[MEbenhoe]

[ QUOTE ]
Hardy, Braun, and Fielder are not "significantly" better than Bill Hall. In fact, Hardy is not at all a better hitter than Hall.

I believe bunting was the correct move in each case last night. The next hitters just came up with the absolute worst AB's they could have.

[/ QUOTE ]

Braun and Fielder absolutely are wayyyyy better hitters than Hall, the only person you could even argue against would be Hardy.

My non-statistical way of thinking about this question was this. With your best 3 hitters coming up and only needing a single to win, except for the slight possibility of a double play, if you have them swing away, the opposing team will need to get through all 3 of your best hitters to prevent you from winning the game. Bunting in this situation effectively takes the bat out of 2 of your 3 best hitters. The #2 hitter now records a basically automatic out, and there is always the possibility of an unsuccessful bunt that results in a pop out or a force out at 3rd, or two foul bunts in a row that result in having to swing away with an 0-2 count. Now even if the bunt does succeed you have men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, and the opposing team can choose to walk your #3 hitter and pitch to the #4 hitter with the bases loaded, so now you've lost the ABs of your 2 and 3 hitter. Or they can pitch to the #3 hitter and if they get him out, walking the #4 hitter becomes obvious. Basically the point is, if the 2 hitter bunts, there is no way the 3 and 4 hitters are both getting an AB unless the bunt was unsuccessful. So now instead of having to deal with all 3 of the team's best hitters, the opposing team effectively only has to get out 1 of your best 3 hitters, and gets their choice of 1 of 2 to face.