February 24, 2005
Move Along
Are the Athletics going to play little ball this year?
Today's first full-squad workout at Papago Park will have a different slant from past springs -- one that reflects the A's relative lack of power this year.
For the next four to six days, instead of spending all their on-field hitting time taking batting practice against pitchers, the A's hitters will be concentrating on situational hitting half the time. The hitters will be split into two groups, according to manager Ken Macha. One group will hit off pitchers each day, while the other will be working on moving runners over, putting the ball in play with runners going, getting runners in from third with two strikes and bunting.
Those aren't areas in which Oakland has excelled recently. The A's attempts at hit-and-runs were disastrous last year, and just a few of their hitters can bunt well. But with Eric Chavez the only man on the team to have hit more than 23 home runs in a season, the A's are going to have to buck their old walk-and-whack ways and learn to manufacture runs.
"Guys understand this is not a team with four guys hitting 40 home runs," hitting coach Dave Hudgens said. "We've got to be more efficient. If we'd done that last year, we would have won more games."
Bill James made a study of efficiency in The Baseball Handbook 2005. Indeed, it shows the Athletics as the second worst team in terms of being efficient in scoring runs. However, they were very efficient in winning games, with only the Yankees doing better. (In other words, they scored fewer runs than they should have given their offense. But given the number of runs scored and allowed, they won more games than they should have, also.)
It also goes to show how difficult it is to pigeonhole the A's and their philosophy. It's not all about OBA and home runs. It's about what works. They've seen a deficiency, and they're taking time to correct it. I don't think they'll be bunting in the first inning too often, but when they do want to move a runner via a sacrifice or hit and run, they want it to work.
Posted by David Pinto at
11:42 AM
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I think bunting should be extremely rare, but I think every single hitter on a team should be able to bunt. Can you imagine the surprise factor involved in Manny Ramirez laying down a perfect bunt?
I've got a few issues with this analysis:
1) The article Bill James wrote in the Handbook does not prove eficiency, but rather randomness and luck. To tell you the truth I think the Red Sox and A's did not live up to there forecasts because of pure randomness.
2) I hardly call not being able to move runners over a deficiency. It is obviously a plus to be able to score the one needed run in the late innings, but showed not be overstressed (If I were Ken Macha I'd be more worried about developing my younger players like Haren, Blanton and Swisher).
If there is any data out there that disproves what I just said plese let me know.
Adding to my comment, I'd like to mention that the A's have plenty of power, OPS and SLG wise. Last year Eric Chavez posted a .501 SLG, Durazo's was .523, and there were a bunch of others in the high .400's like Byrnes and Kotsay. I don't think offense will be too much of a problem for Oakland with their good OPS's.
David -
If you look back at Oakland A's spring articles for the past four or five years you are going to find this same story. It's basically a ploy by the A's to get reporters off their backs about small ball and bunting for a few weeks.
Until the games actually start, there really is not a lot for the 'reporters' to write about. See yesterday with no fewer than five of the same Eric Byrnes article in Bay Area newspapers and the AP.
One less stupid question to answer 50 times.
"You didn't win the World Series last year, are you going to bunt more and try to steal more bases?"
Why not ask every team but Boston, no, ask Boston, too - if they are going to bunt and try to steal more bases?