Bunting hurts Jerad Eickhoff's thumb

Bunting, that part of baseball that sucks and we all hate, was roused with the rest of the sport as spring training began. It is has gotten to work fast, ruining things and hurting people.

Young Phillies pitching prospect Jerad Eickhoff was among the first casualties earlier in the month, taking a ball off the right thumb from a pitch machine during a drill to improve his skills at the despised tactic. Here, let's watch him throw seven scoreless.

Neat.

Before you even ask; yes, the pitching machine has been angrily disassembled and its parts fired into space in different directions. The Phillies' new modern, scientific approach comes with these sort of amenities. The status of Eickhoff's thumb isn't critical; apparently's it's just a minor fracture with some severe enough bruising that he can't throw off a mound. The guesstimate is that he misses maybe a week.

And as for you, bunting - haven't you done enough? Take heed, Pete Mackanin; these are the fates sewn by those who employ the archaic act as a regular strategy. Deep are the graves of those who have succumb to its horrors. It starts with a thumb, sure, but bunting never stops there. It just keeps rolling... rolling... rolling... until you are out and forgotten.

Special thanks to John Stolnis, who alerted bunting of Jerad Eickhoff's good health this morning with his glowing review of how great Jerad Eickhoff is.

Crap. Look what I did. https://t.co/JQdjskZdBs https://t.co/3zx2FsyWov

— John Stolnis (@FelskeFiles) February 19, 2016