MVN - Most Valuable Network

No Excuses For It As Padres Fall To Twins

In the morning, talk radio will be all over Trevor Hoffman. But despite the fact that he gave up back to back home runs after striking out the first two Minnesota Twins he faced, it is not Hoffy that has me driven to the point of frustration after the Padres 3-1 interleague loss tonight.

Can someone please tell me why two players who make the kind of money they do to play a kid’s game can not execute a simple bunt?

I don’t really care if you are a follower of sabremetrics who doesn’t believe in bunting. My issue is not with whether or not a bunt was appropriate. It is that it could not be executed. It is one of the most basic fundamentals in the game and there is never, in my not-so-humble opinion on this matter, an excuse for not executing a sacrifice bunt. Bunting for a sacrifice, not a drag bunt but a sacrifice, is basically catching the ball with the bat. If you can catch, you can bunt. I abso-freaking-lutely guarantee you that if the San Diego Padres were to pay me one-third of what Craig Stansberry and Jody Gerut make in a year, I would execute a sacrifice bunt 100% of the times I was asked to do so. I may not be able to hit and field at their level, but I could bunt. For that matter, for about forty thousand dollars a year I will spend countless hours this off-season throwing batting practice and teaching every single one of these major league players how to do this.

It’s simple. You catch the ball with the bat.

If I were managing the Padres, both gentlemen would be required to show up early for batting practice tomorrow, where they would not take a single full swing until I was satisfied. Their egos better be checked on Tony Gwynn Drive. When you are making six figures at your job, you better execute the basics. It should be an absolute minimum requirement.

Yeah, Trevor gave up a couple of dingers. But we lost the game when we had two men on and nobody out in the seventh and scored one run, then had two men on with none out in the eighth and scored ZERO runs. We also missed scoring opportunities in the first and sixth innings.

Yes, I am well aware that Stansberry singled. It is completely irrelevant. A batter who can’t bunt is as silly as a pitcher who finds it impossible to throw the ball to his catcher to accomplish an intentional walk. Surely no pitcher enjoys having to do that. It is certainly a similar affront to the pitcher’s ego and confidence as being asked to bunt is for a hitter. Yet pitchers do it all the time.

Absolutely ridiculous.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.