Question on bunt defense stragetizing

[jofus]

This may be a stupid question, I'm not sure....I think it was discussed here once a while back, or it may have been one of the umpteen other boards I mess around on.

Anyway, has anyone ever experimented with having the 2nd baseman move in for a probable bunt situation instead of their 1st baseman (yes, they're still baseMEN to me, even if they are girls )?

I was just wondering....one of our 1st basemen is lefthanded, which always seems like a slight disadvantage to me, because they have to turn their back to the runner to throw back to first (although, I guess they may be better suited for watching a runner from 2nd and/or 3rd), and our 2nd is very quick and athletic. I was thinking about experiementing with our 2nd moving up near the pitcher and leaving our 1st back (farther back than on normal defense set).

So, has anyone tried this, or thought it through in more detail than I have? Just looking for opinions, if everyone says it's stupid, then I probably won't even try working on it.

TIA

[Tucson]

I saw it work very well in SO. IL. several years ago. They took a VB player, complete with knee pads and she dove around between 1st and the pitcher. She was awesome. All they had to teach her was to throw 20 feet to first base.

[SnocatzDad]

That's a standard defensive set that I've heard many teams ( and ours ) refer to as their "One-Back" defense. 1B stays home. Depending on the situation 2B or Pitcher has responsiblity for bunts on 1B side. Our team uses it as a slapper defense where we know it's going to be a quick play and someone needs to be on the bag immediately. We use it sparingly, I still think an agile 1B has a better play here to field a ball down the line and tag the runner coming up and have an opportunity to make another play from there.

This sounds like the bunt defense adopted by coaches that are hiding their slowest plodding infielder at 1B as mentioned in another active post.

[wadeintothem]

I've seen it many times.

[DonnieS]

We used this defense back in the 10u/12u time frame in some bunting situations. To add to this, we also brought in everyone on the dirt. Our situation was the opposing team wasnt hitting our pitcher and bunting was their only option. 3rd and 2nd were up very close, we had a big tall (not very fast) kid at 1st - a lefty with incredible range, the 2nd baseman was the most athletic kid on the team. Worked very well at that age.

[MADSKILZ]

I have used it when I had a particularly accurate pitcher, strong catcher, and a runner on first that I thought might be too aggressive in a bunt situation. The idea being that my 1B stayed back, called a good pitch for the catcher to handle and attempt the pickoff at first. It worked several times.

Another scenario is that if you have a left handed 1B. Occasionally runners going to 2B on the bunt will round 2B. With a lefty at first, once the play is made at 1B, she can turn and fire to 2B behind the runner much easier than a righty at 1B - almost a DP type move, only in the other direction. If the runner isn't paying attention and rounds the bag, she's dead. Used this alot. make sure Pitcher covers third or runner takes to bags on bunt.

FWIW.

[jofus]

Well...the 1st baseman that I'm referring to (the left handed one) isn't slow or plodding, just not as quick as my 2nd.

Actually (and granted, this is partly an indication of how "good" her high school team was), she started several games at SS for her varsity HS team, as a left-handed Freshman (I admit, she is pretty quick in getting spun around to get the ball to first, and has a good arm, but I have no intentions of her playing at SS )

Thank for the responses so far, it sounds like I may not be completely out in leftfield somewhere if I try this, but I hadn't seen it tried before personally

Thanks MAD, like I mentioned, our leftie has a good arm, I will work on that also (throw to 2nd).

[GIMNEPIWO]

So back in Rec doing 18U's ... I've got this 'slow & plodding' F3 ... whenever she 'charges' a bunt just ends up being in the way ... so in the State Tourny I tell her I want her staying back, let F1, F2 & F5 handle it ... 4th game, 5th inning, we have the top seeded team on the ropes when a gal takes a swing and tops the ball ... lil' squibler towards first come within 6 feet of my F3 ... all she has to do is pick it up and step on the bag, inning over ... ( here is where everything goes into slow motion ) I can see her thinking ... she turns and heads to the bag without the ball and waits on the throw that isn't coming ... when I asked her WHAT she was doing? ... she said of course " you told me to stay back "