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Reply to "No Hitter Etiquette?"

You have to look at personnel and situation to determine if a guy dropped a bunt to break a no no or was competing. Erick Aybar is a skinny fast guy and the drag bunt is part of his skill set offensively. Why should he put that part of his offense on the shelf just because a guy has a no no going? That part is unrealistic in my opinion.

Now if Big Papi drops a bunt up third base because they have that shift on him going then yeah that's bush league. He doesn't have the drag bunt in his skill set so he shouldn't resort to that.

Look at the situation also to help determine intent. This game in question was 3 - 0 and after the inning was over it was 3 - 2. One swing of the bat ties it up so that means you do what it takes to generate offense. If the game was 7 - 0 then we got a different story. Once you get late in games you have to balance outs versus opportunities to bunt. I have no idea what the percentage is but the VAST majority of bunts (talking about both drag and sac) end up in outs. So if you're starting the 7th inning that means you have 9 outs before the game is over. If the score is 6 - 0 then you don't have enough outs to truly bunt as an offense. You can't afford to use one batter to move a guy 90 feet to score him. So with this logic you've taken away half the bunting attack. So now if a guy drops one down it's probably because it's in his skill set or he's caught you off guard. If the guy who doesn't have the drag bunt in his skill set drops one down then he's really being selfish because odds are he shouldn't get on.

Now when you throw in the fact you're in the 7th inning up 6 - 0 with a no no going you can still adjust your defense accordingly. Erick Aybar comes up then you play your corners up some because it's part of his skill set. The situation of the no no doesn't matter - you're playing baseball. A guy who comes up who doesn't drag bunt comes up then you can play back some because if he drops it down then I can see the arguement of it being bush league.
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