The Braves’ latest-model players, both sleek, still with that new outfielder smell, were idling in the dugout before Thursday’s game against the Giants. Even standing still, they looked fast, the way a ’Vette looks fast in the showroom.
Such speed comes with one inevitable question: Who has the most of it?
Put Michael Bourn and Jose Constanza side by side, drop the green flag and have them race on that straightaway between home and first. Who wins?
“I don’t know,” Bourn said.
“We have to race one day,” called out Constanza, who knows just enough English to be mildly playful.
“Maybe. One day. I don’t know,” Bourn smiled.
Probably a question that will go eternally unanswered. They both have been timed at 3.8 seconds from batter’s box to first — the major league average is around 4.3 seconds. And they both know they don’t get paid to match race.
But the fact that a speed debate is even possible in the Braves dugout, recently a stable of plow horses, hints at a revised style of play hereabouts.
The Braves, who ranked no better than 26th among 30 major league teams in base stealing the previous five years, have made every effort to remove the restrictor plate from their offense.
In the era of the pitcher, speed becomes a trusty countermeasure. “It has become a larger part of offense now,” Bruce Manno, the Braves assistant general manager, said. “For a while it was the home runs. Now clubs have looked around and said, ‘OK, we’re probably going to be looking at manufacturing runs a little bit more.’ So how do we do that? Obviously, speed is a big part of that. Speed is an element where you always put pressure on the other club.”
More to come
Down on the farm, they have a fair share of speed. Remember the names Tyler Pastornicky and Matt Lipka. Jordan Schafer had plenty of it before he was dispatched for the even swifter Bourn.
The trade for Bourn, poised to be the National League’s leading base-stealer for a third straight season, and the signing of Constanza, who led the International League last year in triples and was fourth in stolen bases, underscored that there was a new imperative in town.
Bobby Cox had the reputation of a manager who wouldn’t run — untrue because he did it when he had the wheels. The Braves’ two career leaders in stolen bases, Rafael Furcal and Otis Nixon, played during Cox’s watch.
This team now has players of that flashy ilk. And a manager who said he is not afraid to employ them.
“I like to be aggressive. I like to force the issue a little bit, steal some bags. It has been nice,” Fredi Gonzalez said. He did not/could not, however, demonstrate that in his three full seasons managing the Marlins, when they ranked 11th, 23rd then 23rd in the major leagues in base stealing.
Chipper Jones has seen all varieties of Braves teams, and of the speedier ones, he says, “I like those teams better.”
“You can’t sit back and wait for the three-run home run every night,” he said. “It’s not going to happen. There’s too much good pitching in this league. You’ve got to be able to manufacture runs, and speed never takes a night off.”
Experts approve
The proponents of speed are popping up everywhere now to applaud the remodeled Braves paradigm.
“I’ve been waiting for it, waiting for them to just get the speed,” said Nixon, watching from the distance of retirement.
“That speed is going to pay off if they just stay healthy,” he said.
By happenstance, baseball’s second all-time base-stealer was at Turner Field on Wednesday, appearing as part of a diabetes campaign. Lou Brock was not allowed to leave before offering his opinion on the Braves reconfigured attack.
Not surprisingly, he was all-in with speed.
“The Braves have had no problem being near the top. This sort of guarantees them they’re going to stay near the top. There’s a little extra pressure being put on the other side now,” he said.
Here is what you get with speed:
The Braves stole five bases in a loss to Chicago last Sunday. There were entire months last season when the Braves, as a team, accounted for as few as seven steals.
Even outs can be entertaining. On Tuesday against San Francisco, with Constanza on second and two out, Bourn singled to right-center. The Giants cut off the throw to the infield and caught Bourn in a rundown between first and second. All that was required was he stay in it briefly, just long enough to assure that Constanza scored. But Bourn used his speed to turn the play into a back-and-forth marathon, proving harder to catch than an uncaged rabbit. In the official scorebook, the putout read like a phone number: 8-3-4-6-2-4-6.
“I’d have given up long before that,” laughed Jones.
Helping hitters
You also get all sorts of subtle benefits.
Hitters know they are going to see more fastballs with a base-stealer on.
Speed energizes, beating out an infield hit or taking the extra base can be like hosing down your dugout with Red Bull.
It can vitalize the folks in the stands, too. With more options, should they steal here, how about the hit-and-run, do they squeeze here, fans can stay more involved as they play make-believe manager. Organist Mathew Kaminski gets to break into his Springsteen song book — playing a bit of “Born to Run” during a Bourn at-bat Thursday.
More importantly, all the permutations of speed can give opposing defenses a nervous tic.
“We know that their infielders know that they better not hiccup,” Braves bench coach Carlos Tosca said.
Thankfully, Bourn did not go with his other love growing up. He was quick, had a decent enough crossover dribble, but what if he had stubbornly concentrated on basketball?
“I enjoyed it every time I played,” he said. “I thought I could play with people. I probably could, but it would have been very difficult for me to try to play a [5-foot-10] point guard when you got 6-3 point guards doing the same thing.
“I think I chose the right thing.”
Supply and demand, man. Baseball and the Braves needed what he had a lot more than the giants of the NBA. In his chosen sport, he is the master of the base paths, with a green light to run under almost any circumstance (Gonzalez has thrown out the anchor “once, maybe twice” since Bourn arrived the first of the month).
Never too fast
And it was just as fortunate that Tosca happened by Manno’s office this offseason, just to say hello after signing his contract.
The Braves already had a good feeling about a certain minor league free agent who was backed up in the Indians organization. Constanza was a career .300 hitter in the minors, productive at every level. He could handle a bat, play all the outfield positions, and had that winged feet thing going for him.
“You can always use speed,” Manno said. “It’s almost like good arms. If you have a cast of good arms, you’re still looking to sign more. And with speed, it’s the same way.”
When he visited Manno last fall, Tosca glanced at the list of names of potential minor league free agents and immediately supplied the rebar to their thoughts on Constanza.
Having once coached Constanza in Winter League, Tosca remembered the way he played hard every day. You really should consider this guy, he told the Braves brass. “I think we got lucky,” Tosca said.
Entering the weekend series with Arizona, Constanza had been hitting .394 since his July 29 call-up from Gwinnett, stealing his sixth base Thursday. He has been a much needed tonic to Jason Heyward’s struggles.
Certainly the Braves have not totally transformed into a team of whippets. “We have good pitching. We have power. We have speed. We have defense,” Bourn said. “You need all of it to help you out.”
Catcher Brian McCann never will be confused with Usain Bolt.
The 39-year-old Jones ranks sixth all-time among Atlanta Braves stealers, just eight behind Gant’s total (157). Inspired by the presence of Bourn and Constanza, might he move up a place, or more, before he’s done? “Not a chance,” Jones said.
What the Braves do have is speed in just enough supply to make for new intrigues in September and whatever lies beyond.
