Gardner tries to dig up old bunting skills

It happens every spring: Brett Gardner tries to learn how to bunt for base hits and promises to incorporate it into his game in the regular season.

So we asked Gardner the other day: Haven't his coaches always tried to turn him into a slash-and-bunt-and-run guy?

"That's who I am," he said. "That's who I've always been."

So we asked, a little more delicately: Why doesn't he know how to do it better by now?

"It's not something I did a lot," he said. "I take that back. In college, we bunted a lot as a team. Got a lot of hits, but did a lot of sacrifice situations. So I bunted a lot in college and a decent amount my first couple years in the minor leagues. It was something I got really, really comfortable with and got away from. I wish I would have never got away from it."

If Gardner really is going to bat leadoff instead of Derek Jeter against righthanders, he needs to maintain or better his .383 OBP from 2010. Laying a few down and beating them out definitely would help.