I have been talking about the Cubs’ poor baserunning for 2-3 years, and last August posted a number of comments regarding this. I will not duplicate that post, and will focus on one point I made a year ago: “Making an out at third is, in my opinion, one of the most foolish plays in sports. You are already in scoring position, and the risk/reward doesn’t make sense. If I was a manager, I would tell my players unless it’s 100% you’ll be safe at third, you don’t go. I’ve seen Cub players thrown out at third on balls that got away from the catcher. Outs at third base ruin innings.” Other than a force out, there is no excuse to make an out at third in my opinion.
I have spoken about how their reckless baserunning has cost them, and will provide some examples here. In addition, poor sliding technique has also cost them, and neither of these issues seems to be addressed. Many of the games this past week featured terrible baserunning, first outs at third base, runners being safe but coming off the bag, etc. I will provide details. The question is if and when Joe Maddon will address this. I’ve been saying this for years, and if the last week doesn’t bring changes, then it’s fair to question the strategy.
Unless the throw beats a runner to the base and the runner has to avoid a tag, the runner needs to slide directly into the base and time the slide so he hits the base as quickly as possible and doesn’t overslide the base, but stops once he makes contact. Today’s baserunners slide too late, and their momentum takes them over the bag or past it, and they lose contact temporarily. Runners have to be drilled to slide into the bag, with their leg outstretched and on the ground so it hits the base as quickly as possible and stays there. I am against headfirst slides due to injury concerns (Kris Bryant’s year has been significantly affected by an injury from a headfirst slide), but if a runner does that, the same has to hold true for his hand. He must time the slide so his hand hits the base as quickly as possible and stays there. Time and again Cub runners overslide bases and lose contact, and Maddon doesn’t address this.
On July 31 against the Pirates, Addison Russell doubled in a run in the top of the 9th inning to cut the Pirate lead to 5-4, and was then out at third for the first out of the inning trying to stretch the double into a triple. He was actually initially safe, but did not time his slide properly and lost contact with the bag and was tagged out. Rather than having the tying run on third with no outs in the 9th, they had no one on and one out and lost. Let’s look at Russell’s mistakes on this play. One was trying for third when the play was going to be close. Two was making the first out at third. Three was not timing his slide properly. These are all common mistakes Cub players continually make. Four, in my opinion, was sliding headfirst.
In a recent game prior to this, Ian Happ tried to steal third and would have been easily out, but the Cubs got lucky the throw was terrible. Earlier in the year, Contreras was out at third on a key play after initially being safe, but he was unable to maintain contact with the base.
The next day, August 1, the Cubs are up 2-0 against the Pirates in the first inning, and have first and second, one out. Baez is on second. He gets picked off while trying to steal third, but the pitcher threw the ball away and Baez scored and the Cubs went on to score another run, for a 4-0 first-inning lead. Trying to steal third was idiotic and he should have been easily out, but the Cubs got lucky that the pitcher threw it away. Instead of ruining an inning by being out and costing the Cubs the additional 2 runs, they got lucky. This doesn’t change the fact that it was not smart for Baez to try to steal third and risk a big inning, which is what the inning was looking like. Since this worked, there doesn’t seem to be an effort to get the players to stop doing this. In the same game, in the 9th inning, Zobrist led off with a single, and then was out at third on an infield single by Heyward, again making the first out of an inning at third when an out should never be made at third except for a force. The mistakes just continue and don’t get addressed.
On August 3, up 1-0 in the second inning against the Padres, Schwarber singles with one out. The batter hits a high hopper to the pitcher, who throws out the batter at first for the second out. Schwarber, instead of staying in scoring position at second base, gets caught between second and third and is tagged out, ruining another inning. These plays can cost games, but the Cubs continue to make them. Later in the game, with the Cubs up 4-2 in the bottom of the 8th, Baez leads off with a triple. There were no outs, and he was just safe at third. In addition to it not being smart to take this risk, he didn’t time his slide correctly and after his lead hand hit the base, he lost contact with the base for a while until he could touch it with his other hand. If the fielder could have maintained the tag, he would have been out. Again, these are fundamentals. When to go and when not to go. How to slide properly and maintain contact. Mistakes continue to happen, and they are the same mistakes.
On August 5, against the Padres, in the bottom of the 5th inning down 5-2, Baez doubled in a run to make it 5-3, then tried to steal third with Bote at bat (an over .300 hitter) and was out. Though it is not smart to try to steal third, once again Baez beat the throw but didn’t time his slide properly, couldn’t maintain contact, and was tagged out. This was a very costly mistake, both in trying to steal third and not sliding properly. In the bottom of the 6th, down 5-3, Bote gets picked off second when the Cubs had runners on first and second, two outs. The Cubs went on to lose the game.
The Cubs have a culture of selfishness and recklessness on the bases. The players want to show they are aggressive, can make acrobatic slides, and are hustling, and as a result, do things that hurt the team. (These are the same reasons I believe players headfirst slide into first, though it slows them down.) This needs to be addressed by the manager, as it will cost them in the playoffs or even with playoff position. Time after time the same mistakes are being made and nothing seems to be done to address it. Needless risks trying to get to third base, and not sliding properly resulting in oversliding bases, sliding and popping up during a tag when you should stay down, and losing contact with the base. This doesn’t include the risk of injury from all the headfirst slides they do. The issue with this should be obvious to everyone at last after the past week, but we will see if it is addressed.