October 3rd, 2014 at 6:00 am 
by Robb Anderson I have to admit, I have not watched many Royals games this year nor many American League games in general. I have this long-standing chafing about the DH since its inception, but I really enjoyed watching the wild card game between the Royals and the A’s. Of course it was a great game for the pure drama, but I can’t remember the last time I saw a team-wide game plan executed so well on the base paths. While it is just one game under very specific circumstances, I hope the Dodgers take note (where are you Roger Bernadina?).
The Royals have employed very well-defined team offensive philosophy all year that is designed for their specific abilities. This year they hit very few home runs, took very few walks, stole many bases among many different players, played great defense, and made a lot of contact while striking out very few times. In many ways, it is a classic pre-steroid era National League version of “small ball.” Ned Yost had his strategy problems in this particular game and throughout the year with the management of his bullpen (Shields pulled after 80 something pitches? Ouch!). But I have to admit that watching this masterful old school scheme unfold was fun.
Lorenzo Cain was one of four different Royals players to steal a base in the 7th inning of Tuesday night’s exciting AL Wild Card game – most ever in a single inning during postseason play in MLB history.
(Photo credit – Allison Long)
The Royals took their strengths and cranked it up a few notches on Tuesday night with a very specific plan based upon solid scouting information about Jon Lester. Something that I didn’t know about him is that he is uncomfortable throwing to bases in pick-off situations and susceptible to being distracted on the mound. The Royals went into this game with a specific mission to bother Lester, who oddly enough has not made a pick-off attempt to 2nd or 3rd all year long.
The plan was executed to perfection – run like a rabid pack of wolves on the bases, distract Lester while on base, bunt, and call time as late as possible while at bat. Speed in any form is unnerving for a pitcher (as we have witnessed with Dee Gordon), especially in the post season when pressure is high, stadiums are full, and the noise level is up. In the end, Lester was distracted and it took one of the most successful post season pitchers out of his game plan.
It is impossible to argue that Dee Gordon’s speed is a game-changer. Gordon led all of baseball with his 64 stolen bases during the regular season. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
So, how does all this apply to the Dodger/Cardinal series? To a certain extent, we are comparing apples to oranges because you are not going to change strategy in mid-stream, but it would be advantageous to have a situational pinch runner who can steal a base late in a game. The Dodgers have a lot more power than the Royals and they are not going to convert into a “small ball” team but if they could add one player (apart from Gordon who I am assuming will be starting most games) that could be trusted to steal and run the bases well, it would be a great asset for the late innings.
The Dodgers are surprisingly short on situational speed. I had heard rumors that Roger Bernadina was going to play that role and that was the reason why he was added late in the year. He has stolen 59 bases and been caught 12 times over his career. To me, he would be a logical choice because he has plenty of experience, but he has been sent to do a holding pattern in Arizona. The other option would be Joc Pederson with 30 stolen bases in Albuquerque, but this would be difficult to envision since he has very little experience in the big leagues, let alone being tossed in a pressure situation of that magnitude. Beyond those two, there are very few options – maybe a new role for Ethier (2 for 2 in stolen bases)? Or maybe they have just decided not to carry anyone for that situational role against the Cardinals and the great arm of Molina? Maybe they want to carry an extra bullpen arm instead of a situational late-inning pinch runner? I don’t think anyone will know for sure until later this morning but it would be good to capture a little “Kansas City Chaos” for the late innings. Roger can you hear me?
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Lessons from @Royals small ball – the case for Roger Bernadina on @Dodgers playoff roster @Think_BlueLA http://t.co/seQD1zApqd
What about Crawford? He’s actually healthy and has 20-something steals for the first time in several years.
I am certainly not saying that there aren’t any others in the order to steal (Crawford, Puig, Kemp, even the brittle Ramirez) but that they need a bench player for late inning situational pinch running. If a slower player gets on base (i.e. my favorite station-to-station runner, Gonzalez), they need a solid pinch runner that can steal a base or easily score from second on a single. They don’t have that right now.
The problem is that I see with Crawford is that he is probably going to play all of the time in left. His splits are fabulous batting well against both righties and lefties so he is not going to be platooned. He is actually one of the top batters in the MLB over the past month.
With Barney, I was actually surprised to see how few times he has stolen in his career. I thought he was faster on the base paths. Even though he is a great defensive player with cat-like reflexes, that appears to have not transferred into base stealing. He has 20 career stolen bases with most coming in his first few years in the major leagues – very few SB in the past few years.
Great article, Robb.
In talking with Mattingly, he had indicated that his two biggest concerns heading into this short series are the bullpen and utility bench players. There is no question that Bernadina is the best non-regular base stealer on the 40-man right now, but aside from his rather surprising home run in the final game, he went 2 for 9 (.286) off the bench. Now granted, this is a very small sample size but it is considerably lower that Darwin Barney’s 10 for 33 (.303).
Barney is nowhere near Bernadina when it comes to base stealing success (48% to 83% respectively), but he does have some speed and his defensive-replacement glove is invaluable.
Mattingly also said that he probably will not change his game plan of replacing Ramirez with Rojas and Gordon with Barney late in games, which suggests that both will make the playoff roster.
I agree 100% with foul tip (above) that Crawford is a huge factor this postseason now that he is 100%, but he will, in all likelihood, get most of the starts in LF, so he is not really a situational base runner – although I suppose that he could be used as such if Mattingly has Van Slyke starting against a lefty; but I see him as a PH in that case more so than a PR. I anticipate Crawford and Gordon will test Molina – especially with Molina not at 100% since recently coming off the DL from thumb surgery.
I think you left out Carl Crawford, who’s been feeling a lot better lately and shows he still has the speed and the ability to steal bases. Of course we have to worry about that Molina guy behind the plate when it comes to stealing bases.
You might want to read the other comments.
The Need for Speed in the Postseason, by Robb Anderson @Think_BlueLA http://t.co/Cnj0qBdxeV