent chance of getting out and a 0
Percent chance of hitting a home run so why not have him bunt even with one out in a tight game?

 

[THB15]

It's not easy to bunt. Howe and French made it look easy. That's a big credit to both of them and our coaches. Jake has also shown he can bunt. To me one of the biggest advantages of utilizing small ball is the fact the opponents third baseman will have to play very shallow against those three hitters early in the count, giving all three an advantage if not bunting.

 

[UNC76]

76 French has given us 4 years of data . He is a great defender and base runner but a career 200 hitter with zero homers. So if you want to use analytics fine that means he has a 80 percent chance of getting out and a 0
Percent chance of hitting a home run so why not have him bunt even with one out in a tight game?

Why am I always the person who has to bring the actual facts here? His career average at UNC is a respectable .255.

 

[TarHeelColby10]

Y'all are in the Earl Weaver camp: pitching, defense, and the three-run homer. That's fine. Like Dalton said in Roadhouse, "opinions vary".

I mean I think that stance has been proven over and over at basically every level of baseball for the last 10-12 years.

 

[ranzino4three]

I think it is fine to have that philosophy if you have a team full of guys with 10+ homers. We aren't a homerun-hitting team. Our pitching is so good that 5 runs is going to win us most games. We need to get runs however we can. Especially in Omaha, with that cavernous field.

It's ok to not agree on this. Coaches have different philosophies. I was a small ball guy.

 

[TarHeelColby10]

I think everyone is really missing the boat on what small ball actually is. It’s not just sac bunts. If you want to play the game that way you have to do so many things well and have the guys to actually do it. For one, you have to walk more than you K that’s number 1, once you get in base you have to have at least 6 guys in the lineup who steal bags. Once guys are on base it’s not just sacs, or HnR, you have to be able to bunt or hit behind the runner when the baserunner is moving in the pitch. You have to be able to bunt to 1st base and 3rd base on command not just where it’s pitched. You have to have instinctual runners that can take two bases on different occasions. coastal didn’t eat us alive sac bunting, they beat us because they hit against the shift with runners on, hit behind runners when they were moving, but they also hit a bunch of baseballs in the gap in one inning.

For example of why we can’t play small ball and win, this weekend we attempted to HnR with Schaff on and Owen at the plate 0-0.. he got a hanging breaking ball and was surprised and just made a defensive swing on it and swung through it. Ultimately, it worked as he was safe but in that situation we have to hit the baseball behind him. There have been multiple instances where we misread a ball in the dirt and don’t take the free base.. it’s the small things that we just don’t work in as much as we’d need to, to play the game that way.

 

[ranzino4three]

Yeah I know what it is. That’s why I said I was a small ball guy. Sometimes is worked. Sometimes it didn’t. I just hated waiting around. I wanted to make things happen and put pressure on the defense. Analytically, that’s not the way to play today. That’s why I hate analytics.

 

[HeelYeah2012]

76 French has given us 4 years of data . He is a great defender and base runner but a career 200 hitter with zero homers. So if you want to use analytics fine that means he has a 80 percent chance of getting out and a 0
Percent chance of hitting a home run so why not have him bunt even with one out in a tight game?

He doesn’t have an 80 percent chance to get out. His OBP is closer to .400 than it is to .200. Huge difference.

 

[ranzino4three]

French's OBP is actually higher than Gallaher's, which is crazy. IMO, I am still bunting French if the situation presents itself, no matter the inning.

 

[OldLeaguer]

Yeah I know what it is. That’s why I said I was a small ball guy. Sometimes is worked. Sometimes it didn’t. I just hated waiting around. I wanted to make things happen and put pressure on the defense. Analytically, that’s not the way to play today. That’s why I hate analytics.

It's fun to hate on analytics, but analytics are really nothing more than baseball research. Of course, many in baseball didn't start accepting rigorous analysis until relatively recently. Analysis of the data merely reveals the most effective ways to maximize run production on the offensive side and reduce run production on the defensive side. With Trackman, Rapsodo, and other data collection methods, they have also changed how the game should be coached today. For instance, we know backspin caused by hitting just below the equator of the ball increases carry, therefore HRs. In the past, hitters were taught to hit the middle of the baseball.

Small ball goes back to a time in the game when long balls were as rare as unicorns and teams had to creatively come up with ways to score. That time was in the early 1900's and it ended about a hundred years ago. When you go to your doctor and he tells you that medical analytics--medical research--say the best way to treat your respiratory infection is with a course of antibiotics, do you tell him, "Doc, I know all about the medical analytics, but I hate analytics and think I'm going stick with my garlic on a rope around my neck instead?" Don't be a hater.

 

[floridahighschoolcoach]

lol 76 you put almost everything I post in quotes and let me correct myself if French puts the ball in play he has a 80 percent chance of getting out . As far as sticking the ball just below the equator of the ball this team has done that all season and it's not producing home runs? ( team leader has 12 ? ) Maybe coach felt by the middle innings Sunday that if he didn't bunt that we might be looking at another game that only produces 2 runs? So he got involved. This team seems to to be like a pack of sharks when blood is in the water and when they get going they hit like crazy and other times maybe they just press ( i know the pitchers have something to do with it) and just get stagnant. There just isn't a lot of power to this point so at some point you have to move runners into scoring position.

 

[floridahighschoolcoach]

When I say small ball fit the team I was talking about how it was used Sunday to get runners over in the middle and late innings. 5 runs in a game will make this team hard to beat in the postseason.

 

[110northstreet]

But it seems to me that college baseball is different. The objective should be to get ahead and to stay ahead by any and all means necessary

I enjoy small ball. Question though... in what type of baseball is getting ahead and staying ahead not the proper objective?

 

[ranzino4three]

Some want to play for the big inning, and that is fine. "Kill Shots" are pretty indicative of who will win the game. If I have a team like GT does, no way I am playing small ball, unless it is to beat a shift.

 

[TommyAshley]

Good thread going. But I do chuckle seeing the screen name and thinking back to Ranzino stepping back for a last second three against State in the ACCT when Carolina only needed a two to win. lol.

 

[ranzino4three]

Shooters gone shoot @TommyAshley

I am anxious to hear your stance on the topic.

 

[JimmyDaHeel]

If I was coaching I’d call a bunt down the 3rd baseline every time the opposing third baseman lined up at shortstop in a shift. Even if the first attempt doesn’t work, it forces the opposing manager to move the third baseman!

Also, I know the objective of college baseball is to win games, but it’s also about developing players. And having threats to bunt up and down your order can be a nightmare for the opposing staff!