Grand Theft Baseball?

It sounds like a video game, but this article featuring A's Coco Crisp is loaded with great tips for improving your chances of stealing bases. Enjoy.

Grand Theft Baseball

				Grand Theft Baseball Oakland's Coco Crisp brings us deep into the mind of a base stealer.
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Jonah Keri on the art of stealing bases - Grantland:

[Crisp looks closely at the video for about a minute and has me replay it multiple times, a pattern he repeats with each one.]

I try to pick up something off of every pitcher. It might be different, it might be a move with his front foot, or something else. With lefties obviously it's a little more tricky. With this particular situation, I believe that I was looking at his head. And that was his first movement home, was when he gave a sharp, quick look home, which gave me a few ticks before his front foot lifted. And as soon as he picks up his foot, I take off … or I try to take off. Normally on this particular play it's a slide step. I wouldn't go unless I caught a sign that was a little earlier than his front foot going toward home.

'via Blog this'

SITUATION — June 29, 2010: Orioles left-hander Brian Matusz is pitching, Crisp is on first, top of the first inning, zero outs, 0-0 tie. (Click for video.)

In the video of this play, Jim Palmer's saying you're going on first move. Is that what it looks like to you?

I believe with this, it was his first move, yes. But here, if I saw he was standing with an open crotch, where I could see the inside of his thigh, that means he's going home. Versus when he's coming over to first, he closes up. Sometimes that varies with different pitchers. Some pitchers are more closed when they come home, and leave it open to come over to first.

There's also the back toe with lefties. And this is one of the most common mistakes they make. When they go home, they dig in their back toe. When they come over, it lifts up. They come up on their back heel to come over. You can see that if that's what you're focusing on, if you don't have anything else to go off of. Sometimes you'll see the front toe of a pitcher pointed down when he's coming home, then if you see it up, it's more relaxed, that means more likely he's coming over to first. There's also, like I said, the crotch, you can look for that. But there are definitely some things you can look for if you want more than just to focus on first move.