We clearly are at a turning point. For the first 5 games, despite losing everyone, and some of them pretty decisively, we maintained a great team spirit. However, games 6 and 7 were not played well or with much enthusiasm. Now we have our first win under our belt. The team last night looked like the team from the first few games. We had chants going on, a first for us, and particularly fun was the “two out rally” (clap clap clap-clap) chant in the 5th. It was spirited. It was positive. And at the same time it was demoralizing for the other team.
The problem is that our next two games are against teams identified as cream of the crop. It looks highly likely that our game Saturday will be rained out. The following game has us play a team with 3 players on sixth grade travel. Now granted some travel players are overrated, but that is still one stacked team. The good news is that our pitching and fielding are at pretty good places. Now this was helped by the fact that 2 of our worse fielders weren’t present at the game meaning we could do things like play Everett at 2nd, a luxury we’ve never had before. But still we’ve grown a lot and hopefully the win drives that home for the team. A second win in one of our next two games would give Steve and I a lot of freedom then in giving opportunities for players to develop, as our team would have more of a feeling that they’re not losers.
This is partly because our pitching is at a pretty good place. Avi has either been very lucky, or else is very good, at getting outs. Everett and Trey are 2 legitimately good pitchers. I have a feeling Percy should be quality as well. If we used these four pitchers exclusively we would never be in danger of getting blown-out. However, we still need to develop two more pitchers for the play-offs. Jim and Bobby are our most likely candidates. What this means is that we need to get them innings, innings which have the potential to be disastrous.
Where are the players at?
With our season just over half way done, now seems like a good time to take a look at each player. (Quick notes about stats: Steve and I do not record errors for the most part as they are par for the course in the league. This does mean that a player’s OBP and BA are inflated over what they would be if kept by a major league score keeper)
Jodi – The problem with JF is that she’s simply not been around. She hasn’t been at practices, has been sick or otherwise had commitments which have prevented her from coming to games. Despite 4 at-bats yesterday she still only has 10 plate appearances for the season, far below the average (especially the average taken without her). She has the skills, no doubt, but the lack of experience has meant that she has reached a plateau, or even slightly regressed, since the start of the season. I think she’s a better fielder then Steve does, though the empirical numbers (in terms of errors) back Steve up. She has been my biggest disappointment, and it’s frustrating because I’m not sure we will have the ability to turn this around into a positive before the season ends.
GOAL: Get her timing down so she’s making contact with the ball which will be further helped by reducing the number of balls she’s swinging at.
Trey – Clearly our standout pitcher. He averages 1.9 strikeouts per inning while only 0.3 walks, by far the best ratio on our team. In fact, statistically, he is better then our star pitcher last season, while not having nearly the same heat, speaking to his ability to change speeds and consistently find the strike zone. His catching has been exactly what we needed, good though not all star. Speaking of all star he hasn’t tried to make any “all star” plays lately either, which is good. He has a .417 batting average and a .588 OBP, but has been in a bit of a slump lately. It doesn’t look like he’s doing anything different and I’m working hard to try and make sure he doesn’t pressure himself too much when at the plate. His catching has brought out some leadership qualities, though this is still an area where he could see improvement. He’s somewhat unusual in this regard as normally talented athletes, which he is, are the natural leaders since they’ve had the most practice at this age. Basically we can plug him into any position and know that we’re going to see good things defensively, which is a great thing to be able to say.
GOAL: More leadership. Make sure any continuation of his hitting slump doesn’t effect other parts of his game.
Ethan – I don’t think we’ve seen his best yet. He has a lot going for him, including his speed and good mannered nature. I would peg him as the most likely to have a second half breakout. Especially good is his ability to bunt. Just as it is with Jim, his showing of bunt (not to mention ability to actually lay them down well) will lead to base hits when he’s swinging. In the field he continues to have huge concentration problems. This could easily be effecting him at the plate as well. His fielding mechanics are fairly sound, though he does struggle with ground balls sometimes, but he has a pretty weak arm. This combines to his seeing 65% of his innings either at 2B or RF. I really think he could turn from being a 2B because we have to play him in the infield to a good 2B, if we can get him to field grounders with more consistency. I worked with him a little on his pitching at practice the other day and he still looks horrible, so I don’t think he’ll be seeing any more mound time this year.
GOAL: Help him find his groove at the plate.
Avi– Statistically he’s our second best pitcher in ERA after Trey with an ERA of 4.8 (which is indeed a good ERA in this league). In fact this ranks him in the top 3 players comparing players from last season and this. As I alluded to above, I’m not sure how much of this is skill, and how much has been luck. He clearly can get the ball over the plate, averaging only 1.4 walks per inning, but his 0.6 strikeouts per inning, the lowest among pitchers with at least 2 innings, shows he hardly has overwhelming stuff. In terms of hitting he’s hitting .222 (team average is .322) but his OBP is above average at .563 (team average is .488). I haven’t seen him really hit the ball yet so it’s just as well that he’s got a fairly good eye. His attitude has improved fairly significantly, through the season which is good and I no longer think there is as much concern of him being a drain on our chemistry, though he’s still not quite as filled with team spirit as most. He listens to Steve and I without complaint now and hopefully continued pitching success will earn him more leeway with the team. He has expressed interest in catching, though we still haven’t really seen him do this yet, so his skills are unknown, though I am skeptical about his ability to do it. However, his play at 3B on steals has been solid, in terms of catching the throw and tagging the runner. He can make a long throw with pretty good accuracy as well so he’s a very nice option there for us.
GOAL: Develop him into a reliable 2 inning pitcher. See if he has any skill as a catcher.
Jesse – Our team leader. He has been more positive in his leadership lately which is good. A rock behind the plate. He has caught 21 of the 37 innings we’ve played. And he’s deserved every inning he’s played there, though I am hopeful that Brendan will, someday, be able to assume more of the load, as I would love to have Jesse play at 1B more often. He has hit the ball consistently and hard, with the most extra base hits on the team. He has very few strikeouts, with only 9% of his at bats being a strike out (2nd lowest on the team and versus an average of 22%) but a lot of that is because he’s a good junkball hitter. Then again it’s hard to knock a kid at the plate who has a team best batting average of .474. His position in the batting order is, I feel, a reason why we’ve had several two out rallies as he gives us another spark after we leave the top of the order.
GOAL: Work on developing his sense of the strike as a batter
Fuller – He has come through with some big hits, but then at other times has looked lost at the plate. This combines to make him a nearly perfectly average hitter, in terms of BA, OBP, and strikeout percentage. He is our “starting” 3B as has the most innings of anyone on the team at that base. I wish I could say that it was this skill or that which has made him the 3B of choice but it’s really not any one thing and just a lot of the things he’s done. I think we’ve not given him nearly the attention we should to develop his catching. Which is a shame because we need more catchers (more on this subject when we get to Brendan).
GOAL: See if he can be our catcher. Work on his consistency at the plate.
Jim – Something which hasn’t been mentioned is that Jim has missed our last two practices without notifying one of us. He made some excuses about thinking that Tuesday’s practice was canceled despite there being no official confirmation, from the park district or one of us, about it. Anyhow, I really had high hopes about him at the start of the season in terms of what he could do for us as a pitcher. These hopes haven’t panned out. But pan out they must. The kid is tiny and so perhaps we’ve simply reached a point where the mound is just too far away from home plate for him to get it in consistently. We need to find him innings, despite the fact that I have a hard time finding an upside with him at the moment. Batting wise, he’s getting some good in-game practice at games with bunting, though I would still love to see him get some practice at practice with it. Twice now his showing of bunt has drawn the infield in enough to get him a base hit. Base hits are good because he only has a .250 average, though his OBP jumps by 300 points speaking to how hard it is to pitch to him. In the field he’s a jack of all trades, master of none. He’s seen playing time at every position except catcher and first, and we’d have given him time at first were it not for the height. While I never feel like we’re in trouble with him at a position, neither am I ever excited about having him in the field. The temper that we’ve seen come out a few times is clearly lurking beneath the surface, but when things are going well he’s a positive addition to team morale.
GOAL: Make him into a somewhat reliable pitcher.
Everett – His numbers as a pitcher, are great. Second fewest walks per inning and 3rd best strikeouts per inning. Of course his ERA is not great. I didn’t have a chance to talk to him about luck and variance, and how the long-run can be a long time, but hopefully last game is indicative of the other team’s luck running out. He seems to get hit hardest when the count is 0-2 or 1-2 which I frankly don’t know if it’s luck or if he’s doing something different that I haven’t identified. His catching has come a long way in a short time and he’s been great as our second catcher, but long term I would love for him to be our third catcher, as his efficiency as a pitcher goes way down after he’s caught. This has meant he’s seen a lot of first inning appearances. His hitting isn’t up to what I would expect, as he’s got a below average .450 OBP. I’m willing to take some blame for that, as his early unsuccessful bunts put him behind the eight ball pitch count wise. I still think he has the best eye on the team which makes his strikeouts all the more frustrating, but also I think more of a blip then anything else. His fielding, with the exception of the last game, has been nearly flawless, which again is a reason I’d love to not have him behind the plate as much.
GOAL: Have his in game hitting match his hitting potential.
Bobby – He has the best first step of any player on the team. Whether it’s in the field, out of the batter’s box or on the bases, he’s “quicker” then his speed because his reaction time is incredible. He also can track and catch fly balls as well as anybody on the team. This has netted him quite a bit of time at SS, and next to Trey, who plays it on travel, he is definitely our best player there. Our high regard for his fielding abilities is reflected in the fact that he has the most infield innings not counting pitcher or catcher, and the second most not counting catcher. He has now consented to playing first base where, after the big 3 of Trey, Everett, and Jesse, he should be competitive with Percy as a great 4th choice. His inability to pitch consistently is something I am hoping will be cured with time. His gross deficiencies in his mechanics are fixed, though some finer requirement is still required. I had hoped he’d turned a corner but obviously he’s not there yet. He’s got nice, though not great, velocity, which we can hopefully use to our advantage once he gets regular strikes. I will be excited when we can count on him to be our fifth pitcher. Though his BA and OBP are just slightly above average, he is a close third in fewest strikeouts, and his ability to put the ball into play can make good things happen in this league. Bobby, as a character, is far more complex. He has this interesting combination of leadership qualities, he’s often the ONLY one talking to the pitcher and will be the one who starts a cheer on the bench, while also being the class clown type. I suppose these two aren’t mutually exclusive from a kid perspective, but from a coaching perspective they are rather annoying. Steve and I have both had our fill of interrupting us to make a remark. After our talk Saturday, he has been better about not coaching the other players though, which is good.
GOAL: Two words: consistent pitching.
Brendan – He needs to get his skills to where his desire is. If he could start to take 2 innings of catching a game it frees us up in innumerable ways. It means that Trey and Everett do not have to pitch early in a game for fear they will tire their arms catching. This flexibility alone is vital as I think it’s beneficial to have the worse pitcher pitch the first as there’s still time to recover. Further, it means that not only do we have flexibility with pitching but it also means that we get to see more of them, and to a lesser extent Jesse, in the field. While I don’t mind Jim at shortstop I LIKE having Trey or Everett there. But before he can catch he needs to: A) catch balls in the dirt. He’s gotten pretty good about the high ones, but he’s afraid to block the balls with his body. B) get the ball back to the pitcher every time. His throws to the pitcher can be wildly inaccurate. That I just have no tolerance for. It was a good thing he wasn’t at the last game as despite all the practice Steve and I had made the tough decision not to play him as a catcher. Honestly, I don’t really think we can ever get Brendan up to two innings a game, but the potential payoff is so great, and he’s closer to being there then Fuller, that we’ve got to see it. He also has plenty of things to improve at the plate. After Jodi, he’s got the highest strikeout percentage on the team. Despite what Steve and I tell him to do, and what he claims to be doing, he seems like he’s got a homerun swing when he’s batting. Screw the homerun and give us a single. Especially as he often takes the first pitch or two putting him behind in the count and then does a swinging strikeout, sort of the inverse of Jodi. Having him catch also solves the fact that he doesn’t present a particularly cutting figure at 2B or 3B in the infield. With several players doing well at third, he’s seen more time at second, but just as in his catching he can’t really get the low grounders.
GOAL: Block low balls. Throw the ball back to the pitcher. Swing earlier in the count.
Kelvin – Let’s review what I said about KS back in the beginning of the season
Seems like a really good kid, but he couldn’t hit a moving ball to save his life
Poor kid has no hand eye coordination I think as his mechanics have improved a lot already and he still can’t hit anything thrown to him. It’s a shame we didn’t get to bunting.
So remember all that? I do. And frankly before I put the stats together I would have still said that was an accurate reflection of where he’s at. So what do the stats say? .455 BA, second best on the team, .538 OBP, third best on the team, and 7.7% strike out, the best on the team. The thing is I cannot remember him putting a single ball into the outfield, and neither can he (I asked him after one of his infield singles yesterday). In both of our last two games he’s had a “swinging bunt”, where he swings all the way through, but the ball goes about 4 feet. And both times he’s been safe. He is, to me, the poster child for the virtue of putting the ball into play as his speed has really helped him reach bases on times he’s had no business reaching. As for his fielding, he’s seen quite a bit of time at first base. Quite an accomplishment for a kid who can’t consistently catch a throw. Steve and I thought that perhaps he had a bad mitt. Nope. Just can’t catch the ball. However, he’s the second tallest player on the team, after Trey, and he’s excellent at keeping the ball in front of him when he doesn’t catch it. Similarly, when he’s fielding he’s normally right there with the play, except if he were one more foot to the right, so his whole body were in front of the ball rather then just his glove, he’d do a lot better. He can really only play first or second base as his throwing mechanics are just horrendous. I’ve done some work with him, but he throws in a way that can best be described as (and I use this only because you can’t see him and it will get the message across) “like a girl”. This no doubt comes from having started playing baseball later on in life. Anyway I keep hoping it’ll finally click for him on how to field a ground ball, in which case I think he could be our “starting” second baseman. This is especially true as with Bobby’s willingness to play first, something he used to be afraid of doing, Kelvin will likely not get as many opportunities there unless, miracles of miracles, he learns how to catch a ball (and you better believe this is something I’ve been working with him on).
Goal: Catch a thrown ball.
Percy – His pitching is almost there. It’s there enough that I will elevate him into the same consideration as Trey, Everett, and Abi, and even above Abi because of his superior velocity. He has a pretty nice change up too. I have no doubt that when they put our team together he was thought of being a kid who could regularly pitch for us. Furthermore, he’s a great kid. I don’t think a negative word has escaped his mouth once all year. He has seen a lot of different positions in the infield as he’s a step above Jim but his “true” position is clearly centerfield, which does us no good. I was surprised to see that his batting is below average, despite having a below average amount of strikeouts. As has been mentioned he started the season with absolutely a rotten amount of luck with his hitting. He seemed to have turned the corner, however he’s hitless in our last two games again, so maybe the pitchers are starting to outclass him.
Goal: Keep the pitching momentum
So there you have it. Over 3,000 words on our players. If we’re going to turn the corner and become a playoff contender we should hopefully know it by a week from today, otherwise it’s going to be a disappointing season. I can only hope it’s the former and not the latter.
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