So I'll gripe about a specific baseball play

[nursegirl25]

I'm not going to bash Kingston or demand he be fired. I don't know if he's over his head or not. I STILL don't know how this season will play out based on 10 games. We seem to have decent starting pitching, struggling bullpen, and "meh" at the plate. Nothing to make me think post-season dreams but I'm not ready to say we are going to be sub .500.

However, I think a crucial play happened in Sunday's game that really could have changed momentum. We are up 2-1 and Farr looks good. Myers smokes a leadoff double to start the 4th (maybe 5th)………. My couch coaching wheels start turning immediately and with Heinrich coming up and then #3 and #4 after him, I'm ok with either a SAC bunt or letting a pretty hot Heinrich swing away.
Pitcher comes set, begins his delivery (and in the split second my head I think he is swinging) --then almost as the ball is coming down the middle HE SQAURES. So LATE he barely gets the bat around in time and POPS it straight up to the pitcher...No advance and next guy hits long fly to CF which would have scored the run from third....We go scoreless...

I get we lost by 3..I get it was ONE situation. But I have watched nearly every Kingston game via person or TV and stuff like this keeps happening....Its a SACRIFICE! Get your bat out in plenty of time, slightly angle your bat and keep it still, use your body to go up/down to meet baseball and keep your hands still....This is baseball fundamental! If you think he can't bunt then let your #2 guy swing away and go for the big inning!

So frustrating to see this stuff!

 

[king ward]

Get that man over to third and there are a lot of ways he can score with less than two outs.

 

[Garnet chicken]

Bunting has become a lost art. Instead of letting the bat do the work, the players stab at the ball and you have to get the bat above the ball not below it.

 

[Cocky_11]

I’ve always been a small ball type of person, putting pressure on the defense to get an out and when they can’t you just keep on doing it.

 

[GarnetBlood80]

Square around and "catch" the ball with the bat. We haven't been able to bunt a damn baseball in years. Just like our MBB teams can't hit FTs.

 

[bucketdad]

I don't have a problem with the call. Just the day before we looked pretty good playing some smallball and that included Heinrich. We doubled down on it when we had a 4 run lead on Saturday, I like that. We got to continue to work on it so that we can get it done when we really need it in 2-1 type games. Obviously we still have a lot of work to do and it didn't work out this time. I liked trying tho. Maybe we can get some leads in the next few games so we can safely work more on it. We're not going to get any better if we don't. Been there and done that with the no smallball thing. IMO, that's not going to get us where we need to go.

 

[Cackdiesel]

I don't have a problem with the call. Just the day before we looked pretty good playing some smallball and that included Heinrich. We doubled down on it when we had a 4 run lead on Saturday, I like that. We got to continue to work on it so that we can get it done when we really need it in 2-1 type games. Obviously we still have a lot of work to do and it didn't work out this time. I liked trying tho. Maybe we can get some leads in the next few games so we can safely work more on it. We're not going to get any better if we don't. Been there and done that with the no smallball thing. IMO, that's not going to get us where we need to go.

I don't think he had a problem with the call so much as the fact that Heinrich didn't square for the sacrifice. You're giving away an out. There's no need to hide it, and its easier to get the bunt down when you're not trying to hide it.

 

[bucketdad]

I don't think he had a problem with the call so much as the fact that Heinrich didn't square for the sacrifice. You're giving away an out. There's no need to hide it, and its easier to get the bunt down when you're not trying to hide it.

I gotcha. I kinda strayed off topic when I started typing.
That said I did hear Kingston mention trying to bunt for a hit in one bunt. That could have been the one he was referring to. Either way, we still have a lot of work to do to get what we're trying to do right. Not just technique, but where we're bunting to. Too many straight back to the pitcher as well.