The Tigers and Bunting

Most of us who follow Japanese baseball bemoan the fact that managers often signal for a sacrifice bunt with a runner on first and no outs. It seems to be a waste of an out but is it? With Tigers halfway through the season (72 games) it's worth looking at Wada's use of the bunt and whether it's been effective. During these games Tigers have laid down 67 bunts; slightly under 1 per game. Players used for this role (apart from the pitchers) have been: Fujii, Komiyama, Imanari, Okazaki, Shibata, Hirano, Yamato, Shunsuke, Sekimoto, Asai and Toritani. Of the 67 bunts seven have resulted in a run being scored. This represents a success rate of 1 out 9.57 attempts. Not included in the figures are bunts followed by a walk - the walk is considered to negate the bunt and bunts followed by hits and scoring grounders or errors (and there have been some of these).

A total of 60 bunts have resulted in nothing happening except the out. Of the successful bunts, one was a squeeze (6th April), three followed another out but the Tigers were able to take advantage of the runner in a scoring position. Two followed the bunt directly with the next batter driving in the run and one followed a sacrifice fly (bunting the runner from second to third). Two of the successful bunts came in the game against the Giants on 6th April and both were laid down by Komiyama. The first though involved Komiyama bunting runners to second and third with Nohmi as the second batter. Hardly sensible. Hirano would drive in the run but the runner on second would be thrown out. The second bunt Komiyama laid down was Tigers only successful squeeze of the season. Asai bunted in against the Dragons with the score at 6-2 to the Dragons. This brought home a run but still left a big margin. Tigers would never catch up. The only bunt that involved a lot of runs being scored was 9th May against Carp. Tigers seventh and Asai bunted runners runners to second and third. Sekimoto was out but Hiyama broke open the Carp attack and five runs were scored.

Of the games where Tigers have bunted successfully they have won two; 6th April against the Giants and 9th May against the Carp. They have lost three; 14th April against the Dragons, 6th June against the Golden Eagles and 3rd July against the Carp. One game was tied. This involved the bunt followed by the sacrifice fly against BayStars on 30th March. With 60 other bunts failing Tigers bunting has contributed to 7% of Tigers victories. Players with the most bunts are Hirano (11), Shibata (11) and Komiyama (7). Hirano was overused as a bunter in previous seasons as well.

The bunt as a tactic is being overused. Wada is not as bad as Okada was in this respect. Sekimoto wracked up 50 bunts under Okada and four in one game but it is clear that the tactic is not effective. The 9th May against the Dragons is illustrative. Tigers needed more than one run in from the innings. In the 30th March game the sacrifice fly was followed by a two base hit which was wasted. An extra out would have been useful here. The rate at which the bunt is deployed is not productive for Tigers. Tigers have scored 211 runs so far. One is the direct result of a bunt and 10 have had the involvement of a bunt (if we include the big innings on 19th May). Tigers need to abandon the bunt which isn't productive at all. However, we won't see that happening soon.