In the 108-year history of the New York Yankees, no player has reached 100 stolen bases with as few caught-stealings as Brett Gardner, who notched his 100th steal last Tuesday.

So why is Gardner being thrown out so often this year?

Gardner, the Yankees purported speed demon, leads the league in times caught stealing with 10, and has stolen only 14 bases successfully. Last season, he stole 47 bases and was caught only nine times.

The Yankees' Brett Gardner is caught stealing by Angels shortstop Erick Aybar in the ninth inning of a game in Anaheim on June 5. Getty Images

It's a perplexing turnaround that is attributable to some bad luck, some lapses in technique, and opposing pitchers paying more attention to him. It also may have something to do with Gardner losing his edge, and his aggressiveness, after having been caught so many times.

"There's definitely a lot of room for improvement. I haven't run as much as I should have, and when I have, I haven't been as successful as I should be," Gardner said.

All through the minors and into his first years as a major leaguer, Gardner was an excellent base-stealer, swiping bags at a success rate above 80%. So Gardner remembers every single one of his 10 caught-stealings vividly and can happily take a listener through them.

"I've been thrown out 10 times," Gardner said. "Two of them were on a hit-and-run—it was a pitchout, or a guy missed it," Gardner began.

That's two.

"Then I was picked off against lefties, which I think is [garbage]. It shouldn't be a caught stealing. It should be a pickoff, but it's a caught stealing. If I take three steps toward second, a guy picks me off and I dive back into first base, it doesn't count as a caught stealing, it counts as a pickoff.

"But if you get in a rundown and try to get out of it, it's a caught stealing. So, whatever. That's three of them."

That's five total.

"Maybe one or two bad calls," Gardner continued, pushing the total up to seven, "and I've been thrown out straight up three or four times."

That's 10.

It's not hard to tell that Gardner thinks he's done most things right. But after the first few times he was caught, he admits that he got tentative and lost some of the aggressiveness that characterizes all great base-stealers. "I got thrown out a few times earlier on and I had some bad luck at it and probably just got a little too timid," Gardner admitted.

Manager Joe Girardi took Gardner aside and told him that he can't let the tentativeness take hold. "We talked about it and I said, getting thrown out is part of it," Girardi said. "Rickey Henderson was thrown out over 300 times. That's all part of it. You're gonna get picked off sometimes. You're gonna take a chance against lefties and it's gonna happen. Don't shut it down. We want you to run."

Gardner, he added, "has a lot of pride in not being thrown out. Sometimes you just gotta say it happens."

The Yankees examined Gardner's technique and found that nothing had changed. He wasn't jumping too early or giving away his intentions. What has changed, they say, is how opponents view him. Basically, they expect him to try to steal when ever he gets on base—and Gardner hasn't adjusted well to that cat-and-mouse game of pickoff throws, pitchouts and faked steal attempts.

"I think people are more aware of who he is now," Girardi said. "I think pitchers are doing a better job of holding the ball on him and being quicker to home plate. They know that he's a stolen base threat all the time, and I think pitchers have paid better attention."

Gardner has been hitting very well lately after a brutal first month, so he feels less pressure to make something happen every time he's on the bases. And now that he's on base more often, he should get more chances to redeem himself.

"There's really no excuse for it," Gardner said. "I really can't get much worse at as the season goes on. So I think it's only uphill."