CHICAGO -- It was one of the first promises Mike Shildt made upon taking over as the Cardinals’ manager, vowing that the Cardinals, who ranked among the worst baserunning clubs in the Majors toward the end of Mike Matheny’s tenure, would become better.
One month into the 2019 season, they’ve separated themselves as one of the best.
With four players stealing bases on Saturday, the Cardinals bumped their season steal total to a National League-most 23. Eleven players have tallied at least one, including pitcher Jack Flaherty. The bigger surprise, though, may be that noted speedster Harrison Bader is still looking for his first. Kolten Wong leads the team with six.
That a roster not necessarily deep in burners is running the bases so proficiently appears to be the product of the “fine focus,” as Shildt describes it, in this area of the game.
“Speed is helpful, but you don’t have to be fast to be a good baserunner,” Shildt said. “Baserunning is probably the least sexiest part of the game, in general, but it’s also where you win a lot of games. Outside of hitting a home run, you have to run the bases to score every single time.
“This is a group that is very sincere about putting the time and effort into it, because that’s what a lot of baserunning is. It’s being on time and giving the effort and anticipating the situation.”
In previous years, the Cardinals would preach and encourage aggressiveness. In practice, however, it often resulted in recklessness. Players say that’s because there was a lack of instruction to accompany the message.
Now, baserunning is highlighted daily in Shildt’s pregame “ball talk” meetings. The group will look back at baserunning examples, good and bad, to learn from them and also identify weak spots they may be able to take advantage of during an upcoming game.
“When you do all that the way that our group does it, you can’t help but run the bases better,” said Matt Carpenter, who stole his second base of the season on Saturday. “There’s preparation and knowledge, intention and focus to it. We don’t have a ton of speed, so for guys like us to steal bases, you have to be prepared, you have to take advantage of something a pitcher is doing. We’ve been able to do that.”
For context, the Cardinals didn’t steal their 23rd base last season until the team’s final game of May. Three years ago, the Cards finished the year with a total of 35. The club’s stolen-base success rate of 77 percent this year ranks fourth in the NL.
But the team’s baserunning improvements go deeper than simply swiping bases. The Cards also rank first in the NL with an extra-bases-taken percentage of 51, a Baseball-Reference metric that indicates the rate at which a team goes first to third on a single or scores from first on a double. The Cardinals' 51 percent rate is up from 41 a year ago. Players have also turned singles into doubles simply by running hard out of the batters’ box.
FanGraphs’ baserunning metric (BsR) which converts all these baserunning plays into runs above and below average, also ranks the Cardinals as the NL’s best baserunning team this season
“I use the analogy: Peel the onion back,” Shildt said. “Now we’ve got a different layer to it. We went from a couple guys being in a different place with it to a lot of guys being synced up with the verbiage, seeing the game, slowing the game down, the awareness to stay present to run the bases because there’s a lot of mental focus to it. This group has been intentional about it, and you can see the progression in the numbers.”
Martinez begins rehab assignment
Carlos Martinez’s path back to the Majors moved to Peoria on Sunday, where he pitched an inning for the Class A Advanced Chiefs to begin a Minor League rehab assignment. Martinez’s appearance was brief, as he needed only six pitches (five strikes) to induce three groundouts in the fifth inning. He did not return for a second inning of work.
The Cardinals have not announced how long they plan to keep Martinez with Peoria, though he’ll likely soon start climbing the affiliate ladder en route to St. Louis. By rule, the rehab assignment can last up to 30 days.