Who were baseball's best bunters in 2007?

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):

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):

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: