P2Daily: Ji-Hwan Bae Reminder Of Other Ways To Impact Offense

Under the bright lights for the very first time, you probably wouldn’t blame a young player making his debut to go above and beyond to try and make a good impression. At times, that also means getting away from what it was that got him there.

That wasn’t an issue for Ji-Hwan Bae, the latest of the Pittsburgh Pirates prospects to make their major league debut this season.

The 23-year-old drew a walk the first time he stepped to the plate, and then immediately stole second base. Later on in the ninth he picked up his first hit, and again, stole second. He ended up on third before Cal Mitchell struck out to end the game.

Speed is easily Bae’s greatest tool, stealing 30 bases with Indianapolis before his promotion and has 91 in 314 career minor league games.

You can see the respect that the Chicago Cubs had to give to him immediately, as Erich Uelmen threw over to first on several occasions before Bae still stole second.

Bae being able to distract the pitcher almost worked, as Oneil Cruz nearly walked the Pirates off with an opposite field home run, only for it to be caught at the warning track.

The Pirates haven’t been overly aggressive on the base paths this season, stealing just 83 in 151 games — four of those came on Friday night.

It’s been a little bit different deeper in the organization, as the minor league teams are a lot more aggressive taking extra bases. The four full season teams combined to steal 661 bases this season in 539 games (1.22 steals per game) this season. There were 11 prospects to record at least 20 stolen bases, led by Tsung-Che Cheng (33) and Bae (30).

Team	Stolen Bases	Games	SB/G	Record
Indianapolis	154	145	1.06	74-71
Altoona	162	137	1.18	71-66
Greensboro	137	128	1.07	58-70
Bradenton	208	129	1.61	67-62

While stolen bases is somewhat of a lost art, teams are still are taking advantage of their continued success taking extra bases. Of the top 10 teams in the category, six have winning records. It should be noted that four of the top five teams in stolen bases all have losing records but teams like the Guardians, Dodgers and Yankees all rank among the league’s best.

The Pirates are going to have a lot of players coming up within the next few seasons very capable of the base paths, and while their lack of aggressiveness in the majors could have to do with the current personnel, adapting to those set to join the big league team soon could help close the gap a little faster when it comes to potentially competing.

Player	Stolen Bases	Minor League Team
Tsung-Che Cheng	33	Bradenton
Ji-Hwan Bae	30	Indianapolis
Sergio Campana	29	Bradenton
Liover Peguero	28	Altoona
Jase Bowen	25	Bradenton/Greensboro
Sammy Siani	25	Greensboro
Jared Triolo	24	Altoona
Matt Gorski	21	Greensboro/Altoona
Andres Alvarez	21	Altoona
Juan Jerez	20	Bradenton
Jared Oliva	20	Indianapolis

It’s easy to get lost in the long home runs, especially at the rate that Cruz has been sending them over the fence. Bae’s debut showed other ways to impact the game that can consistently put more runners in scoring position for the power hitters to drive in.