Talking Baserunning with Wladimir Balentien

Headed down to Tacoma last week, and I got to spend a little time with Wladimir Balentien.

Balentien got a cup of coffee with the Mariners last year, long enough to get his first major league hit (a double, in Yankee Stadium--nice!), and his first major league home run, in that doubleheader against the Indians we all thought was going to be pivotal, but instead was a showcase for tomorrow's stars.

Balentien has eye-popping power, but he also had brain-popping strikeout numbers in '05 at High-A Inland Empire and '06 at AA San Antonio. Two seasons, 300 strikeouts.

In 2007 he moved up to AAA, and you figured that, facing the crafty veteran pitchers in the PCL, he'd strike out even more.

Au contraire, mon frere (as they'd say in Balentien's native Curacao if they spoke French there).

Last year Balentien struck out only 105 times (nothing to sniff at when you'd been averaging 150), and his power didn't suffer much either.

So I asked him--what changed?

"I just concentrated on every at bat," he told me. Simple! He said he'll stick with the same approach this year, though he wouldn't mind getting his strikeout total down even more.

What Balentien is working on, at the request of the organization, is stealing more bases.

"I guess they think I could be a 40-40 guy," he told me.

"I already know how to steal bases," he said. ("There's not much to it, right? The pitcher throws and you run," I say. "Ha!" Nothing. "Ha!" Nothing. Maybe it's the language barrier.)

In spring training Balentien he worked with an M's baserunning instructor whose name he couldn't recall.

"I think he was a former Mariner," Balentien offers.

"Rich Amaral?"

"I think so, yeah."

I asked him if he learned anything specific from Amaral (who had 119 steals at a 74% success rate).

"I used to stand up and then run. He told me that when I stand up I lose time, so I try to come up while I'm running," said Balentien.

Up to that point Balentien hadn't had much chance to show what he'd learned, having reached base only two times all year. But, an hour or so after I talked to him, he worked a walk, and took off on the second pitch.

Balentien did, indeed, stay low as he took off. He also had great jump, the throw went into centerfield and he took third. That's precisely the type of mistakes that the M's organization hope running will lead to.

Later in the game, Balentien got a free pass to all four bases by hammering a grand slam over the leftfield wall.

Balentien hasn't stolen a single base since, but he is hitting the crap out of the ball. He, Jeff Clement, and Bryan LaHair are all OPSing over 1.000, something only Raul Ibanez is doing for the big club. Granted, inferior competition, but still--the offensive answers for RF, C, and DH may be just 40 minutes away.