Clint Hurdle Wants Pirates To Steal More Bases

things here. The “break-even” that Charlie references is in the low 70s, so 67% after last night, is really sub-standard.

I’m all for this team running more, as long as they run smarter which is really what I think Charlie was focusing on. There are times, like Presley’s ball into right center last night, where he cruised into second standing up. That is aggressive baserunning that his speed made look easy.

Others have talked about it in other threads. Walker is really good at going from first to third although he isn’t particularly fast. Cutch, on the other hand, for all his awesome speed doesn’t appear to me to have yet mastered the nuances of stealing bases or running the bases.

It goes back to the fact that this team needs to do everything right in order to be competitive. Before the all-star break, they seemed get some breaks and the smaller errors that still occurred almost every night got overlooked. With things not going the team’s way since the ASB those little things, like the Cutch/Doumit not hit-and-run in the seventh last night, stand out as glaring mistakes.

It appears to me that several (not an overwhelming amount, but several) of the CS lately have been the result of botched hit-and-runs.

They need to execute better, obviously.

take advantage of the obvious speed this team possesses. tabata/presley/cutch/d’arnaud/paul and even harrison could drive opposing teams nuts.

plain and simple Cutch needs to take this part of his game to the next level. He should be stealing 50 SB’s per season and if he wants to be an elite player he needs to figure out how to get there. Speed is a major part of his game. He’s likely never going to hit 35-40 HR’s but he was blessed with plus/plus speed and he needs to make it play. I don’t want to hear the three-hole excuse either because it’s not as if the Pirates have a legitmate clean-up hitter behind him.

As long as they’re safe when they do it. Which they haven’t been.

……it’s about learning and you learn by doing. The current roster is a mix of young players and older, core-type players who haven’t had much in the way of teaching (the basics IMO) at the ML level with past coaching staffs. Hurdle is correct to expect this team learn and execute the basics, such as bunting, stealing, effective running, etc. As Dave rightfully points out this team, and all good teams, need to do everything well. It’s a learning curve and based on the stats provided by Dave and Charlie it’s an area that needs improvement…….but you only improve by doing.