Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made his MLB career as a base stealer, swiping 243 bags over his 10 years playing. But as a skipper in 2023, the running game has been one of his club’s biggest issues.
MLB increased the sizes of bases and limited how often a pitcher can pick off to encourage more steals this season, and the results for the Dodgers have been nothing short of a disaster.
In their previous series, the Dodgers allowed 13 stolen bases in just three games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs fell one bag short of matching the record for the most steals against the Dodgers in a three-game series, which was 14 by the Boston Doves from September 28-30, 1908.
But it isn’t just something the Pirates took advantage of. On Friday, the St. Louis Cardinals stole three more bases. L.A. has had more steals attempted against them than any other team in baseball (47) and the club has yielded 41 stolen bases, 13 more than the next squad (San Diego Padres, 28).
It’s a prominent issue that is going to cost the Dodgers wins, so it’s something that Roberts said the team needs to fix as soon as possible, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“It’s a different game one year removed,” Roberts said. “There’s more activity on the bases across the league and so we’ve got to be proactive and move quicker as far as adjusting and value the importance in how we control the running game.
“It’s essentially giving guys 90 feet and you saw front- and back-end stolen bases against us and then a flare and you score two runs. It’s hard to get 90 feet, but when you’re giving it away, they’re going to take it. We just have to be better. Can’t keep everybody off base, but when they do (get on base), it can’t be a free 90 feet.”
Part of the reason other teams have had so much success is due to the Dodgers’ catching situation.
Austin Barnes has one of the slower pop times in baseball at two seconds, with throws that average 75 mph. He saw the majority of starts while Will Smith was out with a concussion.
Smith grades out much better in his skills to control the running game, with a 1.94-second pop time and an average throw of 82 mph.
Although the difference of 0.06 seconds doesn’t seem significant, Smith is ranked 11th in the league while Barnes is ranked 27th among qualified catchers, and that slight difference is sometimes all that’s needed to throw a runner out.
However, most stolen bases are taken on the pitchers, who have much more control over how successful opposing teams are at swiping bags.
A pitcher’s time to the plate, varying the speed of how long they come set, paying attention to the runner and using timely pickoff attempts have far more of an impact than a catcher’s ability to throw runners out.
It will take a group effort from the Dodgers’ pitching staff to work on limiting more stolen bases, and so far it’s not something they’ve found a solution for.
Why don’t the Dodgers steal bases?
On the flip side, the Dodgers aren’t utilizing the stolen base much themselves. They have 11 combined steals as a team on 15 attempts in 2023. James Outman is tied with Barnes for the team lead with two each.
In previous seasons, attempting to steal bases wasn’t worth the risk of being thrown out, but now with the higher success rate, data suggests it’s much smarter to take the free bags.
The Dodgers have never been a team to run much, and their roster currently isn’t constructed to steal. But the game has changed and they need to find a way to add stolen bases to their arsenal.
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