Marte not alone when the subject is lazy play
Let us first separate fact from fiction. Starling Marte loafed his way to first base not once but twice on double plays Monday in St. Louis. That is a fact, though you wouldn’t know it from Marte’s take.
It seems he was talking about the second instance when he told reporters, through interpreter Mike Gonzalez: “I ran hard. I just didn’t get there safe.”
Marte might think he ran hard. Unfortunately for him, there is clear video evidence to the contrary. And that’s disappointing because, as Clint Hurdle pointed out after benching Marte last
season for similar behavior, his speed is a weapon that needs to be activated all the time, not most of the time. Not just when Marte smells an infield hit, for example.
Marte is a very good player who has more lapses than you’d like, both in decision- making and effort. Hurdle would have been perfectly justified to bench him ( again) Tuesday, but I respected his explanation as to why Marte was in the lineup.
“Sometimes it’s a gentle reminder; sometimes it’s a firm reminder,” Hurdle said. “It’s pretty parental, really, in the long run.”
It’s also based on the standings, I would imagine, and the Pirates were already cooked when Hurdle benched Marte in August. They’re still in it this year ( and he scored the winning run Tuesday). Also, Marte isn’t changing. He’s 30. Same way Phil Kessel isn’t changing some of his lessthanideal habits. He’s 31.
In both cases, you can live with the quirks because of the talent and production — and make no mistake, Marte is productive. His numbers this year, extrapolated over 162 games, would look like this: 29 home runs, 100 RBIs, 101 runs, 33 doubles, 7 triples and 25 steals. And that was before he homered in his first at- bat Wednesday.
The quirks can even be endearing, though I can’t begin to fathom what Marte was thinking Tuesday when he became the first player in baseball history to decline a penalty. He refused to go to first when home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman ruled he’d been hit with a pitch. The ball appeared to strike the knob of Marte’s bat, and Marte decided, quite unbelievably, that this would be a good time to turn baseball into golf and self- report.
At best, Marte allowed the Cardinals to keep their challenge. At worst, he kept himself off the bases with Josh Bell in the ondeck circle. Can you imagine if the Pirates had lost 10? ( And by the way, since when do umpires accede to a player’s opinion? If you’re Dreckman, you tell Marte, “Go to first.”)
I feel pretty safe in saying no player in baseball history makes that move, but I also feel pretty safe in this assertion: Marte is hardly alone when it comes to the aforementioned lapses. Watch any major league game and you’ll see players loafing down the baselines. At some point, quitting on ground balls became an epidemic. Or was it always like this?
I have no idea why a highly trained professional athlete can’t do a few 90- foot sprints, or run hard out of the box on a hit to the outfield. It boggles the mind. Yet, there it is. Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader jogs to first as his blooper falls in front of Corey Dickerson. Bryan Reynolds jogs down the line on a come- backer to the pitcher. Kolten Wong runs half- speed on a grounder to second. Dexter Fowler watches his fly ball hit the top of the fence and only makes it to third because of a Pirates error. And that was just the first two games of the series.
Now, you might say a potential double- play ball is different than a ground ball to the pitcher or a ball hit directly to the first baseman, but until the play is actually made, shouldn’t you run hard in case there’s a miscue — the way Bell ran out a routine grounder in the All- Star Game?
It’s not just on the baselines, either. Dickerson made a lazy play in the outfield Monday, oddly spinning as he made a catch on a routine fly ball to left, allowing a runner to tag at first and run to second. That should never happen. Marte would have been widely ripped for making such a nonchalant play.
The next day on 93.7 The Fan, Bob Walk said Dickerson’s play was “as bad as anything Marte did,” and he was right.
Walk also said criticism of Marte was fair. He was right about that, too.
It’s quite reasonable to be sour on Marte’s occasional lack of engagement. Remember this, though: He’s hardly alone.