Steroids are wonderful drugs.
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An indisputable point that will NEVER be understood by some fans. They are so stuck on bogus talent evaluations,some strategy of the day or some dislike for a coach that they cannot fathom not having the one true answer for why a team is winning or losing. Happens in all sports.
It's never ONE thing. Never.
I will say that the manner in how a staff relates to players and a clear vision of the head coach to them weigh heavily.
But batting orders and Recruiting rankings and motion offenses aren't nearly the culprits they are given credit for being.
Yes it does at its appropriate time. Just not in every game's 1st 3 innings. When you are facing a conference ace, sure. When The situation calls for it. Polk didn't call for a bunt in any inning after Tony Gage got picked off in the 80's in the CWS. That was a poor strategy too.
Vansau and Poole quite a bit. He really talked about Poole's speed ad how he will be really good once he adjusts to the college slider, etc. Really interesting. If I'm not mistaken he said something about Poole reminding him of a young Rooker. Also said Vansau has a very simple swing and they liked that a lot.
One post before this, you used LSU bunting stats to defend your point, then in the next post you used "Manieri made some of those calls" to defend another. C'mon man.
Side note: Nothing pisses me off more than someone that says "never do _____" in baseball. That's what makes baseball special, that every game and every situation is different. Like yesterday, one might say "Never let Jolly throw fastballs to this guy", and Jolly threw 4 straight heaters and K'd the guy without him taking the bat off his shoulder. Fooled him completely.
Same can be said for sac bunting early. If a guy has your number and you have a chance to scratch a run across, sometimes the situation calls for it. And despite the criticism many gave Cohen for his bunting...we won a lot of close games where our momentum started from a bunt single, scratching a run out with a sac bunt, or bunting and our opponent making an error on it. Cohen knew he had Butch and that it wouldn't take but a few runs to get the job done...and he was usually right. Then last year....no Butch, less bunt. Give Cohen some credit...just bc he didn't win the way some of you would have tried to win....he won, a lot.
But the whole, "never sac bunt early in a game" thing is just hot air. You do what you gotta do to win, and nobody knows their team like the coach...so there's a method to whatever chess move is made. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Saying "no place for bunting early in a game" is just someone trying to seem like they know more than they do about baseball imo. This side note is not directed at any one person either, just my thoughts in general.
I'll get off my soapbox now. I just hate when people use absolutes in baseball. Baseball is NEVER a game of absolutes.
Cody got 20 total starts in 2016, which included 9 SEC starts and played in 19 SEC games but only hit .200 in SEC games, .241 overall. Hump hit .284 in SEC games, .310 overall, not sure about lefty righty matchups. Cohen worships stats & data analytics so I can't imagine him not making a move with Hump if he was that bad vs lefties.
Allow me to explain it to you since you missed it.
I was showing that Cann's bunt numbers were more in line with LSU's strategy- not with the Bunting Meddler we had as coach previously.
I also pointed out last season that when Cohen stopped bunting as much- our offense got better and we went on that run in the SEC last year. Our fewest number of bunts in the Cohen Era contributed to us winning an SEC Title for the 1st time since 1989. We stopped giving sooooo many outs away
As to your absolutes portion of your post- we'll just disagree. I'm a firm believer in playing for the big inning early on. You dont give away outs early in the game. We had pitchers walk 2 straight batters to get themselves in trouble- then Cohen would bunt to let the pitcher off the hook by giving him an out. Make the pitcher have to battle to get that 1st out- dont just hand it to him. There is always a little bit of relief when you get an out. Dont give that away for free. Keep him in turmoil- make him earn his way out of it.
One reason our bunts are as high as they are this year is because of the dead weight we have had at the bottom of the order. I'd say moving forward in future seasons we'll see less of them