Press Democrat article by Lowell Cohn on Macha's finally turning to the bunt in an attempt to win games with a team that is short on power and clutch hits and long on hitting into double plays.  Is Macha finally seeing the light about creative ways to "manufacture runs" or is this just a temporary "desperation move"?

Macha gets desperate, signals bunt
Thursday, April 28, 2005

By LOWELL COHN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

OAKLAND

You should know this. A's general manager Billy Beane was not frothing at the mouth, nor did he leap across the room and grab his manager, Ken Macha, by the windpipe and try to choke him to death.

Why might Beane resort to such violent behavior? Oh, that's simple. The A's had just defeated the White Sox, 2-1, and the win had involved a crucial bunt. Yes, you've just read the curse word, the forbidden word -- bunt. The A's, as you know, are a team based on power, based on getting a few guys on base and then having one of their big boys jack the ball out of the park. Except the A's don't have any big boys any more -- they resemble a collection of leadoff hitters -- and that muscle-bound approach has become an anachronism.

So you bet they bunted. Beane visited Macha's office after the game and he praised the manager for calling a bunt. Of course, he then questioned the team's situational hitting. That's because Beane is a perfectionist, a chronic we-can-do-better kind of guy. We understand that now. But let's get back to bunting and situational hitting because the concepts are interesting and instructive.

With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth and nobody out and Erubiel Durazo on first, Macha told Mark Ellis to bunt. And he did. He laid down a beauty, and Durazo chugged into second, which meant the A's exchanged an out for a base. This was almost shocking. In the past, the A's looked at bunting as something only wuss teams did. When Durazo eventually scored the winning run, bringing the A's back to .500, the bunt seemed justified.

In case you're wondering, there is a pattern to this development. In the seventh, Macha had asked Ellis to bunt, which he did, moving Durazo to second, and Durazo went to third on a wild throw. So this is premeditated, all this bunting. Macha also asked Mark Kotsay to lay one down, but Kotsay couldn't do it. Not that Macha blamed him. He said Kotsay is his best bunter.

So, that's the bunting background -- we'll return to it in a moment. But what was Beane's gripe about situational hitting? It's just that the A's twice had a runner on third and neither time could they get him in. This is bad situational hitting. One case was particularly galling. Charles Thomas, who was 0 for his career with the A's at that point, came to the plate in the third inning with Marco Scutaro on third and no one out, and he struck out. A weak grounder to short would have scored Scutaro, but Thomas got nothing and so did the A's.

Which is why, after the game, Beane stood in Macha's office declaring: "Situational hitting is what we've got to work on." Or as Macha said, "With a runner on third and less than two outs, we've been awful." One time he asked Nick Swisher to look for a changeup, and Swisher, who's still learning the game, replied he never goes up there looking for a change.

And that's where bunting comes in. If the A's can't hit -- Eric Chavez is currently smashing the ball at a .181 clip -- they need to do the little things. Hey, you never thought you'd read that sentence. In spring, Macha knew what he had to do. Last year, he wanted to bunt but mostly refrained because he'd just be giving away an at-bat. So he asked coach Ron Washington something really off the wall -- he asked him to teach the A's to bunt while they were bonding in Arizona. This was revolutionary. In the past, the A's bunted twice at the start of batting practice, but they went through the motions because they just knew they'd never actually have to do something as silly as bunting in a real game.

Washington actually set up a bunting station. He put lines on it. One area was a perfect bunt. One was very good. And the other was stinkeroo. After a while, the A's learned to lay them down in the perfect area. For nine straight days they bunted, three groups, a half hour per group.

"Bunting is a fundamental, whether you use it or not," Washington said. "After two days they started getting serious. I don't think the manager's hands should be tied if he decides to put the bunt on and we can't do it. If Macha doesn't do it, it's on Macha. If he does, he has it."

As you can imagine, Washington missed bunting, or as he said, "I always would have liked it in our arsenal."

When they had Mark McGwire or Jason Giambi or Miguel Tejada, the A's could afford to be buntless, could afford to scoff at the lowly bunt. Now they do whatever they can.

Someone asked Macha if the A's philosophy has changed. He didn't answer directly. He is a careful man and philosophy is Beane's department. So Macha said: "I think the philosophy should be, 'Let's win some games.'"

As philosophies go, that makes sense.

Macha swore not to get carried away with bunting, which means he'd like to keep his job.

He even admitted to calling for the hit-and-run three or four times this season. Asked if he ever ordered the squeeze bunt, he shot back, "No."

He may be experimental, but he's not insane.

Contact staff columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lcohn@pressdemocrat.com.