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If the bunt had worked, Kubel's grounder ends the inning via a double play (assuming the grounder to 1st still happens). Whether or not the bunt had worked, I'd question his decision to do it there. Bad year or not, Mauer is still an elite hitter, and bunting is the last *'ing thing he should be doing in that situation.
If it was Punto, the sacrifice wouldn't have been a bad play. Mauer is one the "best" players in the league because he is supposed to drive guys in, in that situation.Are people really trying to defend the #3 hitter laying down a sacrifice last night?
You don't do it, ever. Period. If you think it was a good play, you are entitled to that opinion but you are wrong.
FTLT is just being an idiot trying to create a fake argument ("you guys wouldn't criticize him if he'd been successful with that bunt!"). Um, yes - we would criticize him if the bunt had worked; good hitters shouldn't be wasting the potential for big innings by bunting. The odds of him executing the bunt perfectly and legging out an infield hit are far lower than the odds of him swinging away and driving in a run or two (even in this subpar year, he's getting a hit 30% of the time; I don't see him successfully getting on base by bunting more than 20% of the time under the best of circumstances).
Even if it works, it is a terrible play. A #3 hitter has to be thinking "RBI!" when he comes up there. If he had Morneau hitting behind him, it is slightly less egregious, but Kubel isn't Justin. The club gave Mauer one of the best contracts in the game. They expect him to get the ball out of the infield when the situation calls for it, which he failed to do in the first but got bailed out when Cleveland flubbed their 3rd straight ball.
Sure. It just seemed like in the first inning yesterday, he was sitting on a pitch trying to hit a 3-run jack. I'd rather he'd have just tried to get a baseknock. But I hear you; he doesn't make a list of Twins problems.
It seems to me like he has regressed over the last 12 months or so. He doesn't run as hard to first as consistently as he used to. There have been a number of times where balls have dropped or players have collided or nearly done so, and he's been in the middle of it. In a noisy stadium, the CF has to call loud and long and not worry how he's going to look on SportsCenter. And I don't remember him having these long stretches where he rolls over everything and hits weak grounders to first.
If they just fixed their pitching problems, I'd be happy. I think that'd go a long ways toward ending this mediocre stretch they're on.
Pitching is always the best solution. Right now with 3 starters in a mess, I don't know how fixable it is in the short term. Then there's the pen -- how many of those guys do we really have confidence in? Fixing the pitching is a great idea. Hopefully somebody in the organization has some brilliant ideas of how to accomplish that goal.
You are right that the execution was bad; IMO, the decision was even worse. He's putting it on Kubel to drive the runners in even if he beats it out (and the Indians weren't flat out giving Mauer the 3B line like teams sometimes do with Morneau.) As risk/reward goes, it was an awful decision.
Three things need to happen to fix the pitching.
Good god, that is bad. How many at-bats does he have with runners on 1st and 2nd with less than two outs (since that's the exact situation he was in last night)?
Except if he *had* executed it, the responsibility for driving in runs would fall to Kubel who is a worse hitter than Mauer. Plus this team's inability to get hits with the bases loaded is well known.