Hitting and Hitters Discussion Drag bunt vs. Slap

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I've watched a lot of umpires this year not call batters out on a 2 strike foul while attempting to drag bunt. They all say it was not a drag but an attempt to slap, If there is no forward motion of the bat wouldn't that be considered a bunt? Just because you are running forward and holding the bat out level would that not be considerd a drag?

 

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OFC's resident UICs are the best on this point. But wouldn't there need to be some kind of swing to distinguish a slap from a drag?

 

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The rule book defines a slap as a modified swing. So if the batter's is not breaking the wrist as they drag bunt, blue missed the call.

 

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The batter should break the wrist, same as if she were standing and swinging vs. bunting. But I too have seen this not called and at our last tourney the home plate umpire clearly did not like me pointing this out to him after a girl attempted a drag bunt with two strikes and fouled it back. It was pretty obvious, the coach did not know the strike count, but quickly made the adjustment after my argument and the girl promptly smacked a single!! Oh well.

 

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Crush1, this has happened to us about 3 times this year. Your excactly right, once I questioned it to the umpire then they seemed to pay closer attention, but at that point its too late.

 

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I'm lucky, the two times it has happened to us Blue made the right call.

 

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Why, what's the difference on a check swing, no broken wrist through the strike zone that gets appealed and reversed to a strike. The wrists didn't break on those, so to say the wrist is a key component is not a fair judgement.

If the bat comes through the zone then it should be a swinging type strike with a foul ball considered.

try and get the wrist to come through down on the top of the ball to make it look as close to a swing is what I say...

Too much of a shade of grey area with this one.

 

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Unfortunately, I've had this call go against me twice this past weekend. Blue's explanation, they felt as though at point of contact it was a bunt attempt even though she followed through after contact. In one instance, she slapped the ball off the ground and struck it a second time on her follow through, and of-course I lost that argument as well. I asked both umpires for their interpretation, and both stated that they wanted to see more of a full swing, and both did admit it is a judgment call. I had an umpire in the winter tell me that as long as the bat was out front it was considered a slap attempt. Another case, girl had 2 strikes and our pitcher jammed her hard inside, she clearly couldn't get bat out front and umpire judgment call was that she made an attempt to slap but could not due to being jammed. I would like to see more consistency with this call.

 

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We had one called against us on a girl who swung, but the ump stated it wasn't HER INTENTION to swing.

Had one last night some guy in the stands complaining after a ball popped out of the catcher's mitt forward and hit the bat and said that's a strike.... If that were true I'd just have my catcher pop it forward all day to the bat for strikes... He was serious about it...

 

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Yes, this is umpire judgment (swing vs. bunt).

The starting point is the rule book definition of a "bunt". Speaking ASA, that definition is: "A pitched ball that is intentionally tapped with the bat, slowly, within the infield". Generally speaking, the rule is essentially the same for most other rule sets.

On one end of the scale we have a "conventional" bunt. Those are fairly obvious and easy to call. The batter either squares or pivots and holds the bat almost staionary in front of her and tries to lightly tap the ball.

On the other end of the scale, the full-fledged "slap" is also easy to see- and definitely NOT a bunt! The bat takes an arcing path toward the ball, with the bathead traveling in a distinct semi-circle. The batter is making an effort to meet the ball with some force, as opposed to letting the ball just tap the into bat.

Somewhere in the middle of this scale is the "drag" bunt. Depending on what the batter does, the scale might tip either way towards a "swing" or a "bunt".

The judgment on "swing" or "bunt" is kind of similar to the judgment on a checked swing. Did the batter try to hit the pitch, or was she trying to let the pitch hit the bat? Was the bat brought around from a conventional, behind the head, position into the hitting zone to meet the ball, or was the bat held stationary, over the zone, prior to contacting the pitch? Was there "follow through" by the bat after the pitch was contacted, or did it remain relatively where the ball hit it?

If it's a conventional bunt, or a slap attempt, those are pretty easy to call. The grey area in the middle requires good judgment to quickly sort out the action and make the right call.