Fire Freddie G.
Are MLB managers scared of pissing off their own players? Or have they just become too lazy to apply Baseball Strategy 101 to their decisions? This used to frustrate me to no end with Bobby Cox and I watched it again last night with Freddie Gonzales. It's the bottom of the 8th. Score tied at 3. First batter is AJ Prierzimininski who strokes a single to right. What do you do? Hey, they're putting in a much faster pinch runner. Sweet. Kelly Johnson coming to the plate. Surely he's going to square around and bunt. Let's see if he can lay this one down the first base line and move the go ahead run into scoring position.
I won't go on with this. Obviously, he never went up there with the intent to move the runner into scoring position. He swung away from the start and flew weakly out to center, as did the next two Braves. Is bunting just no longer part of the game? In that situation, laying down a bunt is the ONLY option. There's no thinking about it. No other strategy.