Each year we award baseball's best bunter with the Flat Bat Award. It's another one of those cyberspace awards—no real trophy or anything. Nevertheless, it does recognize a skill that seems to have become a lost art.
First, we look at bunters who are most prolific and most effective at sacrificing for runners on the bases. Second, we look at the best bunters when trying for a hit.
Here are the best at the sacrifice (listed in order of the most sacrifices):
| Juan Pierre | Dodgers | 20 out of 22 | 91% |
| Omar Vizquel | Giants | 14 out of 14 | 100% |
| John Maine | Mets | 14 out of 17 | 82% |
| Aaron Cook | Rockies | 13 out of 13 | 100% |
| John Smoltz | Braves | 13 out of 13 | 100% |
| Corey Patterson | Orioles | 13 out of 14 | 93% |
| Jeff Francis | Rockies | 13 out of 14 | 93% |
Major leaguers were successful 86% of the time when attempting to sacrifice. That's a bit down from the 88% posted in 2006.
When bunting for a hit, the leaders are (listed in order of most bunt hits):
| Willy Taveras | Rockies | 37 for 52 | .712 |
| Norris Hopper | Reds | 18 for 26 | .692 |
| Juan Pierre | Dodgers | 17 for 46 | .370 |
| Luis Castillo | Twins-Mets | 13 for 21 | .619 |
| Corey Patterson | Orioles | 12 for 24 | .500 |
| Gerald Laird | Rangers | 10 for 20 | .500 |
| Jose Reyes | Mets | 10 for 25 | .400 |
The best bunters hit well over .500 when bunting (the 29 players with 5 or more bunt hits in 2007 batted a collective .545 when bunting).
The Flat Bat Award winner for 2007 (for the third year in a row): Willy Taveras. He led the majors in bunt hits with 37 and a spectacular .712 batting average when bunting for a hit.
Here are the winners since 2004:
| Flat Bat Award Winners |
| 2007 Willy Taveras |
| 2006 Willy Taveras |
| 2005 Willy Taveras |
| 2004 Royce Clayton |
Copyright © 2008 by John Dewan.
Permission to reprint or broadcast this information is granted only if used in conjunction with the following citation: "Used with permission from John Dewan's Stat of the Week™,
www.statoftheweek.com."