Bunting

"Bunting is one of the easiest things that you can do in baseball," says the guy in this video. I'm pretty sure this is, if not incorrect, a silly thing to say, because the process of rerouting a projectile traveling upwards of 90 mph should never, ever, under any circumstances be described as easy. Saying bunting is "one of the easiest things to do in baseball" is kind of like saying gargling is the easiest part of gargling motor oil: that is, still not easy, and with risk of death (see: Ray Chapman).

Ask Trey Hillman whether bunting is easy. His team, apparently, is still figuring it out:

As rain fell on a cold, dismal Friday at Spring Training, the Royals got in their first work under game conditions with Hillman an intense observer behind the mound.

He found flaws in both the batters' bunts and the way the pitchers and infielders handled them.

Fortunately:

He did see improvement in Tony Pena, who had problems bunting at times last season.

Pena also had problems hitting, as evident by his .267/.284/.356 line and OPS+ of 66. Makes you wonder: if you had a team of Tony Penas, would it be better if they did nothing but attempt bunts -- drag bunts, push bunts, sacrifice bunts, suicide squeeze bunts -- in every plate appearance? What would their expected run table look like? Guarantee not like this.

POSTSCRIPT: Interesting read of the day: the story of Tony Gwynn Jr., the Padres and that hit.