Inside Baseball

Run Out of Town  

The go-go Marlins lead the majors in stolen bases, but they couldn't save manager Jeff Torborg's job

By Daniel G. Habib

When they fired manager Jeff Torborg last Saturday night, the Marlins took away the organization's biggest proponent of speed and aggressiveness on the base paths, the qualities that had come to define the team's offense. Florida, which was 17-22 and in fourth place in the National League East at week's end, led the majors with 60 stolen bases in 78 attempts -- the Angels, with 31 steals in 47 tries, were a distant second in both categories -- but hadn't manufactured enough runs to overcome the lack of quality pitching. Nevertheless, it appears that Torborg's philosophy will outlast him.

The first skipper fired this season, Torborg had a trying 200-game stint in Florida. Jared Lazarus/Miami Herald/AP

On Sunday, under new manager Jack McKeon, the 72-year-old former Royals, A's, Padres and Reds skipper, the Marlins stole four bases in a 7-2 win over the Rockies. While McKeon stressed that he didn't want his team to run themselves out of innings, he said he would employ the same basic philosophy as Torborg. "This is a club that's got to do the little things: steal a base, bunt the guys over," said McKeon."If we get a home run, we'll take that bonus."

"We don't have the big 40-, 50-home-run hitter in the middle of the lineup, so we advance runners any way we can," says first baseman Derrek Lee, who has 11 steals in 12 attempts.

Second baseman Luis Castillo had a major league-leading 48 steals last season, and over the winter the Marlins added another elite base stealer when they acquired centerfielder Juan Pierre (47 steals in 2002) from the Rockies. In spring training Torborg and bench coach Jeff Cox stressed baserunning fundamentals -- leads and jumps, recognizing pitches in the dirt, studying pitchers' pickoff moves and timing their deliveries to the plate. It worked. In Pierre (17 steals through Sunday), Lee, rightfielder Juan Encarnacion (9), Castillo (8) and catcher Pudge Rodriguez (7), the Marlins boast five players among the NL's top 10.

An adept bunter, base runner and singles hitter with virtually no power, Pierre bats leadoff and finds his game is better suited in Florida than Colorado's Coors Field. "You could pretty much score from first on anything hit in the gap [at Coors]," he says. Pierre has flourished in Florida, and once on base he's a threat to score, especially with Castillo hitting behind him.

The Marlins may be fun to watch, but here's the rub: A small-ball philosophy requires a pitching staff capable of keeping the score down, and Florida had the 10th-ranked ERA (4.23) in the NL. Worse, over the last two weeks, the club has lost three fifths of its rotation. On April 29 righthander A.J. Burnett underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and will miss 12 to 18 months. On the same day lefthander Mark Redman fractured his left thumb while bunting and won't pitch again before June. Last Thursday righthander Josh Beckett went on the 15-day DL with a strained right elbow and will be out for three weeks.

Torborg and pitching coach Brad Arnsberg, who was also fired, overused their young pitchers, especially Beckett, who threw more than 120 pitches in 10 starts last season. On Sunday, Torborg said that he didn't think his handling of pitchers led to his firing. "It was more bottom-line production," he said. "We [didn't] win enough games."

The challenge of coaxing quality innings out of a makeshift rotation -- replacement starters include rookie reliever Tommy Phelps and Double A call-up Dontrelle Willis -- falls to McKeon and new pitching coach Wayne Rosenthal, who was the organization's minor league pitching coordinator. In the meantime, the Marlins will continue running with little to show for it.

Issue date: May 19, 2003

For more Inside Baseball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, May 14. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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