Jewett’s expertise means P-Nats will be aggressive on the bases

Trent Jewett stood to the right of Pfitzner Stadium's home plate and bent over with his hands on his knees.

As the Potomac Nationals practiced last Tuesday, Jewett kept a keen eye on Dan Nelson, watching to see if the infielder executed proper running fundamentals.

If there is one thing Jewett will stress in his first year as Nationals manager, it is that his players know how to run the bases.

"We will be an aggressive base-running team," said Jewett, who replaces Randy Knorr, now the Washington Nationals' bullpen coach.

Meet Potomac's skipper, someone who loves taking chances.

"Being a good base-running team does a lot of things for your offense," Jewett said. "It can open up holes.

"I can talk about base running for hours and hours and I think no matter what kind of foot speed you have as a ball club, you can be aggressive and run the bases well."

While the Carolina League can be a stepping stone for managers to reach Double-A, Triple-A or even the major leagues, Jewett is returning to a level he has not been since managing the CL's Salem Bucca-neers when the franchise was a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate.

Jewett never reached the major leagues as a player. He batted .172 in four minor league seasons.

He has spent the last 11 years managing at the Pirates' Triple-A level and 15 years as a minor league manager.

Halfway through the 2000 season, he began serving as the Pittsburgh's third base coach, a capacity in which he remained until the end of the 2002 season.

After leaving the Pirates organization due to a mutual parting of ways, he starts fresh with a new one and a new crop of players to groom for the big leagues.

"I'm familiar with this club as I've ever been with a team," Jewett said. "The only thing to me from a negative standpoint is the relationships aren't built. The trust isn't there and that's something that takes time.

"When you manage in the same organization year after year, then you have some percentage of your ball club where there is a relationship built. You know what their strengths and weaknesses are. There is a trust level that runs both directions. But those things will come."

Unfamiliarity with his players does not mean they are not receptive to his style. Outfielder Boomer Whiting, who stole 47 bases between Low-A Hagerstown and Potomac in 2008, came away impressed with his man-ager's strategy after talking about it with him in spring training.

"He can lead us in the right path, especially with him being so aggressive on the bases," Whiting said. "I'm hoping he can teach me a lot about base running and how to steal more bases this year. I'm real excited about that."

But Jewett will not always be serious. A Dallas native and a passionate Dallas Cowboys fan, Jewett can be found walking around the clubhouse with a Cowboys shirt on cracking jokes with players, keeping a festive atmosphere during a long season.

"He'll come up to you and crack on you," catcher Brian Peacock said. "He dishes it out, but he takes it well too."

Like all managers, Jewett is an optimist. Having coached in the big leagues and managed in the upper eche-lon of the minor leagues, he knows how much more polished players become as they advance up the minor league ladder.

He just wants them to perform as best they can at this level before moving forward.

"It's a matter of being able to translate tools into skills and those skills being efficient, guys learning how to be responsible and reliable not only to themselves," he said, "but to the staff and to their teammates.

"There's a lot more that goes into it than home runs and RBI and strikeouts and ERA."