First, the good.
-The best is that we played. I'm not going to hammer this all season, but just playing a huge step. We had a football season that didn't lead to any virus outbreaks (you can make the argument that players were actually lot safer being on campus and playing given the frequency of testing). Basketball is ticking along. Frankly, I think that some of the restrictions in place for baseball right now are a bit silly... the circular logic of having to perpetually wear a mask while being tested frequently has given me a headache for month now. But if that's what it takes to play this season, so be it. I'd rather have a season with those limitations than no season at all.
Over the last several months I've thought a lot about that quote that "we have nothing to fear except fear itself." Andy Griffith Show fans will appreciate it when I attribute that to Calvin Coolidge. The wisdom of that has been on full display for the past several months. That fear makes it so much harder to re-establish normalcy. My wife and I took our daughter and dog over to Memorial Park in Athens on Saturday. I was struck by the number of people I saw walking around, by themselves, wearing masks. I wear an N-95 whenever I go inside a public place. I don't like it, but that's what I think it is best right now. But that's at least based on something. There is no evidence to suggest that you are in any danger of catching (or spreading) the virus walking around outside by yourself. You get into these weird paradoxes with stuff like that, where you'd have to accept that if it really is that contagious and that wide-spread, we should actually be far less concerned with it.
Anyway, playing one college baseball weekend isn't going to change anyone's mentality by itself, but hopefully it will start nudging things in that direction.
-As for baseball specifically, obviously the best outcome after Friday afternoon was 3-1. We showed a lot heart to win that late game on Saturday... and we didn't play particularly well from what I could tell (listening to a good chunk over the radio), but found ways to win. Think back to that opening series in 2017. We got beaten up pretty good by College of Charleston on Friday, then got blasted on Saturday. We actually lost by a bigger margin to College of Charleston in baseball than we did to Kentucky in basketball later that day. Then we held on by the skin of our teeth to win on Sunday. We're pretty far removed from that. I think it's apparent that we aren't going to be as strong as we were in 2018 or 2019, but I don't think that we'll be as hapless as we were in 2017 either.
-Pitching only allowed a .165 average against. Granted, some of that was that we didn't throw enough over the plate (20 walks in four games), but all in all the young pitchers did a nice job. Nolan Crisp probably had the worst outing of everyone, but he's a guy who has been around and I'm not worried about him. Hank Bearden and Will Pearson look like good surprises. When we get Webb and Cannon back, it'll slot even better. Acknowledging the walks that we had, we really pitched better than weekend than I anticipated.
-We're very good defensively too. We lost a great defensive SS in Cam Shepherd and probably the best defensive 1b we ever had in Patrick Sullivan. That's half of the IF, then you think too about how good Schunk was at 3b through 2019. But it doesn't look like we are going to take a huge step back in that department, at least not one that losing those types of players would suggest. I'm so impressed with Chaney Rogers at 1b. This is another area where we look far superior to 2017 (I mention that because of all of the "we're so young, like 2017" stuff that's been said).
-Corey Collins and Fernando Gonzalez seem like dudes. I can't wait to see those guys in person.
-Riley King and Ben Anderson combined to go 3-25 on the weekend. I put that under "the good" because we know that they won't hit like that all year.
The Bad:
-We slugged .376 on the weekend. 2 HRs and 3 doubles, and that was it as far as extra base hits. Yesterday was a little concerning in that you would really expect to score more than 3 runs playing a mid-major team for the 4th game in 3 days.
-You won't win a lot of games walking 10 batters, as we did yesterday... but that said, I don't think that we'll have a whole lot of games where we walk so many. Webb and Cannon returning will help that a lot, I think.
-Base running was not great on Friday afternoon, but got better over the weekend. It occurred to me on Friday that, for whatever reason, we just don't seem to play that well on Opening Day. We won't beat anybody playing like we did on Friday, but we did manage to clean a lot of that up over the rest of the weekend.
-I don't know what to say about Garrett Blaylock. I don't know why you run him out there as your 3-hole hitter on Friday, and then start someone else the next game. It seems with him that we're either too optimistic about what he is, or too impatient. Aaron Schunk has been the exception for 3rd basemen during Stricklin's tenure here. I can't figure it out, but it seems like we go through fall and pre-season workouts and find a guy to play 3rd, only to have to change it up fairly quickly. That happened in 2014 and 2015, and even Schunk struggled quite a bit defensively before his injury in 2017... and then it was the same thing out of the gate last year. Whatever Blaylock did or didn't do over this weekend, we've had enough practices now where I can't believe his performance would be a huge surprise.
-I must have missed it, but I assume Parks Harbor got hurt on Friday. Anyone know the story? I know they really like him as a player, so hopefully he can get back out there soon.
Lastly:
-Chaney Rogers needs to play every day and so does Randon Jernigan. Where that leaves other positions, I don't know... If Parks Harbor comes back and hits, maybe he winds up playing 3b and Riley King plays some 2b. But Rogers and Jernigan really need to be there every day.
Lot of positives from this weekend. I know it doesn't exactly feel that way, but there were.
-The best is that we played. I'm not going to hammer this all season, but just playing a huge step. We had a football season that didn't lead to any virus outbreaks (you can make the argument that players were actually lot safer being on campus and playing given the frequency of testing). Basketball is ticking along. Frankly, I think that some of the restrictions in place for baseball right now are a bit silly... the circular logic of having to perpetually wear a mask while being tested frequently has given me a headache for month now. But if that's what it takes to play this season, so be it. I'd rather have a season with those limitations than no season at all.
Over the last several months I've thought a lot about that quote that "we have nothing to fear except fear itself." Andy Griffith Show fans will appreciate it when I attribute that to Calvin Coolidge. The wisdom of that has been on full display for the past several months. That fear makes it so much harder to re-establish normalcy. My wife and I took our daughter and dog over to Memorial Park in Athens on Saturday. I was struck by the number of people I saw walking around, by themselves, wearing masks. I wear an N-95 whenever I go inside a public place. I don't like it, but that's what I think it is best right now. But that's at least based on something. There is no evidence to suggest that you are in any danger of catching (or spreading) the virus walking around outside by yourself. You get into these weird paradoxes with stuff like that, where you'd have to accept that if it really is that contagious and that wide-spread, we should actually be far less concerned with it.
Anyway, playing one college baseball weekend isn't going to change anyone's mentality by itself, but hopefully it will start nudging things in that direction.
-As for baseball specifically, obviously the best outcome after Friday afternoon was 3-1. We showed a lot heart to win that late game on Saturday... and we didn't play particularly well from what I could tell (listening to a good chunk over the radio), but found ways to win. Think back to that opening series in 2017. We got beaten up pretty good by College of Charleston on Friday, then got blasted on Saturday. We actually lost by a bigger margin to College of Charleston in baseball than we did to Kentucky in basketball later that day. Then we held on by the skin of our teeth to win on Sunday. We're pretty far removed from that. I think it's apparent that we aren't going to be as strong as we were in 2018 or 2019, but I don't think that we'll be as hapless as we were in 2017 either.
-Pitching only allowed a .165 average against. Granted, some of that was that we didn't throw enough over the plate (20 walks in four games), but all in all the young pitchers did a nice job. Nolan Crisp probably had the worst outing of everyone, but he's a guy who has been around and I'm not worried about him. Hank Bearden and Will Pearson look like good surprises. When we get Webb and Cannon back, it'll slot even better. Acknowledging the walks that we had, we really pitched better than weekend than I anticipated.
-We're very good defensively too. We lost a great defensive SS in Cam Shepherd and probably the best defensive 1b we ever had in Patrick Sullivan. That's half of the IF, then you think too about how good Schunk was at 3b through 2019. But it doesn't look like we are going to take a huge step back in that department, at least not one that losing those types of players would suggest. I'm so impressed with Chaney Rogers at 1b. This is another area where we look far superior to 2017 (I mention that because of all of the "we're so young, like 2017" stuff that's been said).
-Corey Collins and Fernando Gonzalez seem like dudes. I can't wait to see those guys in person.
-Riley King and Ben Anderson combined to go 3-25 on the weekend. I put that under "the good" because we know that they won't hit like that all year.
The Bad:
-We slugged .376 on the weekend. 2 HRs and 3 doubles, and that was it as far as extra base hits. Yesterday was a little concerning in that you would really expect to score more than 3 runs playing a mid-major team for the 4th game in 3 days.
-You won't win a lot of games walking 10 batters, as we did yesterday... but that said, I don't think that we'll have a whole lot of games where we walk so many. Webb and Cannon returning will help that a lot, I think.
-Base running was not great on Friday afternoon, but got better over the weekend. It occurred to me on Friday that, for whatever reason, we just don't seem to play that well on Opening Day. We won't beat anybody playing like we did on Friday, but we did manage to clean a lot of that up over the rest of the weekend.
-I don't know what to say about Garrett Blaylock. I don't know why you run him out there as your 3-hole hitter on Friday, and then start someone else the next game. It seems with him that we're either too optimistic about what he is, or too impatient. Aaron Schunk has been the exception for 3rd basemen during Stricklin's tenure here. I can't figure it out, but it seems like we go through fall and pre-season workouts and find a guy to play 3rd, only to have to change it up fairly quickly. That happened in 2014 and 2015, and even Schunk struggled quite a bit defensively before his injury in 2017... and then it was the same thing out of the gate last year. Whatever Blaylock did or didn't do over this weekend, we've had enough practices now where I can't believe his performance would be a huge surprise.
-I must have missed it, but I assume Parks Harbor got hurt on Friday. Anyone know the story? I know they really like him as a player, so hopefully he can get back out there soon.
Lastly:
-Chaney Rogers needs to play every day and so does Randon Jernigan. Where that leaves other positions, I don't know... If Parks Harbor comes back and hits, maybe he winds up playing 3b and Riley King plays some 2b. But Rogers and Jernigan really need to be there every day.
Lot of positives from this weekend. I know it doesn't exactly feel that way, but there were.
