- Sep 6, 2014
- 476
- 658
It did work. The runners were moved into scoring position.
No, it did not work. The goal is to score runs, and that did not happen.
However, baseball is a lot like poker and 21 ... the "right call" is based on the odds, given the situation ... not the outcome. Even if it doesn't work in any given single instance, which it often doesn't, coaches and players who understand and use the odds will win much more consistently than those who don't.
(That said, I'm not sure that sabremetrics stats, from all of professional baseball, averaging all hitters against all pitchers, without regard for the bunting skill of the batter nor where in the batting order this happens, are necessarily the correct stats to be applying to the specific situation we were in. And I lack enough interest to become well-educated enough personally to have a "good move/bad move" opinion based on the empirical evidence.)