Bunting seems so much worse this year

Last year you knew you could combat the bunting clowns if you put the bunt defense on. You would see the person with the bad record whose lead off Lofton was batting 450 and everyone else was batting 220. Put the bunt defense on and he would strike out or bunt into an out. If I’m asleep and forget to shift the defense and they get it down that’s on me.

This year I put the bunt defense on and they seem to drop one down the first base line and my first baseman watches them run right by. This has happened to me three times in the last few days.

Bunt defense never worked. You gotta manually bring the 2B down to play 'in' and bring the 3B down the play 'bunt defense'. Nobody will successfully bunt to get on this way. Thank me later.

@raesone_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

Bunt defense never worked. You gotta manually bring the 2B down to play 'in' and bring the 3B down the play 'bunt defense'. Nobody will successfully bunt to get on this way. Thank me later.

That’s not how they are beating it. I ve had two bunted right at my first baseman and one popped up in front of the pitcher. All three beat it out. First baseman was in on the grass.

I've played plenty of bunters, as the person above said, that defensive shift works, bunters have a nightmare against me because when there is a speedster up, I look quickly to see how many XBH they have, and if not a lot, I put in that formation and then they can't get bunts down.

I just wish I could get a pitcher to drop a sacrifice. I bet I’ve tried 15 this year and have not been successful on any.

@raesone_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

Bunt defense never worked. You gotta manually bring the 2B down to play 'in' and bring the 3B down the play 'bunt defense'. Nobody will successfully bunt to get on this way. Thank me later.

Awesome advice. Quick question however. So I know how to shift into bunt defense, but how do I switch to bunt defense and then manually move my second baseman in?

@go4stros25_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

@raesone_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

Bunt defense never worked. You gotta manually bring the 2B down to play 'in' and bring the 3B down the play 'bunt defense'. Nobody will successfully bunt to get on this way. Thank me later.

Awesome advice. Quick question however. So I know how to shift into bunt defense, but how do I switch to bunt defense and then manually move my second baseman in?

Press down to bring up the menu, then press triangle on PS. Not sure about Xbox. Then on that menu you can scroll over to individual batters and arrange your infield accordingly.

So much better than years past, dunno what you're saying.

@pfcorporate_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

@raesone_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

Bunt defense never worked. You gotta manually bring the 2B down to play 'in' and bring the 3B down the play 'bunt defense'. Nobody will successfully bunt to get on this way. Thank me later.

That’s not how they are beating it. I ve had two bunted right at my first baseman and one popped up in front of the pitcher. All three beat it out. First baseman was in on the grass.

The problem is that you brought the 1B in on the grass, don't do that. Just leave him at the 1B bag like he normally does, everything that goes down the 1B line he can charge and pick up for the tag or force out and they can't bunt it passed him. Everything that goes to his right will be for the 2B who you moved in and because you moved him in, you will always be in time to field that ball. The whole right side of the infield is protected against the bunt this way. The left side is protected by the 3B playing bunt defense. If it goes in an angle towards the SS, the pitcher will make the play.

The only way you can still get beat, is when they lay down a perfect bunt in between the catcher and the pitcher. When this happens, you need to have a good animation from either the catcher or the pitcher. If they have mediocre fielding, you will get beat by this and there's no way to combat this unfortunately. Luckily though, these perfect bunts are very rare and end up being popped up or lined straight towards the pitcher 9 out of 10 times.

Hope this helps.

@go4stros25_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

@raesone_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

Bunt defense never worked. You gotta manually bring the 2B down to play 'in' and bring the 3B down the play 'bunt defense'. Nobody will successfully bunt to get on this way. Thank me later.

Awesome advice. Quick question however. So I know how to shift into bunt defense, but how do I switch to bunt defense and then manually move my second baseman in?

Yeah you can do that just like @derfturf0530_PSN described. I would advise anyone who's not completely familiar with these strategies to go into a vs CPU game and just mess around with all the possibilities on the defensive side. There's no pause timer so you have all the time in the world to try out everything. Most stuff is self explaining, you can move the entire infield/outfield into a certain shift but you can also move specific positions manually. You can also set them for an entire game or just for that at bat. Again, just mess around with it and you'll get the hang of everything.

@raesone_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

Bunt defense never worked. You gotta manually bring the 2B down to play 'in' and bring the 3B down the play 'bunt defense'. Nobody will successfully bunt to get on this way. Thank me later.

This is my bunt defense also. Usually works, but I did lose a game a few days ago because in the 8th or 9th the guy bunted one that popped up and went over my second baseman's head and then 95 Buxton laid another down the 1B line and my pitcher didn't cover first or field it. He then squeezed with gallo two batters later on a ball up and in out of the zone.

Sort of related, but this was posted on reddit and it's quite something.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBTheShow/comments/nbt9a4/holy_crap/

@pfcorporate_psn said in Bunting seems so much worse this year:

Last year you knew you could combat the bunting clowns if you put the bunt defense on. You would see the person with the bad record whose lead off Lofton was batting 450 and everyone else was batting 220. Put the bunt defense on and he would strike out or bunt into an out. If I’m asleep and forget to shift the defense and they get it down that’s on me.

This year I put the bunt defense on and they seem to drop one down the first base line and my first baseman watches them run right by. This has happened to me three times in the last few days.

Bunting is out of control. Thats all these cheese heads do in RS, specially on HoF for somereason. I know its not easy to hit but good lord. You cant stop it. Bunt defense garbage, playing infield in is garbage. Always something online