Timing for me was poor yesterday. I picked up my daughter from school at 230p and we headed straight to Foley. Took longer than usual to get down there from Jefferson… red lights and a lot of traffic around Clarke Central added to it. It was right around the end of the 7th of game one when we got there.
So, got to see the end of game one and then the start of game two. By the time we’d gotten done with our big 1st inning for game two, we’d been there two hours already and she was cold and getting bored. We left in the middle of the 2nd. So I didn’t get to see a ton of baseball yesterday.
-First, we are a big team. Look really good “getting off the bus”… from what I saw, we are also a good bit more athletic than last year also (where we weren’t exactly slouches in that department).
-How good of a pickup was Robbie Burnett? The defensive flexibility, in two areas where we struggled last year, is a tremendous plus by itself. He could hit .200 this year and still give us great value for the defense alone. But he really handles the bat well and runs really well also. Having said that about defense, I don’t think Ryan Black is going anywhere at 2b. I know Slate played there for game two. If he stays healthy, I think Black starts all 30 SEC game at 2b. We’ve got two SS playing in the middle now.
-I remember our first football game in 2007. Offense goes out on the field and Matthew Stafford just looked like a different guy than he did his first year. He wasn’t pudgy anymore. Lost some bad weight, added some good weight. Same thing with Slate Alford. Just looks like a different guy. And he really moves better, also. Dash has talked about how pissed off he was about not getting drafted last year. It’s good to see that he obviously channeled that into something productive.
-Also, if Slate played for anyone else, I think we’d really dislike the guy. He has a very, very confident demeanor at the plate. We can just say that. I’m not dogging on the guy, it’s just funny how differently the same actions are perceived based on the jersey.
-Cade Brown has a good looking swing. Good bat speed. You can see why he was so highly recruited. I thought he just barely got under the ball on his first AB. He’ll earn some more DH starts, I think. Any other year, a guy like that would be an every day player.
-Nice seeing Kolby Branch’s double. Been a slow start for him, but I saw enough last year to not to be worried.
-I’m trying to think of a diplomatic way of saying this, and I’m absolutely not blaming the former players here, they didn’t create it. There was, in the past, a lot of hype about certain players when they came in. And it’s not that they were bad players, not that they didn’t help. It’s not that. But guys like Kolby Branch, Robbie Burnett in the early returns, Tre Phelps, Ryan Black, again in the early returns… they look like what we were told by previous regimes some other guys were going to be. And I think Cade Brown will be in that also. If that makes sense.
This looks like an extremely confident team. I love the fact that there isn’t some hype machine around it. These guys clearly believe in themselves. That’s not some revelation from yesterday, it’s pretty obvious. That’s one thing I’ve loved about the Wes Johnson administration. There is an earned confidence there. They have fun, and they’re about business.
Just so nice to be back yesterday. Hope springs eternal, but man, there is a lot to be excited about.
So, got to see the end of game one and then the start of game two. By the time we’d gotten done with our big 1st inning for game two, we’d been there two hours already and she was cold and getting bored. We left in the middle of the 2nd. So I didn’t get to see a ton of baseball yesterday.
-First, we are a big team. Look really good “getting off the bus”… from what I saw, we are also a good bit more athletic than last year also (where we weren’t exactly slouches in that department).
-How good of a pickup was Robbie Burnett? The defensive flexibility, in two areas where we struggled last year, is a tremendous plus by itself. He could hit .200 this year and still give us great value for the defense alone. But he really handles the bat well and runs really well also. Having said that about defense, I don’t think Ryan Black is going anywhere at 2b. I know Slate played there for game two. If he stays healthy, I think Black starts all 30 SEC game at 2b. We’ve got two SS playing in the middle now.
-I remember our first football game in 2007. Offense goes out on the field and Matthew Stafford just looked like a different guy than he did his first year. He wasn’t pudgy anymore. Lost some bad weight, added some good weight. Same thing with Slate Alford. Just looks like a different guy. And he really moves better, also. Dash has talked about how pissed off he was about not getting drafted last year. It’s good to see that he obviously channeled that into something productive.
-Also, if Slate played for anyone else, I think we’d really dislike the guy. He has a very, very confident demeanor at the plate. We can just say that. I’m not dogging on the guy, it’s just funny how differently the same actions are perceived based on the jersey.
-Cade Brown has a good looking swing. Good bat speed. You can see why he was so highly recruited. I thought he just barely got under the ball on his first AB. He’ll earn some more DH starts, I think. Any other year, a guy like that would be an every day player.
-Nice seeing Kolby Branch’s double. Been a slow start for him, but I saw enough last year to not to be worried.
-I’m trying to think of a diplomatic way of saying this, and I’m absolutely not blaming the former players here, they didn’t create it. There was, in the past, a lot of hype about certain players when they came in. And it’s not that they were bad players, not that they didn’t help. It’s not that. But guys like Kolby Branch, Robbie Burnett in the early returns, Tre Phelps, Ryan Black, again in the early returns… they look like what we were told by previous regimes some other guys were going to be. And I think Cade Brown will be in that also. If that makes sense.
This looks like an extremely confident team. I love the fact that there isn’t some hype machine around it. These guys clearly believe in themselves. That’s not some revelation from yesterday, it’s pretty obvious. That’s one thing I’ve loved about the Wes Johnson administration. There is an earned confidence there. They have fun, and they’re about business.
Just so nice to be back yesterday. Hope springs eternal, but man, there is a lot to be excited about.
