I'm sure it's been discussed....

[War Machine Dawg]

But the attempt to bunt in the 6th inning yesterday really pissed me off. We've scored 3, no one out aTm is struggling and makes a pitching change. The crowd was alive rocking - I was in it.

Then....we try to bunt. You could feel the crowd die. It's like everyone groaned inwardly all at once. aTm can't get anyone out, has to go to the pen, and we had ALL the momentum. So naturally, that means it's time to give a struggling team and brand new pitcher an out.

It's the ultimate example of #Cohening. I get what he was trying to do. If it works, we have two runners in scoring position with Hump and Rooker coming to the plate. But dammit, you're asking a guy hitting over .400 and on a hot streak lately to give himself up. And predictably, it's a bunt fail that also totally killed the inning and the crowd.

Cohen just can't help himself. I'm gonna have an aneurysm one of these days.

[CadaverDawg]

I agree. I hated that call. If it was the 8th or 9th and we had not just plated 3, I woulda been fine with it....but Cohen ruined a chance at a monster inning by asking Elih to bunt. It's the 6th inning and we were into our pen too, so it was unlikely that a one run lead stands anyway. Typical Cohen.

I can't stand bunting when we already have a man in scoring position. So dumb.

Cohen is both the reason we can be in position to win a Championship, as well as the reason we will not. It's tough.

[Bucky Dog]

Yes I agreed yesterday it was the wrong time for it but others were saying it was the right call. I said the exact same things yesterday that you are saying. Rally going with three runs across, changing pitchers and had them on their heels with the crowd rocking and the meat of our lineup, with our hottest hitters, due up. Yes Marrero failed, but it is the sixth inning and it was going to take more than the 1-2 runs we could have gotten. And as a result we get nothing because it killed the spirit and the rally.

[War Machine Dawg]

I agree. I hated that call. If it was the 8th or 9th and we had not just plated 3, I woulda been fine with it....but Cohen ruined a chance at a monster inning by asking Elih to bunt. It's the 6th inning and we were into our pen too, so it was unlikely that a one run lead stands anyway. Typical Cohen.

I can't stand bunting when we already have a man in scoring position. So dumb.

Cohen is both the reason we can be in position to win a Championship, as well as the reason we will not. It's tough.

Best I've ever seen it said. And perfectly describes why it's so frustrating as a fan.

[CadaverDawg]

Yep. We have to lead the country since Cohen was hired in getting people on base with 0 outs and not even getting them to third...much less scoring. Which should be the opposite with a "small ball" coach. In other words, we go to small ball too often at the wrong times, and then we rarely execute when we try it.

Just in the last 3 weeks I can name multiple failed sac attempts that have killed innings or could have. Holland failed but doubled vs Florida, Stovall popped one up, Kruger blew one, Mike Smith popped one up, Marrero yesterday, hell even Robson popped one up early this year. So if Cohen is going to insist on doing that shit all throughout the game, at least teach them how to do it. There's no excuse for a coach to consistently call bunts when he clearly hasn't taught/doesn't have guys that can do it. Small ball has it's moments, but you gotta be able to execute if you're going to do it. And when you have a team leading the conference in XBH, maybe you should cut most of it out altogether unless it's the 8th or 9th & we're tied or down one. Why else would this team need to sac bunt. 7th inning is borderline...but we should not sac bunt before the 7th unless we have something like a struggling 9 hole guy up w/men on 1st & 2nd no outs in a scoreless or tied game, or if we're bunting for hits.

Not trying to go all Will James, but Cohen simply killed our rally yesterday. Period. He can't do that. Even if Elih gets it down, the crowd & momentum was gone when we chose to gift them an out after 6 straight had reached base & A&M was reeling.

[CadaverDawg]

Best I've ever seen it said. And perfectly describes why it's so frustrating as a fan.

I agree. Frustrating as hell. Because for every run he "manufactures" during a season, he leaves 5 times the runs on the bases due to failed manufacturing attempts. This team just hits the ball too well as a whole to be doing that shit. I understood it when we had a dominant bullpen, small powerless hitters, & diff seams, but there is just simply not enough reasons to play for only 1 or 2 runs early in a game these days...especially with our current team makeup.

[klong-dog]

Yep Yep Yep and Yep! And it's the reason why we hardly ever can have the big inning. Frustrating as shit. Like Cadaver said, even if we scored those 2 runs, we probably would need more. So let's not just give them a fn out there, also while giving their pitcher some confidence by getting the easy out. I would love to have a 5, 6, 7 run inning from time to time but it's not likely with Cohen coached squad.

[djaymsu5]

I agree. I hated that call. If it was the 8th or 9th and we had not just plated 3, I woulda been fine with it....but Cohen ruined a chance at a monster inning by asking Elih to bunt. It's the 6th inning and we were into our pen too, so it was unlikely that a one run lead stands anyway. Typical Cohen.

I can't stand bunting when we already have a man in scoring position. So dumb.

Cohen is both the reason we can be in position to win a Championship, as well as the reason we will not. It's tough.

He's his own worst enemy. So damn aggrevating!

[maroonmania]

Understand the sentiment but Marrero had been struggling all day and A&M had just brought in their best reliever. Again, like it or not, a LOT of coaches would have done just what Cohen did there in calling for the bunt. Not sure it really ended up mattering though as I have no confidence Marrero would have got a hit off that guy and if memory serves Lowe and Humphreys followed with a pop up and a strikeout.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

I thought it was the right decision. We had runners on 1st & 2nd no outs. Marrero has looked terrible this series. We get the bunt down we have 2nd & 3rd with 1 out & Lowe, Hump, Rooker, & Collins to follow. It was the right choice with terrible execution.

[HSVDawg]

Understand the sentiment but Marrero had been struggling all day and A&M had just brought in their best reliever. Again, like it or not, a LOT of coaches would have done just what Cohen did there in calling for the bunt. Not sure it really ended up mattering though as I have no confidence Marrero would have got a hit off that guy and if memory serves Humphreys and Rooker followed with a pop up and a strikeout.

This is correct. And also the key thing here is that Marrero got to swing away in a 2-2 count anyways, so whether the bunt was the correct call or not is irrelevant. He still got to swing away in a neutral count. The end result was that he K'd looking at a pitch he should have roped to the outfield, which arguably shows why he should have never been swinging away in the first place.

[CadaverDawg]

Again, I can learn to live with that decision IF we start getting the damn bunt down. We are failing on sac bunts at a very high clip. EXTREMELY high for a team with a coach that is bunt happy. Either teach these kids to get the job done at a higher clip, OR quit bunting in situations like the 6th yesterday. It's that simple to me. We clearly aren't a good bunting team, so I would prefer us stop doing it unless absolutely necessary. Especially the way we're hitting XBH this year.

If Cohen knows his team better than anyone, and Cohen gives the bunt sign, then Cohen gets the blame when his guys don't execute. Don't ask a guy that rarely bunts to get a big bunt down unless you're sure he can do it.

[War Machine Dawg]

I'm not saying it was necessarily a bad decision from a purely tactical standpoint, because it wasn't. Like I said in the original post, I understood exactly what he was trying to do there. Put the go ahead run in scoring position, 1 out with 3-4-5 coming to the plate. Bet on one of those guys getting a hit to put us ahead. And I won't even say it was an objectively wrong decision. It could go either way.

My point is this: We can all agree there are things you can't quantify and that don't show up in the stats but are real and matter. Momentum falls in that category for me. Like I said, I was in the stands yesterday. Experiencing it and feeling it myself. In that moment, The Dude was absolutely electric. You could feel what was special about MSU baseball. In that moment, we were once again one of - if not the - most impressive, intimidating college baseball environments in America. And then Marrero squared around to sac bunt. You could literally feel the energy being sucked out of the stadium and the crowd die. If momentum leaving a stadium made a sucking noise, you'd have heard it when Marrero squared. You went from believing there was no way we wouldn't retake the lead to absolutely certain we were going to piss away the inning. And if I could feel the shift of emotion, I know the players could too.

My point: Even if Elih strikes out like he did anyway, swinging away keeps the crowd in the game. We most likely just shrug it off and say "C'mon, Lowe, get a rip!" But the intangible damage calling for the bunt there just totally derailed everything. I had women sitting around me asking "What are we doing? Why does he [Cohen] do this?" And the only thing you can do is shrug and say "Because it's Cohen. It's what he does. He just can't help himself."

That's why I think it was a wrong call. And again, not saying it wasn't a close call that could've gone either way. It could have. It's one of those situations where reasonable baseball minds can disagree and both have good points. Both may even be right. But as someone in the crowd, I'm telling you: When Marrero squared around, the inning was over. You could just feel it.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

I'm not saying it was necessarily a bad decision from a purely tactical standpoint, because it wasn't. Like I said in the original post, I understood exactly what he was trying to do there. Put the go ahead run in scoring position, 1 out with 3-4-5 coming to the plate. Bet on one of those guys getting a hit to put us ahead. And I won't even say it was an objectively wrong decision. It could go either way.

My point is this: We can all agree there are things you can't quantify and that don't show up in the stats but are real and matter. Momentum falls in that category for me. Like I said, I was in the stands yesterday. Experiencing it and feeling it myself. In that moment, The Dude was absolutely electric. You could feel what was special about MSU baseball. In that moment, we were once again one of - if not the - most impressive, intimidating college baseball environments in America. And then Marrero squared around to sac bunt. You could literally feel the energy being sucked out of the stadium and the crowd die. If momentum leaving a stadium made a sucking noise, you'd have heard it when Marrero squared. You went from believing there was no way we wouldn't retake the lead to absolutely certain we were going to piss away the inning. And if I could feel the shift of emotion, I know the players could too.

My point: Even if Elih strikes out like he did anyway, swinging away keeps the crowd in the game. We most likely just shrug it off and say "C'mon, Lowe, get a rip!" But the intangible damage calling for the bunt there just totally derailed everything. I had women sitting around me asking "What are we doing? Why does he [Cohen] do this?" And the only thing you can do is shrug and say "Because it's Cohen. It's what he does. He just can't help himself."

That's why I think it was a wrong call. And again, not saying it wasn't a close call that could've gone either way. It could have. It's one of those situations where reasonable baseball minds can disagree and both have good points. Both may even be right. But as someone in the crowd, I'm telling you: When Marrero squared around, the inning was over. You could just feel it.

I was there as well & if Marrero gets the bunt down with the heart of order coming up that momentum remains. It was him looking so bad trying to get the bunt down then striking out that took the air out.

[Joe Schmedlap]

I was there and was livid at the bunt decision. It absolutely sucked the life out of the crowd. More than a couple of folks sitting near me in the bleachers were grumbling about it.