I don’t care what Jeff Bagwell does as a hitting coach. He may turn out to be an even bigger flop that Sean Berry and I won’t care. That’s because Bagwell has taken it up on himself to do something with the team besides teaching Hunter Pence the strike zone.
Yes, in case you haven’t heard, Bagwell is taking it upon himself to teach the Astros how to run the bases. And all that I’ve got to say is that it’s about damn time someone taught these guys the proper way to run the bases.
This has long been one of my pet peeves about the Astros, their sloppiness on the bases.ย Hell, nobody in the minors even bothered with teaching Hunter Pence the proper way to slide. Michael Bourn has great speed, but it often seems like he’s relying only on his speed, and it often seems like there are guys getting stuck on rundowns that no major leaguer should be getting stuck in.
Bagwell has noticed this, and he’s not going to take it anymore.
“I expect guys to run the bases. Their job as hitters is not done after
they reach first base,” Bagwell
told the Houston Chronicle. “Their job is done when they
reach home plate. That’s something I’m going to be on the guys about,
going from first to third, because it’s going to help the hitter behind
them.”
I find it hard to think of a better baserunner that the
Astros have had than Bagwell. He was never the fastest guy on the team,
and he never showed exceptional speed on the bases. He didn’t steal many
bases. But nobody was better at going from first to third on a single
than Bagwell, of for that matter, scoring on hits where he should have
stopped at third base.
I think one thing, more than any other,
that has bugged me about the Astros baserunning is that nobody has
really seemed to care. I don’t recall reading anything from Ed Wade or
the so-called brain trust jumping on the team about bad baserunning
decisions. I never recall Phil Garner, Cecil Cooper, Dave Clark, or Brad
Mills discussing this matter. I seem to recall Larry Dierker discussing
this issue, but then again, like Bagwell, Dierker was a rather cerebral
guy who didn’t like stupid mistakes.
I don’t know if Bagwell’s
going to have any luck with teaching these guys to run the bases.
There’s just not much that can be done with guys like Carlos Lee, Lance
Berkman, or the other old-timers taking up space on this roster. And
after advancing through the Astros farm system, where the subject hasn’t
appeared to have been stressed either by the way the youngsters handle
themselves on the bases, it’s also questionable how much he will be able
to do with them. But even if he accomplishes nothing, it’s refreshing
that someone associated with the team is finally going to start holding
the Astros accountable for their stupidity on the base paths. ย
The
Astros really seem to be intent on using Bagwell as a PR move. Fox
Sports Houston is running commercials trying to get people to tune in
because of Bagwell being a coach. But maybe Bagwell didn’t get the memo,
and maybe he cares more about the team than the rest of the brain
trust. His taking up the baserunning teaching duties seems to show that
he does care more than the others. And seeing somebody associated with
the brain trust that actually seems to give a damn is rather refreshing.
It’s
hard for me to be neutral about Jeff Bagwell. He’s always been one of
my absolute favorite Astros, and I always thought he was a better,
smarter player than Craig Biggio. So while I feel, I fear, that his
hiring as the team’s hitting coach was just another of Drayton McLane’s
cynical PR moves, I hope that he succeeds. And hopefully, even if the
Astros don’t start to hit better under Bagwell, they’ll finally,
finally, learn how to run the damn bases.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.
