Ever feel the need? The need for speed?
Well, the Colorado Rockies are feeling it. And they might be on the move for quite some time.
One season removed from historical terribleness, the Rockies find themselves running in the right direction in the win column. A big part of that can be attributed to how well they’ve run the bases.
The man leading that charge is Jake McCarthy. A veteran acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in one of the new front offices first transactions, McCarthy played so well in purple that many MLB pundits thought he would be a hot commodity at the trade deadline. The Rockies, however, elected to hang onto him. Whether they are waiting for a stronger market for lefty outfielders or see him as an important piece of their future remains to be seen.
For now, McCarthy is just gonna keep it movin’.
Baseball Savant measures his speed in the 99th percentile, meaning that he is right up there with the absolute fastest men in baseball. That speed has helped him to 25 stolen bases, 27 doubles, and seven triples.
“I have to approach it just how I approach hitting and fielding,” McCarthy says of his approach on the bases. “I’m always trying to look for an edge, some sort of advantage. I gotta trust my speed, understand what I’m capable of. I definitely want to err on the side of being aggressive.”
McCarthy recognizes value in that aggression. Even when statistics don’t.
Because what can’t be captured by the metrics is the pressure that speed can put on pitchers and defenses. So much of the game is won and lost in the battle between the guy on the mound and the guy at the plate. So, if the guy on the mound has to take even a little bit of attention away from the guy at the plate and give some of that attention to a guy on the bases, it can be a huge advantage for an offense. The more guys who can do it, the bigger the advantage. And McCarthy sees the value in it from the other side.
“I think of it as an outfielder,” he says. “I know I don’t have the best arm. And it kinda pisses me off when guys run in my face. I wish I threw that guy out. So, when I can do that to someone?”
Yogi Berra once said something or other about this being a mental game. And those kinds of moments can be massive mental momentum boosts during a long and grinding season. It turns every 90 feet into a fight.
“I love the concept of taking maybe a routine groundball and I’m still making the infielder uncomfortable. I’m making sure that the outfielder has to cut the ball off, make a clean transfer, and throw it on the money. Things like that I think are conducive to good baseball.”
And McCarthy knows a little something about aggressive baseball being part of the identity for quality baseball teams.
“I played on a team in Arizona where that was kinda our thing,” he says. “Making other teams uncomfortable. And I think especially with the good athletes we have here (in Colorado) and our big outfield, I think we have to play into that.”
He made his debut for the Diamondbacks in 2021 for a team that went 52-110. His sophomore season, he put up 2.4 bWAR, still a career high, and the ballclub improved to 74 wins. In his third season, he and the snakes went to the World Series. He was there for the climb.
Clearly, there are parallels to draw. Those Diamondbacks teams were never the best on paper. In fact, in McCarthy’s fourth season they managed to improve their record yet again (89 wins) but missed out on the postseason. Still, they often made the most of what they had and used great baserunning as the great equalizer. Of course, one thing those Arizona teams also had going for them is excellent pitching. The Rockies are a long way off from having that.
But what they do have, or at the very least what they are starting to build, is an identity. It’s an offense that constantly applies pressure. Constantly stays aggressive. Makes the defense play to perfection. And they sure did in Atlanta.
For Jake McCarthy, it’s just a part of who he is. But for the Rockies, it’s starting to become a shared mantra.
“Even if it’s a 10 run game, we still run hard,” he says. “It’s important.”