For years now, decades even, the sacrifice bunt has been declining as a tool employed by Major League Baseball teams. The reasoning is pretty simple: when statisticians dug into the numbers, they discovered that outs are far more valuable, in general, than extra bases. FanGraphs has an excellent run expectancy chart that we can use to visualize this. And, sure enough, a runner on second with one out has a lower run expectancy than a runner at first with no outs. A runner at third with one out has a lower run expectancy than a runner at second with no outs. On and on. There are no exceptions to this rule.

You can also use this run expectancy chart to determine how often you have to successfully steal a base in order to “break even”. For example, a runner at first with no outs has a run exp

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