Yesterday was our last regular season game. Despite the fact that entering the bottom of the 4th, and last, inning we were down by only 3 it was never really a close game. Of course the bottom of the 4th made the score slightly more lopsided. Which is fine, since we wanted it to be more relaxed and for some players to get a chance to do things they hadn’t gotten a chance to do before. Anyhow, here is the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good
Percy’s Catching: Evidently he had asked to catch a couple of times. Did Steve or I ever really hear that? Not so much. Quite honestly he is a better catcher then Brendan. I feel upset with myself for not having found this out earlier. It is also things like this which make me want to be able to keep all my 5th graders next year. Percy is now very likely to see some real duty behind the plate in the playoffs.
Ethan’s Flyball Catching: Ethan caught not just one or two but THREE flyballs in the outfield. He did drop the first one hit to him, but after that he was flawless. It was good stuff. I just wished Dad hadn’t been such a complete ass in helping him there.
Bobby’s Pitching: I worked with him before the game and had him throw about 20 pitches. We worked out a couple of kinks in his mechanics and he also toned down his velocity. These things together worked well as in the game he was able to get through an inning. Granted he threw a lot of pitches, in doing it, but as an emergency option in the playoffs he would be just fine.
Avi’s pitching: Pitching 1 and a third innings he did quite well. He was able to settle himself down after a few bad pitches. He saw a lot of batters but the end results were fine.
Extra base hits: Jim, Jesse, and Everett all hit legitimate extra base hits. I thought Everett had a legitimate shot at our first team homer, but he had to settle for a standup triple. Extra base hits have been something which have mostly eluded us and is a big reason we haven’t ever scored more then 3 runs in an inning.
The Bad
Brendan’s catching: He caught Percy and clearly struggled catching a pitcher with more velocity. With Percy emerging as a viable catching candidate I think Brandan will see limited duty behind the plate in the playoffs and be strictly limited to catching Avi and possibly Bobby if we ever use him for a full scheduled inning.
Trey’s hitting: Trey is 2 for his last 11 over the last 4 games.
Avi’s fielding: He looked absolutely lost at 3rd base. He was out of position. He wasn’t concentrating on the game. I talked to him after the game, and as always it is a balancing act with him. He was ready to despair as I talked about things he needed to do better, until I explained that I was telling him since he was going to play 3rd base again and so that tonight was a learning experience. He clearly felt much better then.
The Ugly
Percy’s pitching: Now in fairness the ump wasn’t being so consistent with his strike zone. We also had used him as a catcher before pitching him, a no-no. I wonder at this point how we did catching last year since I know our two primary catchers last year were also two of our primary pitchers and so clearly they had to have done some catching before pitching. Dunno. Anyway we had to pull Percy when he started off by walking three, settled down, and then walked a fourth player 3 or 4 batters later. With the league agreeing to remove pitching limits for the playoffs we called Trey in to finish it up. I told him, with a smile, he had 4 pitches to get the 3rd out. He took 6.
Jim’s pitching: We threw him in the first. He was terrible. He got his chances and so I don’t feel bad.
The 3rd inning: We load the bases with no outs for the top of our order and get exactly 1 run. Very frustrating.
Today
We announced, as a sign of confidence, that Percy would be our starting pitcher. I think we’re ready for the playoffs and am excited to win tonight.
Showing posts with label brendan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brendan. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Game Report
Well it was another disappointing game. Once again we got shelled in the first inning with Everett up for us on the mound. Once again he was pitching well. The other coaches even commented on how well he could vary his control and speed. Despite this, kids who have never hit a double before hit a double. We had one homer against him, as we were playing at 1 of the two fields with fences. Everett gets hit the hardest when he gets ahead in the count.
Their pitching was horrendous which made things more difficult for us as we had very few pitches to hit the whole day. This made getting a rally going very difficult. We had a ton of walks, but also far more strikeouts looking since the umpire had a tendency, and this was true for both teams, to expand the strike zone after 4 or 5 pitches.
Bobby got a chance to pitch in the 2nd, as I wanted to make sure we saw him pitch, and had a lot of control problems. We ended up having to yank him. Percy, who was perhaps our only good news, came in and looked terrific. He had originally been scheduled to pitch in the 4th, so we had him pitch in the 3rd as well and again he pitched very well overall. Avi wondered why Percy jumped ahead of him, and I reminded him he had a chance to pitch two innings on Tuesday, which seemed to mollify him. Even when we again changed things around later and had Trey pitch the 4th on he didn’t complain, which I was surprised about. Bobby seems very concerned that he’ll never get a chance to pitch again, which just isn’t an option for us.
Trying to think of interesting things that happened:
I worked with Kelvin on bunting before the game and he looked really good. Unfortunately, we never got into a game situation where he could bunt so he hasn’t had a chance to try it in a game. But, this was encouraging to see.
Jesse saw a man cheating at 3rd, and even after Jesse walking him back, he didn’t move so he threw to third and the ball got by our 3B. He later expressed frustration at how tired he got behind the plate, which makes sense as he was getting a lot of pitches.
We once again induced a throw to second on a 1st and 3rd situation. What made this amusing was the first basemen even said “He’s going to steal on the first or second pitch” as he had over heard me. So off Jim went on the first pitch. The catcher threw it down and Jim was going to be safe, but the 2nd baseman also dropped the ball. Avi, not listening to Steve, didn’t take off a long time, which then caused a throw home after the SS recovered the ball, and he too was safe, advancing Jim to third. The opposing coaches, who were substitutes, laughed and in general were very good natured about the game, which made things a bit nicer.
In the 4th inning, which technically we weren’t supposed to play due to their lead, and the closeness of the game to the time limit, Brendan barreled over the catcher on a play at home. Both Steve and I have, in response to questions, have previously told him he had to slide always at home which made it frustrating. Even after that Bobby then did not slide on his own close play at home. On a Brendan note, his father also spent an inning in the outfield talking to him from behind the fence which we are not very happy about.
Despite our good practice on Wednesday, it’s clear the team is starting to get down on themselves. And all the losses too are bothering me, as well. Today we didn’t play poorly, but neither did we play well and we got killed. I think I had been maintaining a really even keel about things, and my ability to remain on an even keel is even considered one of my strengths as a teacher, but I got very frustrated Saturday, and Steve even more so.
We had a pretty long talk after the game. We talked about how there have been side conversations going on when Steve and I have been talking. We talked about how there has been coaching going on in the field, rather then encouragement. We talked about how there have been questioning of our decisions in places where that hesitation could make a difference. We talked about how the regular season doesn’t matter but their outlook about the game does matter.
Following this, we had a private talk with Bobby who has been our worse offender on a lot of these things and also who seems to demand every two seconds the score, which Steve and I aren’t big on focusing, whether we’re ahead or behind. While we briefly retouched on the topics from the whole team discussion I also mentioned how the only time the score matters in this league is at the end of the game if it’s close. Otherwise it’s just going out there and playing. Steve also talked about moping in the field, which he certainly did after he got pulled from pitcher.
After the game we had a nice talk with one of our favorite sets of parents from last year, whose son misses us a lot because his coach isn’t so great this year. Despite how depressed I was when I got home, I think this talk was good at relieving some of my self-doubt though there’s still quite a bit of that there.
I know that we can win. We’re going to put up Trey in innings 1 and 2 on Wednesday to try and give us an early lead, which worked well enough against the A’s. Then we’ll try Percy for 2 with Avi and Everett filling out the rotation. We really need to come out gung-ho as that’s been a problem for us. Hopefully Steve has something in his bag of tricks to get us fired up so we come out strong. I know as much as we’re snowballing now we can snowball in the opposite direction and hopefully that will be Wednesday.
Their pitching was horrendous which made things more difficult for us as we had very few pitches to hit the whole day. This made getting a rally going very difficult. We had a ton of walks, but also far more strikeouts looking since the umpire had a tendency, and this was true for both teams, to expand the strike zone after 4 or 5 pitches.
Bobby got a chance to pitch in the 2nd, as I wanted to make sure we saw him pitch, and had a lot of control problems. We ended up having to yank him. Percy, who was perhaps our only good news, came in and looked terrific. He had originally been scheduled to pitch in the 4th, so we had him pitch in the 3rd as well and again he pitched very well overall. Avi wondered why Percy jumped ahead of him, and I reminded him he had a chance to pitch two innings on Tuesday, which seemed to mollify him. Even when we again changed things around later and had Trey pitch the 4th on he didn’t complain, which I was surprised about. Bobby seems very concerned that he’ll never get a chance to pitch again, which just isn’t an option for us.
Trying to think of interesting things that happened:
I worked with Kelvin on bunting before the game and he looked really good. Unfortunately, we never got into a game situation where he could bunt so he hasn’t had a chance to try it in a game. But, this was encouraging to see.
Jesse saw a man cheating at 3rd, and even after Jesse walking him back, he didn’t move so he threw to third and the ball got by our 3B. He later expressed frustration at how tired he got behind the plate, which makes sense as he was getting a lot of pitches.
We once again induced a throw to second on a 1st and 3rd situation. What made this amusing was the first basemen even said “He’s going to steal on the first or second pitch” as he had over heard me. So off Jim went on the first pitch. The catcher threw it down and Jim was going to be safe, but the 2nd baseman also dropped the ball. Avi, not listening to Steve, didn’t take off a long time, which then caused a throw home after the SS recovered the ball, and he too was safe, advancing Jim to third. The opposing coaches, who were substitutes, laughed and in general were very good natured about the game, which made things a bit nicer.
In the 4th inning, which technically we weren’t supposed to play due to their lead, and the closeness of the game to the time limit, Brendan barreled over the catcher on a play at home. Both Steve and I have, in response to questions, have previously told him he had to slide always at home which made it frustrating. Even after that Bobby then did not slide on his own close play at home. On a Brendan note, his father also spent an inning in the outfield talking to him from behind the fence which we are not very happy about.
Despite our good practice on Wednesday, it’s clear the team is starting to get down on themselves. And all the losses too are bothering me, as well. Today we didn’t play poorly, but neither did we play well and we got killed. I think I had been maintaining a really even keel about things, and my ability to remain on an even keel is even considered one of my strengths as a teacher, but I got very frustrated Saturday, and Steve even more so.
We had a pretty long talk after the game. We talked about how there have been side conversations going on when Steve and I have been talking. We talked about how there has been coaching going on in the field, rather then encouragement. We talked about how there have been questioning of our decisions in places where that hesitation could make a difference. We talked about how the regular season doesn’t matter but their outlook about the game does matter.
Following this, we had a private talk with Bobby who has been our worse offender on a lot of these things and also who seems to demand every two seconds the score, which Steve and I aren’t big on focusing, whether we’re ahead or behind. While we briefly retouched on the topics from the whole team discussion I also mentioned how the only time the score matters in this league is at the end of the game if it’s close. Otherwise it’s just going out there and playing. Steve also talked about moping in the field, which he certainly did after he got pulled from pitcher.
After the game we had a nice talk with one of our favorite sets of parents from last year, whose son misses us a lot because his coach isn’t so great this year. Despite how depressed I was when I got home, I think this talk was good at relieving some of my self-doubt though there’s still quite a bit of that there.
I know that we can win. We’re going to put up Trey in innings 1 and 2 on Wednesday to try and give us an early lead, which worked well enough against the A’s. Then we’ll try Percy for 2 with Avi and Everett filling out the rotation. We really need to come out gung-ho as that’s been a problem for us. Hopefully Steve has something in his bag of tricks to get us fired up so we come out strong. I know as much as we’re snowballing now we can snowball in the opposite direction and hopefully that will be Wednesday.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Game: Marlins vs Braves
Before the Game
So I go over to Steve’s house and we agree that Avi should be our first pitcher. We had no sooner agreed to this then Steve’s phone rings and he looks at the caller ID and goes “uh-oh”. Long story short, Avi is going to be about a half hour late to the game. We can deal with this and so he gets the nod for the sixth. We end up deciding to start Trey, but also decide we want to see a lot of different pitchers and so we only pitch each of our pitchers for an inning. The pitchers we want to see are:
Trey, Everett, Avi, and Percy
Percy, if you recall, had a disastrous outing. However, he’s been throwing very well in “bullpen” sessions so I want to see how he does in a game. We put in Jim in for the 5th figuring he had a bad outing the last time and would still be able to come in for relief if Percy can’t get the ball over.
We don’t expect to get past the 5th, with the exception of our first game we haven’t gotten past the 5th and it’s cold, with a chance to rain, further decreasing the chance we’d get past the 4th, let alone 5th. Not to mention we expect the other team to be scoring runs. With all that in mind, we decide to go ahead and schedule Bobby to pitch, since he’s looked pretty good, and have Brendan catch him. We need to start developing Brendan and so we figure this would be a good way to say that he’s going to get some chances without actually having to worry about him catching. It also gives Steve an excuse to work with him before the game.
Steve and I decide to start keeping track of who is showing up the requested 20 minutes before the game. We’ll then have them do something not too onerous, but enough to get our message across such as run laps. Today, Brendan is the surprise first arrival, with Everett & Fuller there shortly after. With Jesse and Avi excused it still leaves an awful lot of late people, though all are there 10 minutes before the game, except Avi, as expected.
I work with Bobby and Percy before the game and they both look ok but not great. We’ll see how it goes. Steve does his work with Brendan and he looks not so great.
The Game
We’re the home team. Trey comes up and takes care of business on 9 pitches with 1 strikeout. Meanwhile, the bottom of our lineup doesn’t get anything going, except for Kellen getting a single and a couple of steals.
Everett, as usual has a rough time of it. Jesse, who was sitting out, even comments that he throws good pitches so it’s kind of surprising that they hit him as much as they do. I think we need to work on his pitching rather then throwing. He’s pretty good about getting ahead in the count, which makes it all the more frustrating. He allows 2 runs and we get out of the inning without more damage after we double up a player on a popup. Now it happens to be against the heart of their order, so it’s not the worse thing, but still isn’t great.
In the bottom half of the inning, things don’t look so good when Trey and Everett both fly out on well hit balls. But then Brendan gets on base and steals 2nd. Jesse rips a ball, which was over his head, into left for a run scoring single. After stealing second, he then scores when Percy hits a triple. Bobby follows it up with a double to score Percy and we end up with 3 runs, all produced after we had 2 outs, after Fuller grounds out to end the inning. It was pretty nice. And the great thing is that pretty much everything was legitimate. It wasn’t like Percy got lucky with the triple, he really deserved it. Score is 3-2 good guys and we are definitely in a game we didn’t think we would be.
Avi then pitches the top of the 3rd. He walks the first batter and gets the next one to line out. The 3rd batter rips a ball into center that gets by the outstretched hand of Jodi. Trey runs over from right and relays it to Jodi who then tries, against what Steve and I were saying, to throw the runner out at 3rd. She naturally overthrows and the run scores. However, the batter never gets a chance to score as we retire the side while holding him at 3rd.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Ethan, of all people, gets a nice one out single and then scores, when Kellen, of all people, hits a double. Kellen steals 3rd and then scores when Jodi hits one back to the mound. Jim walks, steals second and then tries to steal third but comes up short of the bag on his slide and gets tagged out. Ending the inning.
At this point we’re moving fairly quickly in his game and it’s starting to drizzle. It’s a little early for the predicted rain, which considering the fact that we’re ahead is a shame. Anyhow Percy, the first of our real tests, is up on the mound. After I threw with him I had him throw to Jesse and both insist that Percy has a nasty slider. However, when he tries to show me it keeps rising instead, so I tell him to stick with fastballs. Worse yet he starts off facing the heart of their order. Sure enough their slugger hits a solid single. On the next play we get him out on a fielders choice. Overall Percy looks good and while that runner on the fielder’s choice ends up scoring after a single and a putout at first, he only lets up the 1 run. I was pretty sure that the first appearance was a fluke and this seems to bear that out. Going into the bottom of the 4th it’s 5-5
As we start off the inning, Trey confides in me that he hates leading off. I think this fits in my overall picture of Trey as someone who puts a lot of pressure on himself (as does dad) and one of the times he feels this pressure is leading off. Obviously there’s nothing we can do about it at this point, but it’s an important thing to realize for the playoffs when we do have flexibility over the batting order. Anyhow, Trey gets an infield single. He then steals second on the first pitch. Before the inning, I had told Everett that if Trey got out that I wanted to see him bunt. He told me that he doesn’t really feel comfortable bunting as he doesn’t practice. I told him I understood that, but to consider it in-game practice and also assured him we’d be working on it as a team. When the count becomes 1-0 after the passed ball with Trey advancing, I tell him to do what we had talked about. He squares around a couple times but can’t get contact. The second time was a ball. After the inning I tell him one of the reasons I want him to practice bunting is he knows where the strike zone is and so he shouldn’t be bunting at balls. Anyhow he gets behind 1-2 and ends up striking out. Trey does manage to steal third during Brendan’s at bat when he walks. This gives us runners at first and third. I tell Brendan on the first pitch he should steal. For whatever reason their catcher throws down to the base. The ball goes into center and Trey scores without a problem. On the very next pitch Brendan steals third. Jesse then hits ANOTHER ball that was way to high and bloops it for a single, though Brendan had to hold up as it was on the third base side. I tell Jesse to steal on the first pitch, as we have the 1st and 3rd situation again, but on the first pitch Percy hits a single advancing Jesse to third. I tell Percy he should then steal. And he does and gets a good jump. Yet AGAIN the catcher throws, though his throw is on time this time and in a close play Percy is called out. However, Brendan does score giving us a run for an out. Later in the game their coach confides in me that he can’t believe his catcher threw down the second time and let us have another run. Bobby grounds out to second to end the inning, but putting us up 8-5.
Now we’re in the 5th. There is still 25 minutes left before the mandatory stop time of an hour and a half. I hope for a LONG inning as I do not want to have to throw Bobby. Jim is once again having clear control problems. He walks the first batter. The second one grounds out to short, he then walks the third batter. Both score on a double, where we once AGAIN overthrow 3rd. Their slugger gets another great hit and drives in the guy who was on second scores on a close play at the plate. The guy however overruns 3rd and Everett makes a dead on throw to Avi who applies the tag and we get the out. Now was the guy really out? I don’t think so, neither does Steve, or the other coach. But as the other coach said even if he wasn’t out it was the right call to make as kids shouldn’t be overrunning third. Despite the 3 runs that scored when we get that out it was a clear momentum shift and Jim strikes out the next batter. Overall, Jim did not have great stuff, but neither did he fall apart on the mound. He kept his cool and got us through the inning. It’s now tied. Out bottom of the order acts like the bottom of the order as they bring in their ace pitcher, and we strike out 1-2-3.
As we were are coming in from the field I say to Steve that Brendan shouldn’t catch in the inning and we should use Jesse instead. He agrees. Steve goes over and explains to Brendan that since we’re in a close game and Jesse has “more experience” (which I thought was an excellent way of phrasing it) that we were going to have him catch. Brendan takes this well. All of this is karma for our pitching a pitcher who we didn’t want to pitch. Anyhow Bobby gets up and walks the first batter. On four pitches. Steve turns to me and says “I want to keep him on a short leash.” I ask him “Who can we sub for him?” The answer is nobody. Our choices at his point would be Kellen or Jodi, neither of which is appealing and Bobby almost for sure has better stuff then both of them. He starts to pitch better but does allow a run to score. We end out getting a man out at third on a caught steal and Bobby had a nice inning. Overall, Bobby got better the more he threw which was great and just what we needed.
As we head out into the field I hope that their ace will not be on the mound again. He is. However, we have the top of our order up. Jim gets permission to bunt. He then lays down a great bunt… if he was trying to sacrifice. Unfortunately, bunting right back at a travel team pitcher with no one on base does us no good. Still, I’m glad we tried it. Trey, with no doubt a good deal of self imposed pressure, strikes out. This gives us 2 outs. Everett gets a nice single. I give him the green light to take off and he goes on the second pitch. Alas, Brendan reverts to form and strikes out ending the game with a 9-8 loss.
Post Game Analysis and Looking Forward
Well the good news is that we didn’t allow any big innings. The most they scored in an inning was 3, which is good. Our fielding was terrific. We were hitting the ball hard and having multiple people score. Percy and Bobby both had good outings, Jim, not as much.
During the post game speech Steve said if they think about where they were at during the first game and where we’re at now it’s a huge improvement. Bobby, little wise guy that he is, says “So you’re saying we used to be crap?” which draws a large chuckle from the parents. I mean that is what Steve is saying, but still. If you all could see the progress they’d made you would agree that we’re improving far more then most teams. It’s a shame we don’t get the victory here, but unlike last game where I think there were some decisions which could have given us the runs we lost by, in this game we were right in it, and got shut down by their ace pitcher when we threw 6 pitchers.
The good thing is that it has given us enough confidence that we’re going to try and not pitch Trey next game, or to save him for a relief situation. If we can keep getting good outings from six kids we’ll be in great shape come the playoffs. It’s frustrating that we haven’t had practice in so long, especially as they are forecasting rain again for Wednesday, but we’re looking good, especially as we play a team that I was not impressed with when we scouted. So once again the future is looking great even if the individual result was not as much.
We had the kids, after our short speech, do the “name something good you saw” and they all have no problems naming 11 different things. We awarded Percy the ball for a great day at bat, a nice inning on the mound, and a heads-up play as a RF when he backed up Trey on a play that Trey blew at 1st.
So I pretty hopeful that when I write the next game recap on Tuesday or Wednesday I am talking about a win.
So I go over to Steve’s house and we agree that Avi should be our first pitcher. We had no sooner agreed to this then Steve’s phone rings and he looks at the caller ID and goes “uh-oh”. Long story short, Avi is going to be about a half hour late to the game. We can deal with this and so he gets the nod for the sixth. We end up deciding to start Trey, but also decide we want to see a lot of different pitchers and so we only pitch each of our pitchers for an inning. The pitchers we want to see are:
Trey, Everett, Avi, and Percy
Percy, if you recall, had a disastrous outing. However, he’s been throwing very well in “bullpen” sessions so I want to see how he does in a game. We put in Jim in for the 5th figuring he had a bad outing the last time and would still be able to come in for relief if Percy can’t get the ball over.
We don’t expect to get past the 5th, with the exception of our first game we haven’t gotten past the 5th and it’s cold, with a chance to rain, further decreasing the chance we’d get past the 4th, let alone 5th. Not to mention we expect the other team to be scoring runs. With all that in mind, we decide to go ahead and schedule Bobby to pitch, since he’s looked pretty good, and have Brendan catch him. We need to start developing Brendan and so we figure this would be a good way to say that he’s going to get some chances without actually having to worry about him catching. It also gives Steve an excuse to work with him before the game.
Steve and I decide to start keeping track of who is showing up the requested 20 minutes before the game. We’ll then have them do something not too onerous, but enough to get our message across such as run laps. Today, Brendan is the surprise first arrival, with Everett & Fuller there shortly after. With Jesse and Avi excused it still leaves an awful lot of late people, though all are there 10 minutes before the game, except Avi, as expected.
I work with Bobby and Percy before the game and they both look ok but not great. We’ll see how it goes. Steve does his work with Brendan and he looks not so great.
The Game
We’re the home team. Trey comes up and takes care of business on 9 pitches with 1 strikeout. Meanwhile, the bottom of our lineup doesn’t get anything going, except for Kellen getting a single and a couple of steals.
Everett, as usual has a rough time of it. Jesse, who was sitting out, even comments that he throws good pitches so it’s kind of surprising that they hit him as much as they do. I think we need to work on his pitching rather then throwing. He’s pretty good about getting ahead in the count, which makes it all the more frustrating. He allows 2 runs and we get out of the inning without more damage after we double up a player on a popup. Now it happens to be against the heart of their order, so it’s not the worse thing, but still isn’t great.
In the bottom half of the inning, things don’t look so good when Trey and Everett both fly out on well hit balls. But then Brendan gets on base and steals 2nd. Jesse rips a ball, which was over his head, into left for a run scoring single. After stealing second, he then scores when Percy hits a triple. Bobby follows it up with a double to score Percy and we end up with 3 runs, all produced after we had 2 outs, after Fuller grounds out to end the inning. It was pretty nice. And the great thing is that pretty much everything was legitimate. It wasn’t like Percy got lucky with the triple, he really deserved it. Score is 3-2 good guys and we are definitely in a game we didn’t think we would be.
Avi then pitches the top of the 3rd. He walks the first batter and gets the next one to line out. The 3rd batter rips a ball into center that gets by the outstretched hand of Jodi. Trey runs over from right and relays it to Jodi who then tries, against what Steve and I were saying, to throw the runner out at 3rd. She naturally overthrows and the run scores. However, the batter never gets a chance to score as we retire the side while holding him at 3rd.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Ethan, of all people, gets a nice one out single and then scores, when Kellen, of all people, hits a double. Kellen steals 3rd and then scores when Jodi hits one back to the mound. Jim walks, steals second and then tries to steal third but comes up short of the bag on his slide and gets tagged out. Ending the inning.
At this point we’re moving fairly quickly in his game and it’s starting to drizzle. It’s a little early for the predicted rain, which considering the fact that we’re ahead is a shame. Anyhow Percy, the first of our real tests, is up on the mound. After I threw with him I had him throw to Jesse and both insist that Percy has a nasty slider. However, when he tries to show me it keeps rising instead, so I tell him to stick with fastballs. Worse yet he starts off facing the heart of their order. Sure enough their slugger hits a solid single. On the next play we get him out on a fielders choice. Overall Percy looks good and while that runner on the fielder’s choice ends up scoring after a single and a putout at first, he only lets up the 1 run. I was pretty sure that the first appearance was a fluke and this seems to bear that out. Going into the bottom of the 4th it’s 5-5
As we start off the inning, Trey confides in me that he hates leading off. I think this fits in my overall picture of Trey as someone who puts a lot of pressure on himself (as does dad) and one of the times he feels this pressure is leading off. Obviously there’s nothing we can do about it at this point, but it’s an important thing to realize for the playoffs when we do have flexibility over the batting order. Anyhow, Trey gets an infield single. He then steals second on the first pitch. Before the inning, I had told Everett that if Trey got out that I wanted to see him bunt. He told me that he doesn’t really feel comfortable bunting as he doesn’t practice. I told him I understood that, but to consider it in-game practice and also assured him we’d be working on it as a team. When the count becomes 1-0 after the passed ball with Trey advancing, I tell him to do what we had talked about. He squares around a couple times but can’t get contact. The second time was a ball. After the inning I tell him one of the reasons I want him to practice bunting is he knows where the strike zone is and so he shouldn’t be bunting at balls. Anyhow he gets behind 1-2 and ends up striking out. Trey does manage to steal third during Brendan’s at bat when he walks. This gives us runners at first and third. I tell Brendan on the first pitch he should steal. For whatever reason their catcher throws down to the base. The ball goes into center and Trey scores without a problem. On the very next pitch Brendan steals third. Jesse then hits ANOTHER ball that was way to high and bloops it for a single, though Brendan had to hold up as it was on the third base side. I tell Jesse to steal on the first pitch, as we have the 1st and 3rd situation again, but on the first pitch Percy hits a single advancing Jesse to third. I tell Percy he should then steal. And he does and gets a good jump. Yet AGAIN the catcher throws, though his throw is on time this time and in a close play Percy is called out. However, Brendan does score giving us a run for an out. Later in the game their coach confides in me that he can’t believe his catcher threw down the second time and let us have another run. Bobby grounds out to second to end the inning, but putting us up 8-5.
Now we’re in the 5th. There is still 25 minutes left before the mandatory stop time of an hour and a half. I hope for a LONG inning as I do not want to have to throw Bobby. Jim is once again having clear control problems. He walks the first batter. The second one grounds out to short, he then walks the third batter. Both score on a double, where we once AGAIN overthrow 3rd. Their slugger gets another great hit and drives in the guy who was on second scores on a close play at the plate. The guy however overruns 3rd and Everett makes a dead on throw to Avi who applies the tag and we get the out. Now was the guy really out? I don’t think so, neither does Steve, or the other coach. But as the other coach said even if he wasn’t out it was the right call to make as kids shouldn’t be overrunning third. Despite the 3 runs that scored when we get that out it was a clear momentum shift and Jim strikes out the next batter. Overall, Jim did not have great stuff, but neither did he fall apart on the mound. He kept his cool and got us through the inning. It’s now tied. Out bottom of the order acts like the bottom of the order as they bring in their ace pitcher, and we strike out 1-2-3.
As we were are coming in from the field I say to Steve that Brendan shouldn’t catch in the inning and we should use Jesse instead. He agrees. Steve goes over and explains to Brendan that since we’re in a close game and Jesse has “more experience” (which I thought was an excellent way of phrasing it) that we were going to have him catch. Brendan takes this well. All of this is karma for our pitching a pitcher who we didn’t want to pitch. Anyhow Bobby gets up and walks the first batter. On four pitches. Steve turns to me and says “I want to keep him on a short leash.” I ask him “Who can we sub for him?” The answer is nobody. Our choices at his point would be Kellen or Jodi, neither of which is appealing and Bobby almost for sure has better stuff then both of them. He starts to pitch better but does allow a run to score. We end out getting a man out at third on a caught steal and Bobby had a nice inning. Overall, Bobby got better the more he threw which was great and just what we needed.
As we head out into the field I hope that their ace will not be on the mound again. He is. However, we have the top of our order up. Jim gets permission to bunt. He then lays down a great bunt… if he was trying to sacrifice. Unfortunately, bunting right back at a travel team pitcher with no one on base does us no good. Still, I’m glad we tried it. Trey, with no doubt a good deal of self imposed pressure, strikes out. This gives us 2 outs. Everett gets a nice single. I give him the green light to take off and he goes on the second pitch. Alas, Brendan reverts to form and strikes out ending the game with a 9-8 loss.
Post Game Analysis and Looking Forward
Well the good news is that we didn’t allow any big innings. The most they scored in an inning was 3, which is good. Our fielding was terrific. We were hitting the ball hard and having multiple people score. Percy and Bobby both had good outings, Jim, not as much.
During the post game speech Steve said if they think about where they were at during the first game and where we’re at now it’s a huge improvement. Bobby, little wise guy that he is, says “So you’re saying we used to be crap?” which draws a large chuckle from the parents. I mean that is what Steve is saying, but still. If you all could see the progress they’d made you would agree that we’re improving far more then most teams. It’s a shame we don’t get the victory here, but unlike last game where I think there were some decisions which could have given us the runs we lost by, in this game we were right in it, and got shut down by their ace pitcher when we threw 6 pitchers.
The good thing is that it has given us enough confidence that we’re going to try and not pitch Trey next game, or to save him for a relief situation. If we can keep getting good outings from six kids we’ll be in great shape come the playoffs. It’s frustrating that we haven’t had practice in so long, especially as they are forecasting rain again for Wednesday, but we’re looking good, especially as we play a team that I was not impressed with when we scouted. So once again the future is looking great even if the individual result was not as much.
We had the kids, after our short speech, do the “name something good you saw” and they all have no problems naming 11 different things. We awarded Percy the ball for a great day at bat, a nice inning on the mound, and a heads-up play as a RF when he backed up Trey on a play that Trey blew at 1st.
So I pretty hopeful that when I write the next game recap on Tuesday or Wednesday I am talking about a win.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Game Report
Before the Game
As we had the 7:30 game Steve and I figured we would go to his early, whip out the lineups and then go to dinner before getting to the field nice and early.
We had decided we were going to do two schedules, one with Jim and one without. Jim’s family had experienced the death of a family friend recently and so it was unknown whether or not he’d be there. We sit down and fairly easily work out the lineups. We’re just finishing up when my phone rings. The caller ID tells me that it is Avi’s house. Avi, who we of course have pitching. I pick-up the phone and Avi’s mom tells me Avi will not be at the game. When I ask why she starts to babble a little before it is discovered that Avi had baseball taken away as a punishment for misbehavior. Steve and I were not happy with this. Steve grew especially livid when he learned that she could have called us earlier in the day. We both agree that penalizing the whole team, as this does, when there are a myriad of options open to a parent for discipline is unfortunate.
Well at this point the entire lineup needs to be redone and it leaves us a pitcher short. For simplicities sake we decide to just assume Jim will not be there, which is what was indicated as most likely when we found out Monday about the death. We put together a lineup. And it’s painful. I won’t lie. We end up feeling forced to give Brendan an inning at catching. As of now Steve and I agree that we do not want Trey or Everett to catch until after they have pitched which means early inning pitches for them. In order to solve the inning of pitching we were hoping Avi to do we end up giving Jodi two innings. I’m still not sure what made us think this was a good move.
We end up with the following pitchers:
Trey, Trey, Everett, Jodi, Jodi, Percy
Steve and I go to dinner and have some great pizza. We then drive to the field getting us there about 40 minutes before our game, and about halfway through the preceding game on the field. Just as we are pulling up to the parking lot Steve’s phone rings. It’s a local phone number we don’t recognize. Trouble. It’s Bobby on the line. Now I only heard 1 side of the conversation but it must have gone something like this.
Bobby: I am not coming to today’s game
Steve: Why not buddy?
Bobby: Well I can’t find any of my uniform and my parents are out of town so I can’t ask them where it is.
Steve: (exhaling) Well do you have a way to get to the game?
Bobby: Yes
Steve: Well then you should come and we’ll sort out the uniform issue at the game
Bobby: You’re sure?
Steve: Yes. Just come. We’ll see you at the game.
He hangs up and explains. Now Bobby is by no shakes an all-star player. But on our team? He’s one of our more consistent fielders and serviceable at the plate. We could really use him. Not to mention if he is does not show that means we have exactly 9 players and so if there is the expected unexpected no show we’re playing with 8 players. Anyhow crisis averted.
While Steve and I throw to each other we scout out the two teams playing. And it becomes clear that we could be competitive with both of them.
Our first player arrives about 30 minutes early and all of the players are actually there, except 1, 20 minutes before the game. It was great. Just as the first player arrives we get a call. It’s from Jim and he WILL be at the game. As Steve takes the players to warm up, I immediately start to redo our lineups. Best of all it means that JF will not have to pitch two innings.
In the end we end up with the following Pitcher/Catch combos:
Trey/Jesse, Trey/Jesse, Everett/Trey, Jodi/Jesse, Jim/Everett, Percy/Evertt
I manage to get some time with Percy before the game and work on correcting a problem with his motion that is giving him poor control. Hopefully he’ll be ok if he has to pitch.
The Game
We’re the visiting team. Trey is leading off so we hope to get right on the board. Trey starts off with a walk and steals second. Everett grounds out, advancing Trey to 3rd. Now we have Brendan. Steve and I had talked to him about getting up there and swinging at the first couple of pitches, as he’s been pretty much watching these and finding himself behind in the count, and sure enough he does this. On a 2-2 count he makes contact, only the second or third time all season, and hits it hard to short. Steve sends Trey home. Now this was a questionable decision. Trey, however, did not help the matter by hesitating and then not appearing to run full out. Anyhow the SS makes a nice play, and the catcher, who we find out later catches for the travel team, makes a perfect catch and tag and Trey is out. Brendan ends up stealing second on the first pitch which lets me talk to Trey in the dugout (I’m coaching 1st this inning). He tells me he disagreed with the decision to send him. I said did that disagreement mean he didn’t go as quickly and as hard as he should have. He says he doesn’t know, and I believe him, but it gives me a chance to reinforce the importance of listening to us, and if we make the wrong decision it’s not his fault and no one will be mad. It’s all done in a very neutral/upbeat way, so it SHOULD have had a bearing on what will happen later. Anyhow Jesse strikes out to end the first.
Trey allows a couple of hits to the heart of their order but escapes without allowing a run and we have a 0-0 game after 1.
We can’t get anything going in the second, despite getting Bobby to 3rd with 1 out. Trey has little problem in the bottom half and it remains 0-0 in a pretty well played ball game.
In the third Jim leads off with a walk. And then we start to pound the ball. Trey hits a double, Everett hits a 2 run single, Jesse absolutely KILLS a ball into LF for a double. Bobby gets a single and we end up with 5 legitimately earned runs.
As the bottom half starts, with a couple of singles to the better part of the order, I comment to Steve that Everett seems like he’s never going to have an easy inning. Anyhow the bases get loaded on a Everett walk. Now before we now it, the bases are loaded. When the first base runner got on, Steve and I both told TG: DO NOT THROW UNLESS WE TELL YOU TO. Anyhow the bases are loaded. The kid on first is a slower player. After the second pitch he goes a little too far and Trey looks him back and when he kind of walks back to the bag Trey makes a throw. Percy is playing first and while he was on the bag he was not expecting a throw, which might have been OK, if it were not the fact that Trey makes a terrible throw that ends up sailing well over his head. TWO runs score and it’s only a nice throw by Jodi to Jesse that holds the last, slow, runner at 3rd. The run ends up scoring on a single to 3rd, but overall Everett does a nice job of pitching out of trouble, striking out two. Brendan also makes a great diving catch on a popup at 3rd.
The next inning when Trey is on the bench I talk to him as he’s putting his bat away. I ask him, in a sincere voice, “Did you know that you play on travel?” He gives me this look that says “Are you crazy” but says yes. I then explain that Steve and I know it as well. And that he doesn’t need to go out there and try and make all star plays simply because he’s an excellent player. Further that he needs to listen to us. Period. Trey couldn’t really look at me by the end of this discussion and was close to tears. And I say good. I don’t mind letting a player know that he’s screwed up, done in a nice way of course, because it gives me more credibility if I say they did a good job.
It’s important to remember despite the 3 runs that scored we are still dominating this game. We have completely deflated the other team and our team is playing pumped up. Jodi leads off the 4th with a walk and ends up at 2nd. I then make a poor call on a passed ball and send her to 3rd. Normally this would not be a poor decision, but with Trey and Everett scheduled to hit now that she’s gotten on I should have had faith that she would have scored when they hit it. Furthermore, I know that the guy they have catching, somebody who I’ve coached fairly extensively in basketball, has a great and accurate arm. So yeah that was a bad call and Jodi gets out as a result. Jim strikes out and Trey pops up to end the inning.
This is Jodi’s inning to pitch. However, as Bobby is sitting out, I had told him we were going to work on his on his pitching. So we go out of the dugout. He tells me he has been practicing and it’s true. He’s looking really good. Not only is he maintaining his arm balance but his arm mechanics are looking better then before. Now I am only half paying attention to the game at this point so I don’t really know what’s happening. I do hear a couple balls hit and from what Steve’s saying I know it’s not going well. After what sounds like a particularly disastrous play, I explain to Bobby that I need to go see what’s happening. Steve later tells me that Everett booted a ball at second base and then stood there instead of trying to either get the ball, or cover 1st, for Kellen who evidently was attempting to recover the ball. The first play I see is a ball hit to short. Jim, our SS, positions himself well, but then like a bat out of hell, Everett comes and grabs the ball, WAY on the SS side of second base, muffs it and the runner ends up safe. Later on Kellen misses a throw that pops out of his glove. A kid hits a hard hit ball to third and Brendan ends up throwing the ball so far into right field that it ends up being a “grand slam”. It was ugly. Jodi neglects to record an out. We are saved only by the seven run cap on an inning. Her mechanics are in need of work, because she kept aiming the ball rather then throwing it, but she is a pretty gifted player so I hope that it will be an easy fix. Regardless, by the sheer necessity of what we are dealing with she is going to get more innings.
Anyhow instead of being up by 2 we are now down by 5. I had been noticing some bad dynamics going on the bench when I had been coaching first. Further, Bobby had made a comment to me. Jesse, I think, has been crossing the line from player to coach on occasion. What he’s saying isn’t ever wrong, but I don’t think the team is responding well to hearing it from him. So I have Brendan’s father coach first base, while I stay in the dugout. Last year since we had 3 coaches we rotated who was coaching bases and in the dugout and I have realized how valuable this time was. As such I have decided that I will make this a semi-regular habit for me and am encouraging Steve to do the same. Everett starts off by striking out, Brendan then draws a walk and steals second. Brendan does not know how to slide and could have really hurt himself the way he slid into second here, so I think we will work on sliding at our next practice. Jesse grounds out to the pitcher. Percy walks. Both advance a base when there is a passed ball. Bobby then hits a triple into the gap in right center. Sadly Fuller records his first strikeout of the year to end the game.
And we lose 10-7.
Post Game Analysis and Looking Forward
Frankly I’m not sure what we could have done differently that would have made a difference. Both Steve and I made a bad call on sending a runner, but that alone wouldn’t have made the difference. Trey not listening to us on a throw cost us two runs but that alone wouldn’t have made the difference. Both of those put together though? That’s likely the 3 runs we lost by which is frustrating. In the end this was a game Steve and I both feel that we should have won. We basically dominated and were it not for the seven run inning we’d have won. The sad thing is that with who was there I didn’t feel better about bringing in a different pitcher for Jodi since I wasn’t sure they’d have been an improvement. Hopefully we will not have that situation again.
Steve noticed that Brendan was showboating and so he’s going to have to talk to him about that.
Our game tomorrow is against the Braves who have been just killing everyone in the league. I don’t know what happened Wednesday but going into that game they had hit at least 1 homerun and had reached the 7 run cap in each game. They appear to be a dominating team. I think as such that we should use it as a learning experience. Try and see if Avi can pitch two innings. See how Percy and Bobby would pitch against real batters, etc. Steve would rather not take this development of people approach and instead would like to really try and throw our best possible pitchers against them. So we’ll see what we end up doing.
We have also had some talks about how in general to use our pitchers. Steve is wondering if we shouldn’t hold back our good pitchers more. I pointed out that if we had done this we wouldn’t necessarily have had the momentum we had going into that inning. I do like the idea of developing Percy as a “relief” pitcher who would come in and throw hard for 1/3 or 2/3 of an inning but he isn’t there yet. For now it seems that we will likely hold Avi in reserve as he can be spared but also seems to be able to get outs.
There is no doubt we’re getting loads better with each game and so it’s sad that we didn’t win this one and are going to face such an uphill climb in the next game.
As we had the 7:30 game Steve and I figured we would go to his early, whip out the lineups and then go to dinner before getting to the field nice and early.
We had decided we were going to do two schedules, one with Jim and one without. Jim’s family had experienced the death of a family friend recently and so it was unknown whether or not he’d be there. We sit down and fairly easily work out the lineups. We’re just finishing up when my phone rings. The caller ID tells me that it is Avi’s house. Avi, who we of course have pitching. I pick-up the phone and Avi’s mom tells me Avi will not be at the game. When I ask why she starts to babble a little before it is discovered that Avi had baseball taken away as a punishment for misbehavior. Steve and I were not happy with this. Steve grew especially livid when he learned that she could have called us earlier in the day. We both agree that penalizing the whole team, as this does, when there are a myriad of options open to a parent for discipline is unfortunate.
Well at this point the entire lineup needs to be redone and it leaves us a pitcher short. For simplicities sake we decide to just assume Jim will not be there, which is what was indicated as most likely when we found out Monday about the death. We put together a lineup. And it’s painful. I won’t lie. We end up feeling forced to give Brendan an inning at catching. As of now Steve and I agree that we do not want Trey or Everett to catch until after they have pitched which means early inning pitches for them. In order to solve the inning of pitching we were hoping Avi to do we end up giving Jodi two innings. I’m still not sure what made us think this was a good move.
We end up with the following pitchers:
Trey, Trey, Everett, Jodi, Jodi, Percy
Steve and I go to dinner and have some great pizza. We then drive to the field getting us there about 40 minutes before our game, and about halfway through the preceding game on the field. Just as we are pulling up to the parking lot Steve’s phone rings. It’s a local phone number we don’t recognize. Trouble. It’s Bobby on the line. Now I only heard 1 side of the conversation but it must have gone something like this.
Bobby: I am not coming to today’s game
Steve: Why not buddy?
Bobby: Well I can’t find any of my uniform and my parents are out of town so I can’t ask them where it is.
Steve: (exhaling) Well do you have a way to get to the game?
Bobby: Yes
Steve: Well then you should come and we’ll sort out the uniform issue at the game
Bobby: You’re sure?
Steve: Yes. Just come. We’ll see you at the game.
He hangs up and explains. Now Bobby is by no shakes an all-star player. But on our team? He’s one of our more consistent fielders and serviceable at the plate. We could really use him. Not to mention if he is does not show that means we have exactly 9 players and so if there is the expected unexpected no show we’re playing with 8 players. Anyhow crisis averted.
While Steve and I throw to each other we scout out the two teams playing. And it becomes clear that we could be competitive with both of them.
Our first player arrives about 30 minutes early and all of the players are actually there, except 1, 20 minutes before the game. It was great. Just as the first player arrives we get a call. It’s from Jim and he WILL be at the game. As Steve takes the players to warm up, I immediately start to redo our lineups. Best of all it means that JF will not have to pitch two innings.
In the end we end up with the following Pitcher/Catch combos:
Trey/Jesse, Trey/Jesse, Everett/Trey, Jodi/Jesse, Jim/Everett, Percy/Evertt
I manage to get some time with Percy before the game and work on correcting a problem with his motion that is giving him poor control. Hopefully he’ll be ok if he has to pitch.
The Game
We’re the visiting team. Trey is leading off so we hope to get right on the board. Trey starts off with a walk and steals second. Everett grounds out, advancing Trey to 3rd. Now we have Brendan. Steve and I had talked to him about getting up there and swinging at the first couple of pitches, as he’s been pretty much watching these and finding himself behind in the count, and sure enough he does this. On a 2-2 count he makes contact, only the second or third time all season, and hits it hard to short. Steve sends Trey home. Now this was a questionable decision. Trey, however, did not help the matter by hesitating and then not appearing to run full out. Anyhow the SS makes a nice play, and the catcher, who we find out later catches for the travel team, makes a perfect catch and tag and Trey is out. Brendan ends up stealing second on the first pitch which lets me talk to Trey in the dugout (I’m coaching 1st this inning). He tells me he disagreed with the decision to send him. I said did that disagreement mean he didn’t go as quickly and as hard as he should have. He says he doesn’t know, and I believe him, but it gives me a chance to reinforce the importance of listening to us, and if we make the wrong decision it’s not his fault and no one will be mad. It’s all done in a very neutral/upbeat way, so it SHOULD have had a bearing on what will happen later. Anyhow Jesse strikes out to end the first.
Trey allows a couple of hits to the heart of their order but escapes without allowing a run and we have a 0-0 game after 1.
We can’t get anything going in the second, despite getting Bobby to 3rd with 1 out. Trey has little problem in the bottom half and it remains 0-0 in a pretty well played ball game.
In the third Jim leads off with a walk. And then we start to pound the ball. Trey hits a double, Everett hits a 2 run single, Jesse absolutely KILLS a ball into LF for a double. Bobby gets a single and we end up with 5 legitimately earned runs.
As the bottom half starts, with a couple of singles to the better part of the order, I comment to Steve that Everett seems like he’s never going to have an easy inning. Anyhow the bases get loaded on a Everett walk. Now before we now it, the bases are loaded. When the first base runner got on, Steve and I both told TG: DO NOT THROW UNLESS WE TELL YOU TO. Anyhow the bases are loaded. The kid on first is a slower player. After the second pitch he goes a little too far and Trey looks him back and when he kind of walks back to the bag Trey makes a throw. Percy is playing first and while he was on the bag he was not expecting a throw, which might have been OK, if it were not the fact that Trey makes a terrible throw that ends up sailing well over his head. TWO runs score and it’s only a nice throw by Jodi to Jesse that holds the last, slow, runner at 3rd. The run ends up scoring on a single to 3rd, but overall Everett does a nice job of pitching out of trouble, striking out two. Brendan also makes a great diving catch on a popup at 3rd.
The next inning when Trey is on the bench I talk to him as he’s putting his bat away. I ask him, in a sincere voice, “Did you know that you play on travel?” He gives me this look that says “Are you crazy” but says yes. I then explain that Steve and I know it as well. And that he doesn’t need to go out there and try and make all star plays simply because he’s an excellent player. Further that he needs to listen to us. Period. Trey couldn’t really look at me by the end of this discussion and was close to tears. And I say good. I don’t mind letting a player know that he’s screwed up, done in a nice way of course, because it gives me more credibility if I say they did a good job.
It’s important to remember despite the 3 runs that scored we are still dominating this game. We have completely deflated the other team and our team is playing pumped up. Jodi leads off the 4th with a walk and ends up at 2nd. I then make a poor call on a passed ball and send her to 3rd. Normally this would not be a poor decision, but with Trey and Everett scheduled to hit now that she’s gotten on I should have had faith that she would have scored when they hit it. Furthermore, I know that the guy they have catching, somebody who I’ve coached fairly extensively in basketball, has a great and accurate arm. So yeah that was a bad call and Jodi gets out as a result. Jim strikes out and Trey pops up to end the inning.
This is Jodi’s inning to pitch. However, as Bobby is sitting out, I had told him we were going to work on his on his pitching. So we go out of the dugout. He tells me he has been practicing and it’s true. He’s looking really good. Not only is he maintaining his arm balance but his arm mechanics are looking better then before. Now I am only half paying attention to the game at this point so I don’t really know what’s happening. I do hear a couple balls hit and from what Steve’s saying I know it’s not going well. After what sounds like a particularly disastrous play, I explain to Bobby that I need to go see what’s happening. Steve later tells me that Everett booted a ball at second base and then stood there instead of trying to either get the ball, or cover 1st, for Kellen who evidently was attempting to recover the ball. The first play I see is a ball hit to short. Jim, our SS, positions himself well, but then like a bat out of hell, Everett comes and grabs the ball, WAY on the SS side of second base, muffs it and the runner ends up safe. Later on Kellen misses a throw that pops out of his glove. A kid hits a hard hit ball to third and Brendan ends up throwing the ball so far into right field that it ends up being a “grand slam”. It was ugly. Jodi neglects to record an out. We are saved only by the seven run cap on an inning. Her mechanics are in need of work, because she kept aiming the ball rather then throwing it, but she is a pretty gifted player so I hope that it will be an easy fix. Regardless, by the sheer necessity of what we are dealing with she is going to get more innings.
Anyhow instead of being up by 2 we are now down by 5. I had been noticing some bad dynamics going on the bench when I had been coaching first. Further, Bobby had made a comment to me. Jesse, I think, has been crossing the line from player to coach on occasion. What he’s saying isn’t ever wrong, but I don’t think the team is responding well to hearing it from him. So I have Brendan’s father coach first base, while I stay in the dugout. Last year since we had 3 coaches we rotated who was coaching bases and in the dugout and I have realized how valuable this time was. As such I have decided that I will make this a semi-regular habit for me and am encouraging Steve to do the same. Everett starts off by striking out, Brendan then draws a walk and steals second. Brendan does not know how to slide and could have really hurt himself the way he slid into second here, so I think we will work on sliding at our next practice. Jesse grounds out to the pitcher. Percy walks. Both advance a base when there is a passed ball. Bobby then hits a triple into the gap in right center. Sadly Fuller records his first strikeout of the year to end the game.
And we lose 10-7.
Post Game Analysis and Looking Forward
Frankly I’m not sure what we could have done differently that would have made a difference. Both Steve and I made a bad call on sending a runner, but that alone wouldn’t have made the difference. Trey not listening to us on a throw cost us two runs but that alone wouldn’t have made the difference. Both of those put together though? That’s likely the 3 runs we lost by which is frustrating. In the end this was a game Steve and I both feel that we should have won. We basically dominated and were it not for the seven run inning we’d have won. The sad thing is that with who was there I didn’t feel better about bringing in a different pitcher for Jodi since I wasn’t sure they’d have been an improvement. Hopefully we will not have that situation again.
Steve noticed that Brendan was showboating and so he’s going to have to talk to him about that.
Our game tomorrow is against the Braves who have been just killing everyone in the league. I don’t know what happened Wednesday but going into that game they had hit at least 1 homerun and had reached the 7 run cap in each game. They appear to be a dominating team. I think as such that we should use it as a learning experience. Try and see if Avi can pitch two innings. See how Percy and Bobby would pitch against real batters, etc. Steve would rather not take this development of people approach and instead would like to really try and throw our best possible pitchers against them. So we’ll see what we end up doing.
We have also had some talks about how in general to use our pitchers. Steve is wondering if we shouldn’t hold back our good pitchers more. I pointed out that if we had done this we wouldn’t necessarily have had the momentum we had going into that inning. I do like the idea of developing Percy as a “relief” pitcher who would come in and throw hard for 1/3 or 2/3 of an inning but he isn’t there yet. For now it seems that we will likely hold Avi in reserve as he can be spared but also seems to be able to get outs.
There is no doubt we’re getting loads better with each game and so it’s sad that we didn’t win this one and are going to face such an uphill climb in the next game.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Reader Feedback
Izulde writes
As I talked about in the post above, I worry about my ability to help the team hit better. The other parts of the game, such as strategy, and defense, and positioning, I know I am a good coach and so I will not get down on myself.
That's what our plan was, but frankly he's very raw at this point. We will definitely be working with him, and matching him up with Percy last game was intended to help him build confidence, though it didn't work that way.
Tough luck starting off with two losses. I remember my first game coaching youth soccer we got hammered 8-0 and I found myself wondering if I was cut out for it. I don't know if you're having some of the same doubts, but if you are, I can tell you that if you stick with it, things can turn around. It certainly did with the squad I coached.
As I talked about in the post above, I worry about my ability to help the team hit better. The other parts of the game, such as strategy, and defense, and positioning, I know I am a good coach and so I will not get down on myself.
Here's a suggestion regarding Brendan: Jesse is clearly your top C and has a rapport with Trey, but since it appears Brendan shows potential and is just raw right now, maybe you could work him with some of the other pitchers to try and find a matchup there too.
That's what our plan was, but frankly he's very raw at this point. We will definitely be working with him, and matching him up with Percy last game was intended to help him build confidence, though it didn't work that way.
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