Hyde wants Cowser, Holliday to bunt more, steal more bases

SARASOTA—One of manager Brandon Hyde’s goals this season is to diversify the Orioles’ offense. Last year, the Orioles bunted for just six base hits, tied for 23^rd in the majors. Cedric Mullins was responsible for four of those hits.

“I think you’re going to see some guys work on their base-hit bunting,” Hyde said. “It’s so hard to replicate in a game-like standpoint. You have to get comfortable. It’s a major league pitcher. It’s not a machine shooting out 70-mph, four-seam fastballs, which most guys can do pretty easily.

“It takes a toll on your mindset in a game. I think you’ll see some guys working on it, middle to end of [Grapefruit League games]. Most of these guys, especially the main guys are just trying to get a couple of at-bats right now and feeling comfortable in the box.”

Two players he’d like to see use the bunt more often are Colton Cowser and Jackson Holliday. It might help Cowser, who had 172 strikeouts, ninth most in team history, cut down on the punchouts. He struck out in 30.7 percent of his plate appearances.

“I struck out too much last year,” Cowser said. “I think it’s one of those things where I was able to hit for more power than I ever had last year, too. It’s one of those things finding a balance of, an approach. I’ve done one approach last year really well.

“It’s expanding on that and picking and choosing the time to be ultra-aggressive, and I feel like something I did really well in the minor leagues and college was spraying the ball all over the place.”

The Orioles struck out 1,359 times, about 8.3 per game, which is a lot, but is actually just under league average, 18^th in the majors.

“I think we all want to improve that,” Hyde said. “I think it’s just a weapon for those guys to have in their game, to be able to walk on it a little bit more. Neither of those guys has bunted a ton in their careers. To have that skill is important with everybody. We worked a lot on bunting for a hit this year in spring training and, hopefully, it translates into a game.”

Holliday was such an outstanding player in high school, he never had to think about bunting, but it’s on his mind now, even in early games.

“I thought about it Monday, but I thought, ah, it’s my first at-bat, I’ll try to get a hit. I’ve been working on it out of the games, but hopefully soon,” Holliday said. “I think I squared around  like four or five times last year, and it was wide open every time, and I just stabbed at it,” Cowser said. “It was like, ‘all right, that was dumb. I definitely could have gotten down there.’ Tried to do too much. It’s definitely something that brings value.”

Cowser and Holliday are both left-handed hitters with speed who, like Mullins, could bunt for hits. They also are strong enough to benefit from the shorter left-field wall at Camden Yards.

“I think with the wall moving in, having the ability to go the other way will help with that a lot, too,” Cowser said. “That’s kind of what we’ve been doing this spring, is just kind of seeing a lot of pitches, getting the eyes adjusted and getting more comfortable in the batter’s box again and then start finetuning that approach again.”

Cowser finished second in voting for the American League Rookie of the Year but knows there’s plenty of room for improvement. He stole nine bases in 13 attempts.

“I think overall going into the offseason, the one thing I wanted to do more was steal bases,” Cowser said. “I feel like something I’ve done well in the minor leagues, not so much as in Triple-A, but in the big leagues, I feel like I can be more of a threat out there, but I think it’s one of those things, getting comfortable, being a young guy.

“[The manager] being comfortable in sending you-type situation. That’s something we’ve talked about, me and Hyde. We talked about in our meeting. We were kind of on the same page. I’m looking forward to it.”

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