The image of Bryson Stott bunting felt a whole lot like Ben Simmons passing up an easy dunk on Trae Young
Quick note on the photo I posted last night on Twitter that has really picked up steam this morning. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a side-by-side showing Bryson Stott attempting to bunt last night and the infamous photo of Ben Simmons passing up an easy-dunk against Trae Young.
Bryson Stott Bunt Attempt | Ben Simmons Passed Up Dunk
I feel like I have to explain myself a lot lately. What’s going on out there?
Either I have officially lost it or everyone else on social media hasn’t evolved enough to keep up. I’ll let you be the judge of that but let’s clarify a few things about the photo for the uninitiated.
Ben Simmons passing up that dunk on Trae Young was essentially the end of an era for Philadelphia 76ers basketball. Things went off the rails real quick after that, and it’s hard to look at the Bryson Stott bunt in another light.
I’m looking at this photo from an “era” and organizational standpoint. It’s not Bryson Stott. He’s unfortunately an innocent bystander in the overall mess that Rob Thomson and the Philadelphia Phillies created.
Side Note: I have personally never recovered from Ben Simmons. I won’t recover from the Bryson Stott bunt for a very long time, either.
The comparison was literally the first thing I thought of last night. I had the same emotion watching Ben Simmons pass up that dunk as I did when Topper sent Stott out there to bunt with a man on second and zero outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Again, Bryson Stott isn’t to blame. He goes up to the plate and does his job, as instructed. Not to mention, it was a great bunt. The Dodgers executing the perfect Wheel had baseball purists like myself in awe.
Rob Thomson is the one who wanted to “tie the game” instead of going for the kill shot. He didn’t want to pinch run Nick Castellanos and was perfectly fine with an automatic out on the sac bunt. Unfortunately, that didn’t even go his way because the Dodgers went to third, leaving Stott safe at first.
The amount of people who don’t realize that putting an out on the board and not allowing Bryson Stott to swing the bat in that situation is really the worst possible outcome is honestly crazy, but I will refer you to the points I made above on either me losing it or everyone else not being able to keep up.
Either way, there’s a million things wrong with the call to bunt in that situation. There was some analytics floating around social media last night that showed just how bad the call truly was, with the win probability plummeting with an out at third.
Basically, if the Phillies did nothing and Casty remained at second with no outs, they had roughly a 44% to win the game. A successful sac bunt, moving Casty to third and Stott out at first would have dropped that percentage to 42%.
Fine. Whatever. An unsuccessful bunt however, where Casty is out at third, and the Phillies cut their win percentage all the way down to 21%.
Just a ridiculous call there from Rob Thomson. Over 30+ years watching Major League Baseball and I really don’t even think it’s crazy to consider it one of the worst calls in the history of the game.
My thoughts on the Bryson Stott bunt call from Topper:
We’re talking about defining moments in Philadelphia sports history.
The Ben Simmons pass is definitely one of them and the Phillies choosing to bunt in that situation could easily be considered another.
Kyle Schwarber, Ranger Suarez, and JT Realmuto, are all free agents when this season finally comes to its cold, dark end. Nick Castellanos will almost certainly be dealt this winter too, meaning this core and what turned out to be a four year championship window has officially closed.
It’s brutal. I feel your pain. Who knows? Maybe Vintage Aaron Nola steals Game 3 and Ranger Suarez guides us to a win in Game 4. Then you have Ohtani and Sanchez Round 2 at The Bank for Game 5 where anything is back on the table.
I wouldn’t hold your breath, but there’s always a chance. It’s first to 3-wins for a reason, ya know?
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