Bad Baseball?

"as a coach how do you not have a .240 hitter drop one down there?"

I don't know anything about this particular coach.

But coaches in general sometimes hesitate, to some degree,  to flash a sign in big moments because if you flash a sign and it doesn't work out, it's on you.  

Whereas if you just "let them play" and it doesn't work out, it's on them.

Btw, I'm a coach.  Not a basher.

It is definitely a game of adjustments and a game of risk/reward.  If a team has enough intel on a player that they put the heavy shift on, he most likely hasn't become proficient at that adjustment yet.  Also, maybe the hitting team feels that the odds are better that he puts one out than put one down and get moved all the way around.  sounds like he came pretty close to doing that.  

Personally, I'm with you and want everyone to be able to execute situationally.  But, if I had a pure power guy that just couldn't do the bunt thing for some reason, I might not force it either.  There are plenty of pure pull hitters who take away their weak spot by getting on top of the plate so a P can't throw them away successfully.  Again, not the way I teach my hitters but can't argue that some have success that way.

I looked up the game...the kid's OBP was about .360.  Seems reasonable to me to let him hit away, especially if he is not a skilled bunter.   If your point is that everyone should be a good enough bunter to get a cheap hit against the shift - that is a different point and I'd agree.

Was the batter in question a relatively reliable bunter against game-pitching?  

If not, then I would hesitate to flash the bunt-for-a-basehit sign in a high leverage playoff situation.

It's baseball. Do what you think is best and often you'll be successful. Sometimes you won't.

NC State doesn't bunt. Only 14 SAC in 60 games. This particular kid has zero SAC in his 3 years there. If he pulled off a bunt single in this situation, I'd think it was great. But if he cost himself even one strike in the attempt, or God-forbid punched one right back to the pitcher, I'd say it was a bone-headed move. Give credit to the Campbell staff for exploiting a weakness by the other team.

game7 posted:

"as a coach how do you not have a .240 hitter drop one down there?"

I don't know anything about this particular coach.

But coaches in general sometimes hesitate, to some degree,  to flash a sign in big moments because if you flash a sign and it doesn't work out, it's on you.  

Whereas if you just "let them play" and it doesn't work out, it's on them.

Btw, I'm a coach.  Not a basher.

I've seen similar comments to this in other threads.  I'm not a coach - is this a real concern of coaches?  Are they really this insecure, particularly at this level?  It seems like if they are it would affect their judgement to the point that they shouldn't be coaching.  Just wondering...

Smitty28 posted:

... is this a real concern of coaches?  Are they really this insecure,

Smitty--

I hedged.  I said this:  "coaches in general sometimes hesitate, to some degree,  to flash a sign" 

I was trying to avoid overstating my point.  I guess it didn't work.