Article: All About That Base

[Parker Hageman]

If one were to highlight the utter banality of baseball’s month of February, a simple action in a spring training complex back field -- featuring grown men who mime a throw to the plate, speed-jog fifty feet from the middle of the diamond to step on first base and receive an underhand toss -- might suffice. The act is then repeated without end until the pitchers are dreaming of breaking towards first in their sleep.

 

That’s the goal anyway.It may appear boring to both the participants and onlookers alike, but drilling in spring training is likely favored over some of the original methods for ensuring pitchers take responsibility for covering first base.

 

In the late 1880s, the first baseman began to position themselves away from the base and closer to where they are today. This new positioning caused issues due to the fact that first basemen were now playing back to cover more ground and were beat when racing to the bag. This then became the pitchers’ responsibility to get to the base. Instinctively, pitchers shied away from the added cardio and stayed at the mound. According to the book A Game Of Inches, at that time the Cardinals’ owner and first baseman Charles Comiskey admitted he would field the ball from his position and, if his pitcher failed to man the base, Comiskey would throw the ball to the unattended base regardless. “[T]he crowd saw who was to blame, and pretty soon pitchers got into the habit of running over rapidly rather than be roasted,” Comiskey said.

 

Even after several years it still had not sunk in with pitchers to beeline it to first base if the ball was hit to their left. In 1905, following a Washington Post article that described the acts of the the team’s pitchers not covering the base the previous season as acts of “stupidity or indifference”, the Washington Senators became one of the earliest recorded team to implement fielding practice for pitchers in spring training so they would be confident the first baseman could “play a deep field and feel certain that the pitcher will go over and take his throws.”

 

In many ways, the residuals of the old Senators practices carried over when the franchise moved to Minnesota. When Jack Morris arrived at the newly minted Lee County Sports Complex in the spring of 1991, the veteran pitcher encountered Twins manager Tom Kelly’s brand of tirelessly drilling on the fundamentals. According to Season of Dreams, after camp ended Morris told reporters that he covered first base more times in his first spring with the Twins in Florida than he had in 14 years with the Detroit Tigers.

 

A hundred years later the tradition continues in Fort Myers with the new generation of pitchers pantomiming their delivery to the plate and trotting off towards first. You would think that over the course of a century modern pitchers would have realized that first basemen are no longer tethered to the base. In fact, some believe that the time spent on drilling this is a waste. As Angels pitcher CJ Wilson told MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez, “I'd rather spend the time going over strategies and pitching techniques than do PFP,” Wilson said in 2011. “It's just boring."⁽¹⁾

 

Boring or not, the Twins value pounding the fundamentals into their players -- even if it is based on a practice that originated 100 years ago. It can pay dividends; take Twins’ pitcher Kyle Gibson for instance. In 2015, Gibson led all major league pitchers with 30 putouts.

 

In many ways the pitcher putouts at first are much like RBI totals -- they are all about opportunity. A right-handed ground ball pitcher is likely going to induce more opportunities than a fly ball pitcher or a left-handed pitcher. Likewise, a pitcher needs a first baseman who will not finish the job himself. Two reasons that Gibson’s totals led baseball was: 1) he had one of the highest number of grounders in a first baseman’s zone and 2) his first baseman was unfamiliar with the position.

 

That being said, Gibson’s reaction time on those plays is impressive. Beating a path from the mound to the bag presents challenges. First is taking the right route, the second is finding the base and the third is receiving the throw. And sometimes that does not go as smoothly as rehearsed:

 

 

http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/assets/4386775/dozier.gif

 

Though second baseman Brian Dozier rightfully receives credit for making a fine play, Gibson’s ability adjust to the throw should be acknowledged.

 

It may seem mundane but the repetition may help avoid disastrous situations like the one Tim Hudson experienced in Atlanta where improper footwork and terrible timing led to ankle surgery for the veteran pitcher:

 

Sorry if you were eating lunch.

 

It is hard to say what exactly makes a pitcher “good” at covering first base. Is it the muscle memory established in camp? Is it natural athleticism? Or is it handedness that provides the right-handed pitchers who fall off towards first base the advantage?

 

The answer is all of the above but with emphasis on the latter. Yes, the seed is planted in Florida or Arizona which helps trigger the pitcher’s reaction at the crack of the bat. Beyond that, being born right-handed provides the benefits of both facing more left-handed batters who are more likely to hit the ball to first base as well as having a step or two edge over their southpaw’d counterparts.

 

In another hundred years we will all be dead and gone but the PFP is bound to live on.

• According to ESPN/TruMedia data, the average left-handed starting pitcher saw 28 ground ball plays in the first baseman’s zone. Maybe Wilson is on to something. In the grand scheme it does seem silly to concentrate so much time towards an act that occurs less than one time per start. Why not invest more of the left-handed staff’s time in other areas?

 

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[highlander]

During a game you never know what 2-3 plays will decide the outcome. Take Jeter's cut off throw up the first base side of the plate, doing whatever it takes to win. That one slow dribbler that isn't covered can be the difference between a crooked inning and a goose egg. Four and five out innings will kill the morale of your team.

 

Hustling is contagious. Outfielders see their pitcher covering first doing the fundamentals, they will hustle into the gap after balls, players back each other up, next thing you know a TEAM that is considered inferior is winning! They are called oveachievers. They play the game the right way. Ect.

[DocBauer]

Fun history lesson!

 

But now we know why some Twins pitching prospects are slow to be promoted: lollygagging!

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

It's the lefties like Wilson who probably need the practice more. It can be a 270 degree pivot and straight line sprint, unlike the nice arc a righty can take. Some people make it look easy only because they practice it over and over.

[USAFChief]

"Sorry if you were eating lunch."

 

Yeesh...maybe an advance warning next time instead of an apology after... :-)

[Halsey Hall]

I've posted this before but when Morris came, and was doing this drill while i was watching, he sprinted to first.  The others hadn't, and stood and stared.  From then on all of them sprinted to first.  In the end it won us a world series as the opposing pitcher took to much time covering the bag and the runner was safe, and we scored a run to win the game. 

Edited February 26, 2015 by Halsey Hall

[Lazarus]

I'm a big believer in making it a Pavlovian reflex instead of something that a pitcher needs to think about/remember. The half-second hesitation can be a big difference - the exception being a runner who can be described as "slow for a catcher".

 

"Don't think, it'll only hurt the ball club."

[Parker Hageman]

I'm a big believer in making it a Pavlovian reflex instead of something that a pitcher needs to think about/remember. The half-second hesitation can be a big difference - the exception being a runner who can be described as "slow for a catcher".

 

 

You mean like this? 

 

http://m.mlb.com/min/video/topic/63817564/v35862217/minbal-orioles-challenge-out-confirmed-in-5th/?c_id=min

[HitInAPinch]

Fun history lesson! But now we know why some Twins pitching prospects are slow to be promoted: lollygagging!

LARRY??  Lollygaggers!

[nater79a]

Notice in the first clip how Gibson instinctively curled up and protected that pitching hand from getting a cleat right in the middle of it? Smart man.

[TwinsMasochist]

That is such a beautiful Gif.  Nice article title, very punny.

[TwinsMasochist]

Notice in the first clip how Gibson instinctively curled up and protected that pitching hand from getting a cleat right in the middle of it? Smart man.

 

Absolutely, nice find.  He threw it under his chest like he was protecting his child!

[Paul Pleiss]

"I'm all about that base. No trouble" - Brian Dozier, after flipping his hair beautifully.

[jimmer]

"I'm all about that base. No trouble" - Brian Dozier, after flipping his hair beautifully.

I hate it when baseball players get the words wrong - Crash Davis, Bull Durham 1988 :-)

Edited February 28, 2015 by jimmer