BALTIMORE -- Ever seen a massive flat-screen television sitting on the infield grass of a baseball field angled toward first base? Players on the Orioles' roster hadn't, nor had manager Craig Albernaz. That is, until Saturday afternoon, when first-base coach Jason Bourgeois had one set up during the club's pregame work more than four hours prior to first pitch vs. the Giants.
No, it wasn't there so the guys could watch the Masters Tournament while going through drills. It was positioned to simulate San Francisco pitchers amid baserunning practice, showing the movements and pickoff throws of various hurlers the O's are facing during this weekend's series at Camden Yards.
To be clear -- this TV was massive.
"Eighty, I think. Eighty inches?" Bourgeois said later as he wheeled the television through the basement tunnel of the ballpark and into the hallway entrance of Baltimore's clubhouse.
"I’ve seen it done. Not on the field. I’ve seen it done in the weight room on the turf area. I’ve seen it done in the batting cage, where guys just visually see the rep," Albernaz said. "But Bougie, to his credit, just went, ‘Why don’t we just put it on the field?’ I said, ‘That’s great, yeah. Go ahead. Do what you’ve got to do, as long as there’s power.’ I don’t know how he got power. That’s a long electrical cord."
Players were surprised to see the arrival of the TV, including infielders Coby Mayo and Blaze Alexander, who were part of a group with outfielder Leody Taveras. They didn't know what Bourgeois had constructed, especially when he approached Alexander and said, "Hey, I think I have something really cool."
Here's how it worked.
The videos playing on the TV were zoomed in so far on Giants pitchers that the images of them were life-size, as if they were actually standing on the mound. Then, some of the clips shown from old games were regular pitches, while others were from pickoff attempts.
O's baserunners had to either take off when they saw a certain movement -- something that would indicate the pitcher was throwing to home plate -- or dive back into the bag at first.
"I think it’s a whole lot easier than holding the iPad and getting mental reps looking at it, trying to be out there and doing it somewhat live," Alexander said. "J.B.’s awesome. He researches, he does a lot of his homework. Definitely one of my main goals coming in, I want to steal some bags this year. He knew that one of the first days of spring."
Alexander had two of Baltimore's four steals through its first 13 games. That was already only two shy of the 26-year-old's career high, set last year with Arizona.
Although Alexander hasn't swiped a ton of bases yet, he's gotten plenty of facetime with two highly regarded baserunning coaches in Bourgeois and longtime D-backs first-base coach Dave McKay. The biggest thing Alexander has learned is that reading a pitcher's movements is just as important as pure speed, if not more so. He began to realize that while watching Josh Naylor collect a career-high 30 stolen bases last season between time with Arizona and Seattle.
"It’s not just, ‘Hey, this guy’s fast, he’s going to steal bags.’ No, it’s really looking and deep diving into videos," Alexander said. "It’s those little things, attention to detail and just putting full trust into it."
It surely helps when those videos are on a TV larger than those found in most living rooms, right? It seems like it, considering the Orioles stole three bases in Saturday's 6-2 win over the Giants, with Pete Alonso, Dylan Beavers and Gunnar Henderson each swiping a bag to nearly double the club's season total.
"That TV just gives a better visual and cadence of their lead size, their jumps, where it’s tough to replicate without the actual game pitcher out there," Albernaz said. "It's just a different visual of what can be prepared for tonight’s game, and moving forward, where you’re out on the actual field, the actual stadium, with the TV queued up to get your breaks right, And it allows Bougie to do something you can’t really do in the game, to get your hands dirty, where you can talk through it as the player is doing the rep. Because in the game, you can’t really do that, because the first baseman would hear that and give everything away.
"I love to see it. It was awesome."