-Obviously it's good to sweep the mid-week double-header. These Tuesday/ Wednesday games have really been a mixed bag for us the last few years and it's great to get off to a 3-0 start. We pitched really well the last two days. I thought that both Avidano and Walsh threw some great curveballs the last two days. Taylor Hicks and Zach Waters both looked like they had some good stuff and can help. It was good to see Mike Mancuso back out there tonight too. He made one bad pitch to one of their best hitters. Can't say enough how deep our staff is.
-How about Stephen Wrenn's catch to end (I think) the 4th inning? I'm talking the one that he grabbed in the right center gap... He covered A LOT of ground to get there.... off the bat, it looked like an easy double, but what was so impressive was that Wrenn didn't even have to lay out to make the catch. Our outfield really helps those ERAs too... That was also the case last year, but it cut the other direction in 2013. How'd you like to be a pitcher on this team? You work with Fred Corral and you have our OF playing behind you.
-Keegan McGovern is going to hit in the 3 hole a lot in his career, I think.... But I think you probably need to move him down right now. He hasn't done a lot hitting 3rd the last three games... 1-11 with 5 strikeouts... Nobody is really crushing it right now, but McGovern just doesn't look like the same guy hitting there. Friday afternoon, I'm hoping that we go with Wrenn, Weber, Bowers, Walsh, McGovern... Dropping Keegan for 3rd to 5th would do him some good right now, I think. Long term he's our 3 hole hitter, I think.... We've always known that Wrenn was our leadoff hitter and would be, but it made sense to drop him down last year too.
-Stricklin didn't pull too many bones about the offense on the post game show tonight... It was about as critical as I've heard him publicly. And he's right. It hasn't been good the last six games. We've got a lot of guys who are fighting it and a lot of guys who seem to be too "home run hungry". We had some selfish at bats in Statesboro. And I don't think that's been so prevalent the last two days, but it's still there to some extent. Hitting so many home runs against Eastern Illinois was fun and hitting some of the deep shots against Florida State was too, but it seems like everyone is hunting too much for those right now. Stricklin made the comment that Ga State's pitcher was pitching backward tonight.... throwing a lot of off-speed stuff in fastball counts.... He said (quoting this as closely as I remember it) "We picked up on that with the 2nd hitter of the game. Zack Bowers made an adjustment and hit the double in his second at bat and homer in his next at bat, because he stopped swinging at sliders in the dirt. Everyone else was slower to make that adjustment." I took all that to mean that he and Daeley saw how we were being pitched, but didn't drill it into the hitters. I'm ok with that, especially on a night like tonight. I think it speaks to the overall way that our hitters are being handled right now, which is very "hands off".... The last hitting coach was way too "hands on" (in my opinion) and I much prefer this current approach. I really thought that exchange on the post game show was telling... I think there's that expectation that our hitters are going to pick up on those types of things themselves and make the adjustments without being told. I'd imagine Stricklin was disappointed that didn't happen tonight. Or maybe I'm mis-reading it. One way or the other, we really are in a funk at the plate right now.... We should go 5-0 the rest of the way until league play starts, but we won't if we don't start swinging it a bit better.
-I'm not sure that we beat Furman last night without the passed ball/ wild pitches (not sure how each were scored), I felt like we were fortunate to win last night, but I felt like tonight just wasn't as close as 4-2 would suggest.
-I noticed that Trevor Kieboom didn't take any IF before the game. Stricklin mentioned tonight that he has a hand issue. Not sure how much longer he'll miss. Mitchell Webb is doing a nice job defensively, but seems to really be fighting it offensively (again, like a lot of guys). I'm sticking with my prediction that Webb will be an every day player for this team by the time SEC play gets here (which obviously isn't far away). These next 5 games are big for him.
-Before the season, I predicted that Stephen Wrenn would best his freshman year extra base hit totals in February. He had 3 last year. I didn't technically hit that correctly as he ended February with 3 extra base hits, but we didn't play two scheduled games in February and Wrenn got extra base hit #4 in the second game of March. I wasn't exactly going out on a limb with that "prediction", though.... anyone would've taken that as a given watching him swing it last fall.
-Nick King REALLY has an arm at SS. It's fun to watch that guy.... and you can live with him hitting .230 and batting 9th all year if he keeps playing defense at this level.
-I really like Brandon Stephens' intro song and I like how he waits a few extra seconds before climbing into the box, so the song always winds up playing a bit longer.
-Home plate umpiring has been really good the last two days. Don't want to complain about the umpiring when it's bad and ignore it when it's good. I'm no David Savage fan, but he was good tonight.
-Sure was nice to watch a game without my nose running, without gloves on my hands, and without having to blast my heater on the drive home.... VERY pleasant night.... first one of the year.
-I really like this team.
-How about Stephen Wrenn's catch to end (I think) the 4th inning? I'm talking the one that he grabbed in the right center gap... He covered A LOT of ground to get there.... off the bat, it looked like an easy double, but what was so impressive was that Wrenn didn't even have to lay out to make the catch. Our outfield really helps those ERAs too... That was also the case last year, but it cut the other direction in 2013. How'd you like to be a pitcher on this team? You work with Fred Corral and you have our OF playing behind you.
-Keegan McGovern is going to hit in the 3 hole a lot in his career, I think.... But I think you probably need to move him down right now. He hasn't done a lot hitting 3rd the last three games... 1-11 with 5 strikeouts... Nobody is really crushing it right now, but McGovern just doesn't look like the same guy hitting there. Friday afternoon, I'm hoping that we go with Wrenn, Weber, Bowers, Walsh, McGovern... Dropping Keegan for 3rd to 5th would do him some good right now, I think. Long term he's our 3 hole hitter, I think.... We've always known that Wrenn was our leadoff hitter and would be, but it made sense to drop him down last year too.
-Stricklin didn't pull too many bones about the offense on the post game show tonight... It was about as critical as I've heard him publicly. And he's right. It hasn't been good the last six games. We've got a lot of guys who are fighting it and a lot of guys who seem to be too "home run hungry". We had some selfish at bats in Statesboro. And I don't think that's been so prevalent the last two days, but it's still there to some extent. Hitting so many home runs against Eastern Illinois was fun and hitting some of the deep shots against Florida State was too, but it seems like everyone is hunting too much for those right now. Stricklin made the comment that Ga State's pitcher was pitching backward tonight.... throwing a lot of off-speed stuff in fastball counts.... He said (quoting this as closely as I remember it) "We picked up on that with the 2nd hitter of the game. Zack Bowers made an adjustment and hit the double in his second at bat and homer in his next at bat, because he stopped swinging at sliders in the dirt. Everyone else was slower to make that adjustment." I took all that to mean that he and Daeley saw how we were being pitched, but didn't drill it into the hitters. I'm ok with that, especially on a night like tonight. I think it speaks to the overall way that our hitters are being handled right now, which is very "hands off".... The last hitting coach was way too "hands on" (in my opinion) and I much prefer this current approach. I really thought that exchange on the post game show was telling... I think there's that expectation that our hitters are going to pick up on those types of things themselves and make the adjustments without being told. I'd imagine Stricklin was disappointed that didn't happen tonight. Or maybe I'm mis-reading it. One way or the other, we really are in a funk at the plate right now.... We should go 5-0 the rest of the way until league play starts, but we won't if we don't start swinging it a bit better.
-I'm not sure that we beat Furman last night without the passed ball/ wild pitches (not sure how each were scored), I felt like we were fortunate to win last night, but I felt like tonight just wasn't as close as 4-2 would suggest.
-I noticed that Trevor Kieboom didn't take any IF before the game. Stricklin mentioned tonight that he has a hand issue. Not sure how much longer he'll miss. Mitchell Webb is doing a nice job defensively, but seems to really be fighting it offensively (again, like a lot of guys). I'm sticking with my prediction that Webb will be an every day player for this team by the time SEC play gets here (which obviously isn't far away). These next 5 games are big for him.
-Before the season, I predicted that Stephen Wrenn would best his freshman year extra base hit totals in February. He had 3 last year. I didn't technically hit that correctly as he ended February with 3 extra base hits, but we didn't play two scheduled games in February and Wrenn got extra base hit #4 in the second game of March. I wasn't exactly going out on a limb with that "prediction", though.... anyone would've taken that as a given watching him swing it last fall.
-Nick King REALLY has an arm at SS. It's fun to watch that guy.... and you can live with him hitting .230 and batting 9th all year if he keeps playing defense at this level.
-I really like Brandon Stephens' intro song and I like how he waits a few extra seconds before climbing into the box, so the song always winds up playing a bit longer.
-Home plate umpiring has been really good the last two days. Don't want to complain about the umpiring when it's bad and ignore it when it's good. I'm no David Savage fan, but he was good tonight.
-Sure was nice to watch a game without my nose running, without gloves on my hands, and without having to blast my heater on the drive home.... VERY pleasant night.... first one of the year.
-I really like this team.
