Perhaps you read about the fake controversy last week when Colby Rasmus laid down a bunt with 2 outs and was called "selfish" by the opposing team's pitcher.

In case you missed it, here's a link to the article: http://espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/story/_/id/11237346/colby-lewis-texas-rangers-problem-colby-rasmus-bunt

My take on the situation is that it is completely insane to call anyone selfish who does something to reach base for his team. Every hitter's job is to do something in his at-bat to help his team score runs and the single best way to do that is to get on base. Rasmus did nothing wrong by bunting and Colby Lewis was a knucklehead for calling him out (maybe he was just mad he lost the battle of the "Colbys"...ZING!).

But this fake controversy does give me a chance to vent on something that I do find selfish, and that's when a power hitter doesn't bunt when there's a massive shift on.

(To be perfectly clear, I believe bunting should be illegal in Little League so this is strictly a MLB issue.)

When David Ortiz hits, every opposing defense puts a shift to the right side of the field that is so severe, often there is literally NOBODY on the left side of the infield. The 3rd baseman is playing on the 2nd base bag, the SS is playing where 2nd plays and the 2nd baseman is playing in shallow right field.

Now, if Big Papi really wanted to help his team score runs (rather than just try to hit HRs), wouldn't he lay a bunt down ANYWHERE on the left side of the infield to get a hit and reach base? If I was the Red Sox manager, I would bat him lead-off because he would be guaranteed to reach base EVERY SINGLE AT-BAT! Surely a lead-off hitter with a 1.000 OPS is more valuable than a clean-up hitter who's going to hit 25-30 HR in a season.

You're probably thinking, "well, if he starts bunting, won't the defense shift back to their normal positions?" And then answer is, "absolutely!" But when they do, what's now happened? The defense is now less prepared to defend against the pull-happy Papi by being forced to play him straight away and he'll get more hits swinging away without the shift than he would with the shift on.

And maybe you're thinking, "he's not getting paid to bunt." And you'd be absolutely correct. But he IS getting paid to help his team win ball games and continually pulling balls into the shift when bunting would get him on base more often (with nobody on ahead of him) and would help his team win more games.

Short-term: get a whole bunch of bunt hits. Long-term: get more real hits when the defense is forced to shift back to protect against the bunt. No-brainer in my book, but Papi appears to be too selfish to lay down a couple bunts. His ego as a homerun hitter prevents him from being an unselfish player and that has always bothered me about him.

All that said, I don't think there is EVER a correct situation for a Little Leaguer to bunt. Young hitters should be learning how to hit - plain and simple - and should be swinging at as many hittable pitches as possible in every at-bat.

Thanks for listening to my rant :-)