SAGNOF: The Legend Of Whiteyball 2.0

Alas, shortly after I wrote the first Whiteyball article last year the great Mister Herzog passed away. I felt compelled to continue this tradition and make Whiteyball baserunning coaching change analysis a permanent part of the Razzball Pre-season. With that here we go…

The year was 1975. Jack Mckeon was fired in late July by the Kansas City Royals for inability to relate to his players and Whitey Herzog was brought in to replace him. Whitey was quiet and mild-mannered. Whitey also had an agenda, he was a forerunner to the movie classic Iron Eagle 2 with the philosophy that “Speed Kills Peaches”.

Whitey’s teams over the next 15 seasons between Kansas City and St. Louis led the league in stolen bases eight different times and only didn’t finish in the top five in steals twice. Now he certainly had the horses to do it with the speedsters he had. Freddie Patek led the AL in steals as did Willie Wilson for the Royals during Whitey’s tenure. Vince Coleman was the stolen base champ five straight seasons in St. Louis for Whitey. In 1985 the Cardinals stole 314 bases. The fourth highest total in major league history. Five different Cardinals stole 30+ bases that season. It wasn’t just having these top tier stolen base threats though, it was his willingness to run with the entire lineup that made his style a baseball moniker.

Herzog’s style of play was thus born and named Whiteyball. It relied on attrition and focused on speed and defense to win rather than power. He would load the top and bottom of his lineups with speed and just let them go crazy on the basepaths. They kept the fences deep and the Astroturf fast and watched the runs pile up using this philosophy.

So how does this relate to MLB some 40 years later? Well, the Home Run has certainly become the run generator of choice in the last 40 years, but with the rule changes in 2023 teams got back into the swing of swiping bases. Even back in 1985 when Whitey’s Cardinals were making history there were ten MLB teams that did not steal 100 bases on the season. So you have to believe in the steal as a coach, and seemingly some do, and some don’t

Today we are going to take a look at current MLB managers and their willingness to run. We will highlight the new crop of managers coming in and discuss their aptness for the stolen base and see which players the new coaches could affect the most. Next week we will focus on players that have moved into better coaching situations.

Here’s a look at the rankings in steals attempts per game for 2024 by team along with their managers. New Skippers are in bold.

So the gap in 2024 went from Dave Martinez in Washington at 1.83 stolen base attempts per game down to John Scheidner in Toronto at only.54 a contest. John certainly didn’t have much speed with only George Springer, Ernie Clement and Daulton Varsho reaching double digit steals. Some of the biggest shifts in 2024 came in situations where new managers came in. The Angels went from .64 SB Attempts per game under Phil Nevin to 1.13 attempts per game under Ron Washington.

Let’s take a look at the incoming managers and see which ones are like Dave Martinez and which ones are like John Schneider

Reds – Terry Francona – Steals Change Neutral

Early in his career on the bench Terry didn’t turn many guys loose. Once he got to Cleveland however he showed that if he had the horses he wasn’t afraid to let them run. During his 11 season run in Cleveland they finished in the top ten in stolen bases eight times. I think he is the perfect guy to manage the speed and youth on this Reds team and I would look for them to again rank amongst the top teams in steals in 2025.

Mariners – Dan Wilson – Steals Change Positive

There’s a saying in baseball that catchers make the best managers. Dave Roberts and Craig Counsell might disagree, but the World Series winners list up near the top includes Bruce Bochy and Joe Torre. Dan Wilson was one of the best defensive catchers ever and has long been a student of the game. He will know when to push the right buttons. With this group of Mariners who really struggle putting the ball in play, I look for him to increase the pressure on opposing defenses whenever he gets the chance much as he did over the final month of 2024. Having a resurgent Victor Robles certainly doesn’t hurt.

Marlins – Clayton McCullough – Steals Change Positive

Here’s another former catcher who couldn’t rake turned MLB Manager. He comes most recently from the Dodgers Dave Roberts system so I don’t think he will be afraid to take the extra base. Look for not only Otto Lopez, Connor Norby and Xavier Edwards with full time gigs to run, but I’d expect many of the other young guys like Derek Hill and Dane Myers to find their way to 15ish stolen bases.

White Sox – Will Venable – Steals Change Neutral

Not much turnover in managers this season (Somehow Bud Black and Derek Shelton are still employed) and three of them are first time guys. Venable has the easiest job in the world in his first year. Don’t lose 122 games. He’s worked alongside Bruce Bochy most recently and Bruce has never been a big stolen base guy, but Venable loved to run in his playing days and with the White Sox being awful he won’t change anything on the bases. Problem on the south side is only LouBob and Miguel Vargas have any sort of foot speed.