Why, Exactly, Is Bunting (Mostly) A Thing Of The Past?
Why, Exactly, Is Bunting (Mostly) A Thing Of The Past?
We look at some facts and figures behind baseball's best bunters and wonder why bunting for a hit has gone out of style.
IBWAA members love to write about baseball. So much so, we've decided to create our own newsletter about it! Subscribe to Here's the Pitch to expand your love of baseball, discover new voices, and support independent writing. Original content six days a week, straight to your inbox and straight from the hearts of baseball fans.
Pregame Pepper: If You Love Bunts, You’ll Love This
Leading Off
Today’s MLB Players Don’t Bunt, And It’s Not Only Because They Can’t
By Mark Kolier
It’s often said that bunting is a lost art. It’s also not a good percentage baseball play, less so today than it’s ever been. Better infield positioning and overall defense are the primary reasons. When bunting for a base hit, the combination of surprise and precision against today’s corner infielders makes little sense, as the attempt must be perfect. Or at least nearly perfect. The fielders are too fast, their arms are too strong, and their overall anticipation is too good for bunters to be successful often enough.
For this post we won’t discuss sacrifice bunts, which have almost entirely disappeared once pitchers were no longer hitters.
Bunting For Hits Is A Thing Of The Past
While always rare, bunt hits have fallen out of use in recent seasons.
The Best Bunters Of All Time
The reputed best bunter of all time was former Dodger, Giant, and Met, Brett Butler, who had the most bases-empty bunt hits in a single season with 29 in 1992, at an impressive success rate of 57%. It may not be too much of a shock, therefore, to learn that he also holds the record for most bases-empty bunt hits in a career with 188.*
*Courtesy of beyond the box score.com
I LOVE that Mickey Mantle is on this list with all these speedsters. Mickey was crazy fast when he first got to the Majors, and his ruined knees shortened his career and took away his speed in his later years.
See anyone on these lists who played after the year 2000? And for what it’s worth, Juan Pierre had the lowest success rate in bunting for a base hit with the bases empty, with Furcal not far behind.
Taking The Batters With The Highest Single-Season Hit Percentage When Bunting With The Bases Empty:
As a Mets fan, I was delighted to see Lee Mazzilli, who has the most recent year (1976), at the top of this list! I guess Maz did something else other than winning an MVP by hitting a homer and drawing a bases-loaded game-winning walk in an All-Star Game! Steve Garvey’s name shocked me here, as you don’t think of Garvey as a bunter.
Top 10 Worst Bases-Empty Bunting Seasons
Notice anything about this list? All the players listed played after 1993 and these stats end with the year 2011. That’s when Moneyball came out. Remember Brad Pitt in the movie as Billy Beane? Pitt as Beane went on multiple rants against bunting, as both sacrifices and attempted base hits.
"No bunts," Beane told players in one scene.
"Not even when the third baseman is back?" a player responds, repeating a once-accepted baseball methodology to bunt against a corner infielder playing deep.
"No bunting whatsoever," Pitt shot back.
No bunting. As noted above, fewer players today are even trying to bunt for a base hit, so don’t expect to see any more recent players appear. These guys might be on this list for eternity! It’s not as if you’ll never see a player trying to bunt for a hit again. But when it happens, make a note of it, because it’s probably something the manager wished the player hadn’t tried!
About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and Substack.com.