Slap bunting in Baseball.

I doubt that slap bunting is the next step in baseball's evolution...

I think you will see more players who have speed have some more forms of bunting for base hits in the high school and college levels who had extra pop with the previous bats.

I am not sure there will be much change in the professional ranks, but there are guys who do some form of slap bunting.

One other thing for your friend to consider is how much power hitting is creeping into the softball game, where college ball has gone from a slap bunt game to a power homerun game.

quote:

Originally posted by Baseballdad1228:
I doubt that slap bunting is the next step in baseball's evolution...

I hope not.

quote:

Originally posted by Homerun04:
One other thing for your friend to consider is how much power hitting is creeping into the softball game, where college ball has gone from a slap bunt game to a power homerun game.

We have talked about that quite a bit. We both agree if they ever ban composites in softball that trend will go away.

My son and I were watching the College Softball WS and I asked my son if he thought it was harder to hit The SOftball Pitchers or the Baseball Pitchers in the College WS. His response: "You don't see any guys running out of the box making contact on the baseball pitchers; because it is too hard to make it happen. Harder to hit the baseball pitchers."

That was his thought process

The softball slap hitters are lefties with speed. What they are really trying to do is hit a Baltimore Chop and outrun the play. They are also slapping down on dirt. I don't think it would work in baseball on grass and ninety foot bases.

I'm not sure about harder to hit baseball pitches. The softball hitter has to get the hands over the riseball. For what it's worth the following is interesting.

click here

quote:

One other thing for your friend to consider is how much power hitting is creeping into the softball game, where college ball has gone from a slap bunt game to a power homerun game.

Yep! The rubber was moved back from forty feet to forty-three feet. Rotational has been adopted as the way to hit in softball. There are far less 1-0 and 2-1 NCAA games now.

quote:

Originally posted by fsmjunior:
My son and I were watching the College Softball WS and I asked my son if he thought it was harder to hit The SOftball Pitchers or the Baseball Pitchers in the College WS. His response: "You don't see any guys running out of the box making contact on the baseball pitchers; because it is too hard to make it happen. Harder to hit the baseball pitchers."

That was his thought process

There was a girl a few years ago who came to Dodger stadium and struck out every MLB player that came up to bat against her. Think again.

I've seen girl softball pitchers strike out major league players too. However, I still think hitting a baseball is much harder than hitting a softball. If those major league hitters faced softball pitching day in and day out they would hit it.

Looking at last years NCAA Softball stats, there were 4 girls who hit over .500 for the entire season at DI level! About 50 or so hit over .400. Over 40 girls hit 15 or more HRs.

Point is... I really find it hard to believe that all these young girls are better than Major League hitters.

Bottom line, there are not many slap hitters in the Big Leagues. Running up in the box while swinging would be unbelievably tough to do and eliminate power. Anyway, it's hard enough just finding a good drag bunter.

quote:

I really find it hard to believe that all these young girls are better than Major League hitters.

It's apples and oranges. It's two different games. Softball is not baseball for girls. Of course the baseball players would adapt. If you saw the video the college baseball player said it was tough to pick up the ball from the angle and off the hip. He also mentioned getting on top of a pitch that comes from lower to higher. It's because they're not accustomed to seeing it.

When my daughter was in high school the baseball and softball teams played each other. Defense was played on the pitching appropriate field. The girls were swinging early at first. They weren't accustomed to following a ball for sixty feet. The boys had a tough time getting around with the softball pitcher due to the angle and she threw upper 60's. 70 mph in softball and 95 mph in baseball arrive about the same time.

The girls won. The advantage they had was a future D1 softball pitcher versus the baseball pitcher went D3. It was fun to watch. The kids had a good time with it. The girls earned a lot of respect.

Imagine a MLB pitcher taught to pitch softball. The top men's softball pitchers throw 90+ from 43 feet. There's a lot of guessing going on in the batter's box.

The softball pitcher who smoked a bunch of MLB all-stars was Jennie Finch. She's the all time greatest women's softball pitcher. She's married to Casey Daigle (pitcher) who has bounced around the minors. He was up with the Astros this year. He was one of the six featured players (Young, Quentin, Nippert, Barden, Murphy and Daigle) on the cable series on D'backs top prospects a few years ago. Their son's name is Ace.

the slap will NEVER be a weapon in baseball...

I have a daughter who plays college FP.. the dimensions dictate the way the game is played!

I do often wonder why we see such limited use of the sac or the drag bunt when the situation warrants however.

The reason baseball players strike out vs FP pitchers like Finch is the rise ball.. they have never seen it. Try matching the plane of the swing to the plane of the pitch on that one! LOL

The women can not compete against any traveling men's fastpitch team, period.

A 66 mph riseball from 43 ft mound from a woman, can not compete against a men's 89 mph riseball from a 46 ft mound.

The girls usually appear to be out of the box when they make contact...

What exactly is a slap bunt?

I think I have seen a version of this by Ichiro when he swings, put the ball on the ground on the left side of the field, and gets a running start out of the box.

Stu

quote:

Originally posted by ThinkPitching:
What exactly is a slap bunt?

I think I have seen a version of this by Ichiro when he swings, put the ball on the ground on the left side of the field, and gets a running start out of the box.

Stu

ThinkPitching, I am "thinking" the same thing.

in softball the girls only need 1 foot in the box on contact.

quote:

What exactly is a slap bunt?

I think I have seen a version of this by Ichiro when he swings, put the ball on the ground on the left side of the field, and gets a running start out of the box.

Stu

I was going to write the same thing, looks very similar to me, And I think he is fairly succesful with it.

But it seems like he always gets a flare to left, or a grounder between SS & 3rd when Ichiro does it. I've never seen it create a bunt. I have seen Ichiro drag bunt, though.

quote:

Originally posted by ThinkPitching:
What exactly is a slap bunt?

I think I have seen a version of this by Ichiro when he swings, put the ball on the ground on the left side of the field, and gets a running start out of the box.

Stu

OK I'm not a softball Guy and this isn't a technically perfect explanation but here is the basics of it. A left handed batter will basically take a running start at the ball. They will either lock the wrists an drag or push bunt the ball or they will swing. If the swing they are trying to drive the ball into the ground causing a high bounce, drive the ball on the ground threw the infield or bloop the ball over the infields heads. Although I did see a girl (I think from Georgia) this year that hit HR's that way. The point is that when the ball hits the bat they are almost at full speed heading to first. A fast girl on 60 foot bases is really hard to get out.

So this weekend my 14U majors team makes it to the semi final game and we are playing the number one team in the state. They are the team to beat. We have a 4-3 lead on them in the bottom of the 6th there is 8 min left in the game, runners on 1st and 2nd, no outs, the hitter attempts 2 regular bunts which we are expecting, first one went foul at 3rd and second pitch was for a ball. Very next pitch the hitter shows bunt, my defense starts to move in to position, hitter pulls back the bat and lays/hits a slap bunt to the 6 hole! Nobody home, scores a run and gets a double out of it. Next kid chops one in to the ground bounces over my third baseman's head, game over! I was talking to their coaches after the game and I said I personally have never seen a fast-pitch softball slap bunt in baseball. I told them you pulled out a girls fast-pitch softball hit, congrats.... I was being facetious of course and i was actually irritated that they didn't win it on a good strong hit to show us why they are who they are. Oh well i guess that's why they are the team to beat.  Anyway we lost on a slap bunt and i must say it was hit to a perfect spot. kudos to the hitter.

I can see why that team is the team to beat. Sounds like you got out coached. 

I have coached softball and baseball at the collegiate level.  Slapping in softball is an effective weapon because it only takes a decent runner ~ 3 seconds from Home to 1B.  I don't see it being a long term effective offensive weapon in baseball because of the extra second it takes to get to 1B.  

 

Additionally, the angles on baseball diamond are much different than a softball field.  In softball , the goal is to get the ball to bounce 3 times - usually a hit. That is definitely not the case in baseball. 

 

 

Out coached? ha! I don't think I would give the credit to the coaches on that but maybe to the player. He recognized something and was talented enough to do it.

Ichiro has nearly 3,000 hits in MLB despite not joining until he was 27.  He might have threatened Pete Roses record had he been in the majors at 20 or 21 as he surely could have been.  Of all those hits probably 2/3 are something close to the "slap" approach in softball.

Ichiro's swing is much closer to what top MLB hitters do than to a softball slapper.

What you describe sounds a lot more like what's called slashing than a slap bunt and it's very commonly used by HS baseball teams in our area, so yeah, coaches who don't coach to defend it are going to get beat by it.

 

So how did the opposing coaches react to being insulted that way after the game?

I haven't watched enough softball I guess but it seems like their rules are a little different.  One foot out of the box in baseball means you're out.  Hard to get a running start on a bunt that way.

In softball, slap hitters are in the box when they make contact.  And they do not typically bunt because the 3B in only a few feet away.

That was my first thought.  I'm surprised the opposing coach didn't ask jmayo what it felt to be the first place loser. lol

Coaches laughed, we are all good friends and here for one reason but they knew what i meant because they are known for hitting the ball, they had just 8 to 10 runned a couple of the teams before our game. Wasn't like i was being an ass about it or anything, it was just a good game and the unexpected won it.  I have yet to see it in any tournament that we have played in state or out of state, so no we weren't prepared for it.

If you watch Ichiro in slow motion he has closer to a textbook swing than it appears at full speed.