On Special Tactics in Interleague Play

Happy Memorial Day! Thanks to all the service men and women oversees fighting so that I can spend my memorial day watching baseball.

Earlier this afternoon, I was doing just that–watching the Reds-Indians game and trying not to get distracted by the crazy camouflage hats and jerseys. Actually, I really like the hats. I like all the special holiday stuff the MLB does. The pink bats on Mother’s Day are great and so are the other promotional things they do. It breaks up the monotony a little bit and it’s a great way to honor a certain group or “raise awareness.”

Anyway, early in the game, Indians pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez came to bat with Drew Stubbs at first and one out. Jimenez is a former Colorado Rockie so he has some experience  in the NL but for the last few seasons he’s been in the American League and thus a long way from the batters box. Like most AL pitchers, it was clear from the first pitch of the at bat that he barely knew which end of the bat to hold.

Terry Francona, the Indians manger was asking Jimenez to bunt Stubbs to second, a classic and very conventional move, but Reds color commentator Chris Welsh took some issue with the strategy. Welsh, who I don’t really know, but who was smart and articulate the whole game and made a number of particularly interesting and insightful comments, noted that it might make more sense in that circumstance to steal with Stubbs and then let Jimenez try to bunt him to third. His rationale was this:

First, Stubbs is particularly fast. He swiped 30 bags last year, 40 the year before, and 30 the year before that. It is not a stretch to think that he could straight steal the bag especially because… Second, Joey Votto, the first basemen, was trying particularly hard to get a good jump off the base in an effort to field the bunt as quickly as possible. He was anticipating (correctly) that Jimenez would be bunting. Thus, Stubbs was able to get a better lead than normal because Votto was cheating away from the bag and was more or less abandoning his spot on the pickoff. Third, the middle infield was all muddled up. The second basemen, Brandon Phillips, was cheating towards first base because in the event of a successful sacrifice, he would have to cover the base and receive a throw. Therefore, he wouldn’t be able to cover second on a throw. The shortstop would cover second but it’s unconventional for a shortstop to be coving second with a right handed hitter at the plate and you never know what can happen when guys have to do something out of the ordinary.

If Stubbs had stolen, there was a really good chance he would have made it. At least as a good a chance of Jimenez screwing up the bunt. If successful, the Indians would have had a runner on third and two out for the top of the order instead of a man on second and we all know how many more ways there are to score from third than second.

With interleague games come strange and unique tactical opportunities. Welsh isolated one that was only possible because of the speed of Stubbs, the terrible offensive ability of Jimenez, and the assumptions about AL teams made by the Reds’ defense. If managers on both sides are more aware of the opportunities that these games present, they might be able to steal a few extra games. They say that managing today is more about managing people and personalities than the “x’s and o’s” but sometimes some creative in-game managing can really pay dividends.

-Max Frankel