[jtur88]

One of my biggest gripes about Tony LaRussa is his zeal for wasting his number two hitter by bunting over his leadoff man. Presumably, a decent leadoff man has a certain capacity to steal, and presumably, a decent number two hitter can help the team in more fruitful ways than sacrificing his plate appearance. Yet, TLR does it over and over and over and over again. If he is always going to bunt with his number two hitter, why doesn't just put the pitcher in the number-2 spot, since he's not batting him ninth anyway. Often, the number two hitter just squares around once, early in the count. But if he squares around and takes a called strike, he has just put himself at a more disadvantaged count when the bunt/take sign is off.