Diamondbacks Baserunning Looking For Improvement Under Sax Leadership

Gerardo Parra and the D’backs are looking to improve on their base running in 2013. (US Presswire – Charles LeClaire)
Diamondback baserunning left much to be desired in 2012 and improvment in this facet of the game will be crucial to a successful 2013 season.

Eric Young is gone as the team’s first base coach and primary “go-to-guy”regarding all things baserunning. It happens quite frequently, a player’s own success in the major leagues does not always indicate that player will become a great coach, leader or motivator. Young enjoyed significant success in baseball as a supreme stolen base threat within his 15 year career totalling 465 stolen bases while playing for 7 teams. As it goes for some of sports best, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Magic Johnson, some of sports biggest and most talented names ever, found it tough to teach and coach what they did in their careers.

The D’backs struggled on the base paths in 2012 making mental mistake after mental mistake and at times, ran themselves out of innings and out of opportunities. The organization has hope that a coaching change will be a step in the direction of improvement for 2013. The team hired another career stolen base threat in Steve Sax with hopes to improve the teams running game. Sax complied 444 stolen bases in his 14 year career and looks to play a pivotal role in eliminating some of the issues Arizona faced last year on the basepaths. Let’s hope Sax’s approach resonates with the current D’backs roster and that the team sees growth in 2013.

With the team assembled as is, improvement in this crucial facet of the game is imperative. With the recent changes and new faces, it appears the organization has identified this as an area of improvment and is taking action to improve.