The October Sacrifice

So now it's okay to bunt?

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There’s the famous story of the 1988 World Series. In his ninth-inning pinch-hit at-bat in Game 1, Kirk Gibson is granted time. Gibson had run the count full against A’s closer Dennis Eckersley. Now, he needed a moment to collect himself. He steps directly back, out of the batter’s box, and recalls the words of advance scout Mel Didier. The situation Gibson found himself in had been discussed the night before. With the tying run in scoring position and a 3-2 count on a left-handed hitter, Didier promised — “as sure as I’m standing here breathing” — that Eckersley would throw a backdoor slider.

Didier’s scouting report is as much a part of that legendary home run as Vin Scully’s call. It was the single greatest achievement in advance scouting. Didier provided indispensable, actionable intelligence.

In the years that followed, clubs began pulling advance scouts off the road, ultimately remaking the position into a video-driven and analytically supported desk job. Former advance scout and friend of WTP Mark Weidemaier attests that, when he began advancing in 1995, nearly every team had a dedicated advance scout on the road. Ten years later, it was only half the clubs. Teams were pulling back — generally citing the cost of supporting the position — even before easy access to league-wide video became anywhere near as good as it is today.

It took a special breed to excel as an advance scout. The scout was in many ways a part of the Major League club, but he was rarely, if ever, with his club. Always one series ahead, the advance scout gathered any serviceable information he could through the power of observation. Was a pitcher tipping his breaking ball? Did a hitter move up or back in the box depending on the count or pitch he anticipated? Does the third base coach change the indicator when he gives signs? The advance scout’s ability to glean information was limited only by his own acumen, focus, attention to detail, and curiosity.

These scouts were awarded some of the perks generally reserved for those on the big league manifest: Major League per diem and, at times, access to first-class hotels. They were afforded greater leniency with airfare and travel reservations. Teams travel from one city to the next on chartered flights. These scouts had to do their best to keep up. And, unlike the players they observed, advance scouts didn’t have off days on the schedule. A day without a game was a day to compile a report. The Major League coaching staff was counting on it.

By 2014, Weidemaier’s final season in the role, there were fewer than five full-time advance scouts in ballparks. These days, during the regular season, there are none.

Thirty nights’ worth of hotel bills plus 30 days of per diem add up. A lower-end estimate (using $75 as the daily stipend amount and $150 as the daily rate at a Marriott property outside of major cities) approaches $7,000. That’s before other various expenses. It’s easy to see why, when faced with budget cuts from above, the advance scouts became expendable.

It’s also easy to laugh at an industry that spends hundreds of millions of dollars on player payroll alone for its pennywise impulses. Ask Jim Harbaugh if he believes in scouting the opponent.

The league as a whole moved away from in-person advance scouting. If no one employed an advance scout, then no single team could exploit the opportunity. Money was saved for all 30 teams. Who needs advance scouts anyway?

Well, then there’s October. What’s irrelevant, redundant, or wasteful in June becomes paramount a few months later.

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Advance scouting for the postseason begins in mid-September. Playoff teams — hopefuls, sure things, and everything in between — deploy scouts to prepare for potential October matchups. Advance teams, usually comprised of two or three people, follow a potential opponent for a week or longer.

The very pursuit that has been deemed expendable by baseball executives around the league returns every September. It left me asking myself: If in-person advance scouting generates real value for playoff preparations, why wouldn’t teams still use it for the regular season?

This season, Seattle finished one game behind Toronto for the final Wild Card spot. Would the cost of an advance scout been a worthy investment if he could have provided information to help the Mariners win one extra game? And if the answer is no, then why do teams deploy numerous advance scouts for the playoffs?

Traditional advance scouting is a forsaken craft. The pilot light might still be on, but no one wants to ignite the burner. Perhaps we should take pleasure — hell, let’s rejoice! — in the fact that a lost art made its triumphant return this month; welcome back to the sacrifice bunt.

The Diamondbacks defeated the Phillies in the NLCS in part because of their ability to do the little things. In the postgame show after Game 7, Curtis Granderson, now an analyst for TBS, said, “Sac bunts and sac flies: Things that we thought are a lost art in this game all came into play tonight… We forget about it for the rest of the season, but when you need to win a game, you go ahead and execute… When the game is on the line, the fundamentals have to come through.”

In the regular season, the 12 playoff teams combined to execute a sacrifice bunt in 7.8% of their games. The number has jumped to 13.9% in the postseason, where we have seen 10 successful sacrifices (including four from the D-backs).

It’s a small sample size, but that’s playoff baseball.

The platitudes over the inefficiencies of the sacrifice bunt don’t account for the nuances of the game. A sacrifice might inhibit a team’s ability to produce a multi-run inning, but when the situation calls for scratching across a single run, batters are squaring around again. Also, not all sacrifice bunts are attempted with the same ambitions.

Blue Jays outfielder Dalton Varsho appeared to be bunting for a base hit in Game 2 of the Wild Card game against the Twins. He was thrown out, but he did advance (or sacrifice) the runner to second base. He gave leadoff hitter George Springer a chance for a two-out RBI. Phillies superstar Trea Turner attempted something similar in the deciding game against Arizona.

Things that we thought were a lost art. They’re reclaiming a place in the game. They’re reaffirming their value. If the Diamondbacks are going to challenge the Rangers, they’ll continue to make the sacrifice.

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