Man on 2nd, 0 out

I love this baseball situation. It is certainly a situation in which managers need to make a decision. Do I sacrifice bunt? Do I ask him to try and hit the ball to the right side and advance the runner? Do I ask him to simply swing away?

I'm of the opinion that the sacrifice bunt gives away too many potential opportunities for the offense. In other words, I think I can advance the runner without necessarily giving up the automatic out. I love the bunt for a hit in this situation.

The batter attempts to bunt for a hit and if unsuccesful you have still created a runner on third, 1 out situation. If he is safe you have a 1st and 3rd 0 out situation.

If I choose not to bunt I do not ask my batter to try and hit the ball to the right side. I do not do this because of the manner in which we teach our runners at 2nd to advance to 3B. Our runners are taught to advance to 3B if they can make the ball go behind them, or if the 3B moves in. However, there are some other special ways we can advance and it is because of these ways that I would often eschew the idea of hitting it to the right side.

Here it is- we call it the break play. If the 3B fields a routine ground ball we have our runner break when he "commits" to throwing to 1B. If he arm fakes we are in trouble. But, in this situation where the defensive player has a sure out at first- he won't arm fake. Becuase he'll make the throw to 1st we advance to 3B on a routine ground ball to 3B.

One more note for the very advanced base runner. You can also break on the catcher who must record the out at 1B when a strikeout happens.

With all of these ways to get to 3B it seems defeating to ask a batter to "sacrifice" bunt to achieve that same goal.