represents the low point of the 2015 season and the Scott Stricklin tenure.
I think it's safe to say that the so called "honeymoon" is over now. That was a lifeless effort on a day that we REALLY needed to card a W. I expected a better effort. How could anyone not? I wish I could reach back to find a time that I was more disgusted leaving the ballpark, but for me, all I have to do is go back to the first two games of that Kentucky series last year.
Here are some thoughts:
-Sosebee's injury really changed the mood, I think... The body language in our dugout changed after that. I guess we'll get word soon enough what is going on. My heart goes out to the guy. He's been our best arm this year and was arguably our best pitcher last season too... certainly the most consistent. It's a bit of M*A*S*H unit right now and hopefully we'll have enough depth to overcome it. Blake Hamilton and Austin Wallace need to get greased up.
-I should have pointed this out yesterday.... Stephen Wrenn in game two was 0-3 with 3 K's. He homered on his 4th AB. It's easy for me to sit there and say "flush it", but we seem to have too many guys who are carrying their ABs to the field and to the plate the next time up. I think Wrenn showed you something about mindset yesterday. And again, it's easy for me to say that not being between the lines, but we do need to clean that up in some places.
-Would like to see Daniel Nichols use the opposite field.... too many outs to the pull side this weekend. Their CF made a great play on this first or second AB today (can't remember which), that looked like it an easy double... Still, Nichols is so much better when he's using the whole field. And I'm sure everyone (especially him) knows that too... hopefully we'll start seeing it soon.
-Mentally today was a very poor game. Passed ball with a guy on 3rd.... A guy failing to tag on a TOWERING fly ball to deep left center than could only be a home run or an out, then getting picked off 2nd.... Not catching a ball at 1st on a pickoff... It's hard to explain away those things. Over a long season you're going to have poor games and outings where guys collectively don't play well, but you really needed to play an A game today. Instead it was almost certainly the worst game that we've played all year, though the fact that it's up for debate is also very bothersome.
-Either Zack Bowers or Jared Walsh is your 3 hole hitter. Though Bowers struggled mightily yesterday, I didn't like dropping him to 5 today. Show some confidence in him. There's a lot of line up juggling still going on right now, and I'm not sure that it's really helping anyone.
-Great weather day today... easily the best we've had this year. Good crowd too.... In a lot of ways, it just felt like it was going to be a great day at the start of it. As I say, I really thought that it would be a better effort all around.
-When you want to go to business school, they make you take the GMAT. It's a computerized test that is algorithm based. If you get a question right, the next question is slightly more difficult. If you get a question wrong, the next question is slightly less difficult. You get your score when you get done (and if you really want to feel your heart beat, click that "finish test" button and wait the 10 seconds or so for your score to be calculated and displayed). So, at least with me, you try not to think "is this question harder than the last?" as the test is going, but it's hard not to do that. While we may not have gotten this weekend correct, it's fair to assume that next weekend will be more difficult. And the weekend after that will more difficult, and the weekend after that will be more difficult too.... Looking at things on paper, it's going to be a gradual, but noticeable, incline in difficulty moving forward the next three weekends. We can obviously help ourselves a lot by cleaning some things up and playing better. I don't think we're going to be 0-12 on Easter Sunday. But realistically, we didn't play very well two weekends ago and got swept. We didn't play well last weekend and came very close to being swept (by Longwood) and we didn't play well this weekend and got swept. The switch needs to get flipped pretty fast. I'm sure it sounds kind of stupid to say "all our goals are still in front of us" right now, but that's absolutely true. Pick the path (and a lineup) and let's get this thing going. We've played 5 weekends now and have been really good in 2 of them and really bad in 3 of them. Who are we?
I think it's safe to say that the so called "honeymoon" is over now. That was a lifeless effort on a day that we REALLY needed to card a W. I expected a better effort. How could anyone not? I wish I could reach back to find a time that I was more disgusted leaving the ballpark, but for me, all I have to do is go back to the first two games of that Kentucky series last year.
Here are some thoughts:
-Sosebee's injury really changed the mood, I think... The body language in our dugout changed after that. I guess we'll get word soon enough what is going on. My heart goes out to the guy. He's been our best arm this year and was arguably our best pitcher last season too... certainly the most consistent. It's a bit of M*A*S*H unit right now and hopefully we'll have enough depth to overcome it. Blake Hamilton and Austin Wallace need to get greased up.
-I should have pointed this out yesterday.... Stephen Wrenn in game two was 0-3 with 3 K's. He homered on his 4th AB. It's easy for me to sit there and say "flush it", but we seem to have too many guys who are carrying their ABs to the field and to the plate the next time up. I think Wrenn showed you something about mindset yesterday. And again, it's easy for me to say that not being between the lines, but we do need to clean that up in some places.
-Would like to see Daniel Nichols use the opposite field.... too many outs to the pull side this weekend. Their CF made a great play on this first or second AB today (can't remember which), that looked like it an easy double... Still, Nichols is so much better when he's using the whole field. And I'm sure everyone (especially him) knows that too... hopefully we'll start seeing it soon.
-Mentally today was a very poor game. Passed ball with a guy on 3rd.... A guy failing to tag on a TOWERING fly ball to deep left center than could only be a home run or an out, then getting picked off 2nd.... Not catching a ball at 1st on a pickoff... It's hard to explain away those things. Over a long season you're going to have poor games and outings where guys collectively don't play well, but you really needed to play an A game today. Instead it was almost certainly the worst game that we've played all year, though the fact that it's up for debate is also very bothersome.
-Either Zack Bowers or Jared Walsh is your 3 hole hitter. Though Bowers struggled mightily yesterday, I didn't like dropping him to 5 today. Show some confidence in him. There's a lot of line up juggling still going on right now, and I'm not sure that it's really helping anyone.
-Great weather day today... easily the best we've had this year. Good crowd too.... In a lot of ways, it just felt like it was going to be a great day at the start of it. As I say, I really thought that it would be a better effort all around.
-When you want to go to business school, they make you take the GMAT. It's a computerized test that is algorithm based. If you get a question right, the next question is slightly more difficult. If you get a question wrong, the next question is slightly less difficult. You get your score when you get done (and if you really want to feel your heart beat, click that "finish test" button and wait the 10 seconds or so for your score to be calculated and displayed). So, at least with me, you try not to think "is this question harder than the last?" as the test is going, but it's hard not to do that. While we may not have gotten this weekend correct, it's fair to assume that next weekend will be more difficult. And the weekend after that will more difficult, and the weekend after that will be more difficult too.... Looking at things on paper, it's going to be a gradual, but noticeable, incline in difficulty moving forward the next three weekends. We can obviously help ourselves a lot by cleaning some things up and playing better. I don't think we're going to be 0-12 on Easter Sunday. But realistically, we didn't play very well two weekends ago and got swept. We didn't play well last weekend and came very close to being swept (by Longwood) and we didn't play well this weekend and got swept. The switch needs to get flipped pretty fast. I'm sure it sounds kind of stupid to say "all our goals are still in front of us" right now, but that's absolutely true. Pick the path (and a lineup) and let's get this thing going. We've played 5 weekends now and have been really good in 2 of them and really bad in 3 of them. Who are we?
