-Not a whole lot to say about this one. It's disappointing to be 3-6, obviously... We could be winless at home if the 9th inning for College of Charleston played out a little bit differently two weeks ago. I appreciate the optimism of "we're close" but I feel like we're closer to 1-8 than we are to 6-3.
-We've seen two really good Friday night pitchers in our two Friday night home games so far. Bailey Ober would start for a number of SEC teams and Garrett Whitlock, from Snellville Georgia, would as well. Those guys are good. But the 30 starting pitchers that we'll see in the league this year all start in the SEC also. What's disappointing isn't so much that we've lost to those guys, but that we've basically gotten overmatched. In the 8th inning tonight, I'm thinking about trying to find that clip from Major League when Harry Doyle is doing the postgame show and says "For the Indians, one run on one hit... that's all we got, one GD hit?" If we saw Ober or Whitlock next Friday night, does anyone think that he result would be any different?
-I'm concerned too that we may be getting some false positives from our pitching staff given what we've faced the last two weeks. We got Ga Southern with a couple of their guys slumping pretty bad and UAB is probably the weakest lineup we'll see on a weekend this year (maybe Rider is worse). Our pitchers have done a good job of cutting down on the walks and we aren't seeing nearly as many balls going to the screen, especially with Biggar behind the plate, but as we get later in March and into April, I don't know that we're going to continue to see our pitching staff limiting the other guy to 3 runs.
-All that said, we did play a good defensive game tonight. The play at the plate kept a critical run off the board. UAB didn't square up a lot of balls, but we were clean on everything tonight, with the exception of failing to a get a couple of tags down at 2nd base and 3rd base. That's good to see. Austin Biggar is the most grownup freshman catcher I think I've ever seen. Generally speaking, I've enjoyed watching us defensively this year.
-I didn't go on Tuesday night, so tonight was the second game in a row that I've seen EMTs on the field, although it was obviously for a very different reason tonight. At one point, I heard the home plate ump say that they were going to have a get a stretcher to get that poor kid off of the field... I have no idea exactly what he did (pulled groin, I think) or how he did it.... one of the more unusual things I've seen.
-Between that delay, two reviews (including an argument over whether the first review was even allowable) and a 10 inning game, we were still out of there in 3 hours. It's not very often that you still have some day light during the 7th inning stretch of the Friday night game... That one really moved along...
-I really liked our pick-off attempt at 3B tonight. You don't see that very often... Actually, the last time I remember seeing that was UAB doing it to us in 2013.
-Cam Shepherd needs to be our leadoff hitter. I like Maxwell's tools, but him being a lefty and a good bunter, he may fit better in the 2-hole. I think Maxwell may be a little too aggressive right now to bat at the top. That's not a bad thing, I just think Shepherd's approach lends itself better to leadoff and Tucker's to second. (I'm aware of the disparity in OBP between both guys right now, also). I do think both guys are going to heat up... Shepherd especially is having way too good of at-bats right now to be hitting .222. It'll balance out.
-Home plate ump (Tony Manners, I think) caught some heat for the first replay.... And I imagine he was praying that the replay would confirm the call on the field... but I thought he did a really nice job overall. He had a big strike zone, but was consistent with it, and really kept the game moving. There is way too much stepping out of the box in the baseball right now, at this level and in the pros, and I appreciate an umpire making the hitter get in the box.
-The 9 hole hitter got the first hit for each team tonight. That's kind of weird.
-When we got Tucker Bradley on to start the 9th, then bunted him to 2nd, I said "if we can just tie this thing and get it to extras, we'll win it. UAB won't score again tonight." I really believed that. You have to give them some credit for batting back in the 10th, especially after their home run was reversed.
-We are not going to see Tanner Graham tomorrow. I learned that he is out this week and possibly next with a shoulder issue. Like College of Charleston, UAB is a bit short handed on their staff this weekend. Their plan was to assess things after tonight and then make a decision on tomorrow. It's good for us that we aren't seeing Graham; his numbers are very good. But that presents another issue too.... We are 3-6, we're playing a team that is very "offensively challenged" and short on their pitching staff.... We really, really, really need to win tomorrow and Sunday. As much as one can be on March 4 of a college baseball season, Saturday is a "must win" type of deal for us. I really don't think that we should find ourselves in a spot like this in year four, but here we are, and we need to acknowledge it and rise to the challenge. I'll be very surprised if we don't win tomorrow. The one thing that we can't start doing now is press. But I fully expect us to be 5-8 in 48 hours. We really should be.
-Lastly, I appreciate Stricklin's optimism. I do. He said on the post game show that these are "good kids" that they "work hard" and that the heart is there and the talent is there. I'm just not sure that what's really been missing from previous teams. And you can look at tonight, or last Sunday, or Kennesaw, or Mercer, and say "we're close." And we are, based on those games.... the problem is, the competition is about to ramp up significantly. Candidly speaking, Stricklin's teams just haven't shown a lot of improvement in-season. I think that this one has the potential to get better with all the youth, but how much improvement are we going to have to make to keep our heads above water the rest of the way? Or to put it another way, if we can turn the corner and improve such that we'd win THESE games, is that going to be sufficient enough for what lies ahead of us in two weeks? I wrote over on the other primary board that "close is illusory." I'm not trying to be too negative here, but I don't think anyone should take much comfort in being "close" right now. But as I say, I appreciate Stricklin's optimism externally and I hope that is the case internally as well.
-We've seen two really good Friday night pitchers in our two Friday night home games so far. Bailey Ober would start for a number of SEC teams and Garrett Whitlock, from Snellville Georgia, would as well. Those guys are good. But the 30 starting pitchers that we'll see in the league this year all start in the SEC also. What's disappointing isn't so much that we've lost to those guys, but that we've basically gotten overmatched. In the 8th inning tonight, I'm thinking about trying to find that clip from Major League when Harry Doyle is doing the postgame show and says "For the Indians, one run on one hit... that's all we got, one GD hit?" If we saw Ober or Whitlock next Friday night, does anyone think that he result would be any different?
-I'm concerned too that we may be getting some false positives from our pitching staff given what we've faced the last two weeks. We got Ga Southern with a couple of their guys slumping pretty bad and UAB is probably the weakest lineup we'll see on a weekend this year (maybe Rider is worse). Our pitchers have done a good job of cutting down on the walks and we aren't seeing nearly as many balls going to the screen, especially with Biggar behind the plate, but as we get later in March and into April, I don't know that we're going to continue to see our pitching staff limiting the other guy to 3 runs.
-All that said, we did play a good defensive game tonight. The play at the plate kept a critical run off the board. UAB didn't square up a lot of balls, but we were clean on everything tonight, with the exception of failing to a get a couple of tags down at 2nd base and 3rd base. That's good to see. Austin Biggar is the most grownup freshman catcher I think I've ever seen. Generally speaking, I've enjoyed watching us defensively this year.
-I didn't go on Tuesday night, so tonight was the second game in a row that I've seen EMTs on the field, although it was obviously for a very different reason tonight. At one point, I heard the home plate ump say that they were going to have a get a stretcher to get that poor kid off of the field... I have no idea exactly what he did (pulled groin, I think) or how he did it.... one of the more unusual things I've seen.
-Between that delay, two reviews (including an argument over whether the first review was even allowable) and a 10 inning game, we were still out of there in 3 hours. It's not very often that you still have some day light during the 7th inning stretch of the Friday night game... That one really moved along...
-I really liked our pick-off attempt at 3B tonight. You don't see that very often... Actually, the last time I remember seeing that was UAB doing it to us in 2013.
-Cam Shepherd needs to be our leadoff hitter. I like Maxwell's tools, but him being a lefty and a good bunter, he may fit better in the 2-hole. I think Maxwell may be a little too aggressive right now to bat at the top. That's not a bad thing, I just think Shepherd's approach lends itself better to leadoff and Tucker's to second. (I'm aware of the disparity in OBP between both guys right now, also). I do think both guys are going to heat up... Shepherd especially is having way too good of at-bats right now to be hitting .222. It'll balance out.
-Home plate ump (Tony Manners, I think) caught some heat for the first replay.... And I imagine he was praying that the replay would confirm the call on the field... but I thought he did a really nice job overall. He had a big strike zone, but was consistent with it, and really kept the game moving. There is way too much stepping out of the box in the baseball right now, at this level and in the pros, and I appreciate an umpire making the hitter get in the box.
-The 9 hole hitter got the first hit for each team tonight. That's kind of weird.
-When we got Tucker Bradley on to start the 9th, then bunted him to 2nd, I said "if we can just tie this thing and get it to extras, we'll win it. UAB won't score again tonight." I really believed that. You have to give them some credit for batting back in the 10th, especially after their home run was reversed.
-We are not going to see Tanner Graham tomorrow. I learned that he is out this week and possibly next with a shoulder issue. Like College of Charleston, UAB is a bit short handed on their staff this weekend. Their plan was to assess things after tonight and then make a decision on tomorrow. It's good for us that we aren't seeing Graham; his numbers are very good. But that presents another issue too.... We are 3-6, we're playing a team that is very "offensively challenged" and short on their pitching staff.... We really, really, really need to win tomorrow and Sunday. As much as one can be on March 4 of a college baseball season, Saturday is a "must win" type of deal for us. I really don't think that we should find ourselves in a spot like this in year four, but here we are, and we need to acknowledge it and rise to the challenge. I'll be very surprised if we don't win tomorrow. The one thing that we can't start doing now is press. But I fully expect us to be 5-8 in 48 hours. We really should be.
-Lastly, I appreciate Stricklin's optimism. I do. He said on the post game show that these are "good kids" that they "work hard" and that the heart is there and the talent is there. I'm just not sure that what's really been missing from previous teams. And you can look at tonight, or last Sunday, or Kennesaw, or Mercer, and say "we're close." And we are, based on those games.... the problem is, the competition is about to ramp up significantly. Candidly speaking, Stricklin's teams just haven't shown a lot of improvement in-season. I think that this one has the potential to get better with all the youth, but how much improvement are we going to have to make to keep our heads above water the rest of the way? Or to put it another way, if we can turn the corner and improve such that we'd win THESE games, is that going to be sufficient enough for what lies ahead of us in two weeks? I wrote over on the other primary board that "close is illusory." I'm not trying to be too negative here, but I don't think anyone should take much comfort in being "close" right now. But as I say, I appreciate Stricklin's optimism externally and I hope that is the case internally as well.
