Trying to steal signs on the Nats? That is a difficult task

Manager Dusty Baker calls it the toughest coaching job on the field. It's the job of the third base coach.

That coach gets criticized every time a runner is thrown out at the plate and rarely gets the credit when another runner scores. Some fans have taken to calling Nationals third base coach Bobby Henley, "Send-ley," due to his aggressive style. Henley has never worried about that and actually loves to be aggressive with his runners to force the defense to have to make the play.

The job is further complicated because the third base coach has to feed signs to his runners and at the same time make sure those signs are not compromised by opposing players, coaches, scouts or even fans who try to secretly figure out the Nats' game plan.

"That's a tough job," said manager Dusty Baker. "That's the job I never wanted. That's a job I never wanted because you got people in the stands, scouts, on TV trying to figure out your signs. And then you got guys in the dugout on their side (and) that's their job to pick up signs if they can. And they can't be so complicated that some of your players - everybody is not the same intelligence - you can't fool the lesser intelligent guys. Right?

"I remember the best one I had was Preston Gomez, because he had different signs for everyone on the team. Imagine him trying to remember that? That's a thankless job."

Baker said he has a tremendous amount of respect for the job that Henley is appointed to do. He further appreciates that Henley is his own man, his own coach, and is not just a yes-man to whatever Baker dictates.

"Guys that have their own mind, but trying to not think, but trying not to think with me," Baker noted. "You think along with me but you do what you see versus what you think you see. You know what I mean?

"My job is for them not to think along with me. Sometimes I don't think along with myself. Because he will ask me certain things and go over a sign again, and I'll say 'yeah, that's what I want'."

Henley is not afraid to send runners because he believes the Nats have players who can beat a play from the outfield. Baker said a third base coach has to have a certain personality to be good.

"They have to be fearless," Baker said. "They have to not worry about if they getting a run or two thrown out, because for every 10 decision-making plays there are one or two that aren't going to work. And you cannot dwell on that one or two, and you can't listen to the fans. Say if a guy holds a guy up and then the guy overruns the ball in left field and it's like 'Why didn't you send him?' Well, he didn't know he was going to overrun the ball."

Another responsibility for the third base coach is in game communication between himself and Baker, and then onto the players on base.

Baker knows what the opposition attempts to do during games in trying to read a third base coach.

"They always try to steal signs," Baker said. "They're always trying to steal signs from second base from the catcher, from me, from Henley. There's some guys that don't pay attention. But there are some guys that act like they're not looking at me and I see them (doing it). Then I throw in some decoy signs. That's a tough position."

Henley said he is aware that stealing signs can be an issue but it doesn't bother him much, adding that the Nats don't communicate via signs as much as some clubs.

"I really don't worry about it that much," Henley said." They'd have to be pretty sharp to get our signs, because I think we spend most of our time trying to make sure we get our own signs. And for someone else to get our signs, that would be pretty good. I don't think there is any hidden ingredient like, 'Boy, they're really great at hit-and-run,' or 'They're really great at Henley putting steal signs on.' "

Henley said it is more about baserunners like Trea Turner and Michael A. Taylor knowing when to go. When they have the permission to steal, they decide.

"We know which guys have the ability to steal bases, and it's really them doing their homework and understand which pitchers they can get a jump on, and they are major league players," Henley said. "We give them the ability to have the green light to steal a base."

He said the focus is on working with his pitchers on when they come to bat in sacrifice scenarios. Henley said trying to steal signs from his pitcher's at-bats is infinitely more difficult.

"As far as putting something on, we don't put a lot on for somebody to steal something from me. As far as our pitchers, that's probably where we put most of our signs on, with bunts, hit-and-runs, slashes," Henley said. "All our pitchers all have different signs. There's five pitchers with five different scenarios of signs. So even if you did get one guy's sign, the other four would have completely different signs.

"I don't want to say it's not important. It is important. We don't do enough of it to where we're super concerned with somebody else getting our signs. I think if we did a ton of it, then we'd probably be more concerned about it."