Why Lance Lynn’s criticism of Angels’ Andrew Velazquez’s bunt makes absolutely

For as long as baseball has been around, so too has the bunt. Dickey Pearce, who played for the Brooklyn Atlantics and St. Louis Brown Stockings in the 1870s, perfected the play — then known as a “tricky hit.”

Dickey was definitely tricky. The bunt was a staple of his career. And it remains a staple of the game to this day.

It is accepted as a completely normal part of any ballgame at every level, in virtually any context, by pretty much every player. That is, except for one. Lance Lynn.

In the second inning of the Angels’ 9-7 loss to the White Sox on Thursday, Andrew Velazquez bunted. It was a great bunt. He has a lot of speed. And the pitcher, Lynn, does not. Velazquez beat out a hit in the hopes of helping extend his team’s 4-1 lead at the time.

It was as conventional a baseball play as any other made that afternoon. Not to Lynn.

“Yeah. I don’t like it,” the burly right-hander said after the game, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Why, he was asked.

“Why? Grown man, swing the bat,” Lynn said. “He tried it again, too. That was embarrassing. Some people search for hits.”

Lynn went on to say that it “for sure” fired him up.

Let’s dissect this. There are, from time to time, old-school players and coaches who make silly and outdated comments. Former Rangers manager Chris Woodward complaining about Fernando Tatis swinging at a 3-0 pitch while leading by seven runs in 2020 comes to mind. Others don’t like bat flips or showboating. It happens, everyone makes fun of them and we all move on.

But this opinion from Lynn might take the cake of crazy baseball opinions. It doesn’t fit the box of old-school or unwritten rules. It’s based on no viable logic connected to the game or how it should be played. Velazquez was optioned to Triple A after the game on Thursday, so he wasn’t available to respond to Lynn’s remarks.

Ozzie Guillen was able to respond, though. The former White Sox manager took Lynn to task on the team’s pregame show Friday.

“Pitchers don’t like it because it makes them look stupid chasing balls,” Guillen said. “You see him chasing after that ball? He looked like a 105-year-old man. … Come on, bro.”

It takes some time to break down the absurdity of Lynn’s comments. Let’s acknowledge that Lynn has had a great major-league career spanning 13 years, and two All-Star games. He finished in the top 10 of Cy Young voting three times.

He’s known as an intense player, but a well-liked team leader with a good sense of humor. This story is nothing personal, and he’s entitled to his opinion — as flawed as it is. Just a good, old-fashioned baseball debate.

But he can’t be let off the hook too easily. And we won’t let him. Angels manager Phil Nevin, who spent time with Lynn when Nevin coached with the Yankees, also pushed back.

“I love Lance Lynn,” Nevin said. “He’s got that old-school Nolan Ryan mentality, ‘Nobody should bunt on me.’ But if —”

Here, Nevin…