Maybe you heard about this new book by Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer and Dale Sveum.
It's called RUNNYBALL.
Hitting the stands right as you read this.
We'll see if it goes over.
The other day I read about a 9th inning bunt and run play vs the Giants.
With Joe Mather on 1st and Brett Jackson trying to bunt him over, Sveum had told Mather to "take off".
The thinking was Jackson's bunting to third, so the third baseman's charging in and no one's covering the bag. If Mather just sprints past second, he ought to be able to take third, right?
Well, the pitcher was pretty heads up and covered third, and the Giants got both Jackson at first and Mather at third.
I didn't see it and I'll bet it looked like a horrible train wreck.
But...try your absolute hardest right now and go back in time and tell me when you saw a Cubs team in spring ball doing stuff like this?
GUYS - THIS IS EXCITING!
These little things are gonna add up.
Do the Cubs have above average team speed?
Nah.
But there are two reasons why this public baserunning thing (we've been reading about baserunning all spring) is so smart.
One is... what the hell - why not?
Why not be aggressive on the basepaths?
What does this team have to lose?
Plus, they might actually get good at it and be FAR more entertaining, making my 6-pack priced 16 oz beer taste better.
And the other reason is that just by doing this now, talking about it in the paper, messing with it when games don't matter...other teams are gonna take note and be thinking about it when the games start for real.
It makes the other team jittery, even if it's not Tony Campana running.
Runnyball.
I like it.
