-First, what a terrific game. It's one that I think everyone will remember for a very long time. It had an SEC or even post season "feel" to it, other than the brutal cold weather. Much different level of intensity than last Friday night. We learned some things about ourselves tonight too. I'm not sure that was really the case last weekend. It's fun to score 18 runs and hammer somebody on Opening Day, but I don't know that we really got any better for having done that. We'll get for tonight having happened. I wish we could play Florida State home and home every year, I really do.
-I thought that Tyler was better than last week. He struck out the side to start the game.... and seeing Robert Tyler vs DJ Stewart was one of those star studded matchups that present themselves a few times during the season.... I agree with the post below that both of Tyler's throws to 2nd should have been caught, at least from my vantage point.... Sometimes those are the difference between winning and losing. Alex Wood and Kyle Farmer had that pick off play at 2nd down pat and got a lot of big outs in 2011 and 2012 there. The first error was disappointing, but the second really shouldn't have shown up. Tyler had the runner by 10 feet, but it looked like he rushed his throw and it was off line. That was disappointing, but it was a good effort from him overall. I think that some people have the expectation that every start of his is going to be like tech or Ole Miss from last season, but that's not realistic. His best baseball is still ahead of him.
-I can't recall seeing Tyler get as frustrated with the home plate ump as he did tonight. By the 6th inning, he was saying "where was that?" several times. It looked like he was at the end of his rope by Sansone's AB. Sansone barely missed the pitch before the HR, and then obviously hammered the next one way out of the park. That kind of thing used to happen to John Smoltz early in Smoltz' career in Atlanta, as I recall. The strike zone tonight (and umpiring in general) was very poor, but that's going to happen and you've got to overcome it.
-On that end, none of the 4 umps made any friends tonight. I don't think they're going to be showing too many tapes from tonight at umpiring clinics, unless they're "teaching moment." I say it several times every year, but this level of baseball deserves better than that.
-Sean McLaughlin's velocity was way up.... He hit 94 once last week, but seemed to be in the upper 80s most of the time. He hit 96 tonight and was 93 or 94 several times. It was impressive, but he was still struggling with his command to some extent. The balk was very unfortunate, but that's another thing that you have to find a way to overcome. With 1st base open, my first thought was that it was a no brainer to put DJ Stewart on, but he did have 2 strikes on him and we'd just gotten him out once. I knew he took McLaughlin deep last year, but I don't know.... with the benefit of hindsight being 20/20, maybe it's not a terrible idea to pitch to him.
-On Zack Bowers' home run, it looked like a slider that Mike Compton threw to him a few pitches before that Bowers swung just over the top of.... As soon as it happened I said "I bet he wishes he had that back..." Compton came back with the same pitch, and Bowers didn't miss it that time. He looks so much more comfortable at the plate than he did last year. That's a K last season. It was a long HR tonight.
-Hard to believe that we had the bases loaded one inning with no outs and runners and 2nd and 3rd with no outs another inning and wound up not scoring in either. That's the thing.... We can complain about a couple of calls at 1st, but we still managed to not score in either of those inning. We can complain about balk call, but we also had a 2 out walk that inning to guy that we'd overmatched all night. The umps didn't do us any favors by any stretch, but we could have won the game anyway if we'd executed in some of those spots. But that's baseball.... And it's way better to get in games like tonight and experience those moments before SEC play begins.
-Thought that Drew Moody threw really well. That was good to see. I was a little surprised he couldn't find an inning last weekend, but he's got a chance to be a big part of the back end of that bullpen.
-Mike Martin coached HARD tonight. He had the intensity that you would expect from a 1st year coach as opposed to guy who has been doing it longer than I've been alive. He didn't hesitate to call time and talk to his freshmen IFs when we got guys in scoring position. I respect that. Stricklin coached hard too.... it was a very intense game.... I left tonight with a different level of respect for Martin than I had previously, and Stricklin too.
-I've been to a couple of hundred Georgia baseball games and probably 100 or so Georgia football games.... tonight was the first time I've ever seen snow at a UGA sporting event. It was really neat. Tonight would have been memorable either way, but the snow added to it.
-I wrote last night that Florida State probably has the best OF that we'll see this season. I think Danny De La Calle will probably be the best catcher that we see this year too. He was tremendous behind the plate tonight... How impressive was the play he made to retire Nick King in the 7th? I don't know if it was a good call on Tray Logan at 1st.... But in a way, it was almost fitting that the game ended that way.
-Tonight was everything that I thought it'd be, other than the final result. Expect two great games tomorrow.... I love a double header.... Can't wait to spend all day over there tomorrow. I like watching us play, I really do. We had some issues tonight where we didn't overcome adversity in specific situations, but overall, we really fought hard tonight. That whole 9th inning rally came with 2 outs... If you didn't have a dog in the fight, you would have really enjoyed tonight's game anyway. If you bleed red and black, you have to be proud of the way we played tonight. These guys did themselves and their school very proud.
-I thought that Tyler was better than last week. He struck out the side to start the game.... and seeing Robert Tyler vs DJ Stewart was one of those star studded matchups that present themselves a few times during the season.... I agree with the post below that both of Tyler's throws to 2nd should have been caught, at least from my vantage point.... Sometimes those are the difference between winning and losing. Alex Wood and Kyle Farmer had that pick off play at 2nd down pat and got a lot of big outs in 2011 and 2012 there. The first error was disappointing, but the second really shouldn't have shown up. Tyler had the runner by 10 feet, but it looked like he rushed his throw and it was off line. That was disappointing, but it was a good effort from him overall. I think that some people have the expectation that every start of his is going to be like tech or Ole Miss from last season, but that's not realistic. His best baseball is still ahead of him.
-I can't recall seeing Tyler get as frustrated with the home plate ump as he did tonight. By the 6th inning, he was saying "where was that?" several times. It looked like he was at the end of his rope by Sansone's AB. Sansone barely missed the pitch before the HR, and then obviously hammered the next one way out of the park. That kind of thing used to happen to John Smoltz early in Smoltz' career in Atlanta, as I recall. The strike zone tonight (and umpiring in general) was very poor, but that's going to happen and you've got to overcome it.
-On that end, none of the 4 umps made any friends tonight. I don't think they're going to be showing too many tapes from tonight at umpiring clinics, unless they're "teaching moment." I say it several times every year, but this level of baseball deserves better than that.
-Sean McLaughlin's velocity was way up.... He hit 94 once last week, but seemed to be in the upper 80s most of the time. He hit 96 tonight and was 93 or 94 several times. It was impressive, but he was still struggling with his command to some extent. The balk was very unfortunate, but that's another thing that you have to find a way to overcome. With 1st base open, my first thought was that it was a no brainer to put DJ Stewart on, but he did have 2 strikes on him and we'd just gotten him out once. I knew he took McLaughlin deep last year, but I don't know.... with the benefit of hindsight being 20/20, maybe it's not a terrible idea to pitch to him.
-On Zack Bowers' home run, it looked like a slider that Mike Compton threw to him a few pitches before that Bowers swung just over the top of.... As soon as it happened I said "I bet he wishes he had that back..." Compton came back with the same pitch, and Bowers didn't miss it that time. He looks so much more comfortable at the plate than he did last year. That's a K last season. It was a long HR tonight.
-Hard to believe that we had the bases loaded one inning with no outs and runners and 2nd and 3rd with no outs another inning and wound up not scoring in either. That's the thing.... We can complain about a couple of calls at 1st, but we still managed to not score in either of those inning. We can complain about balk call, but we also had a 2 out walk that inning to guy that we'd overmatched all night. The umps didn't do us any favors by any stretch, but we could have won the game anyway if we'd executed in some of those spots. But that's baseball.... And it's way better to get in games like tonight and experience those moments before SEC play begins.
-Thought that Drew Moody threw really well. That was good to see. I was a little surprised he couldn't find an inning last weekend, but he's got a chance to be a big part of the back end of that bullpen.
-Mike Martin coached HARD tonight. He had the intensity that you would expect from a 1st year coach as opposed to guy who has been doing it longer than I've been alive. He didn't hesitate to call time and talk to his freshmen IFs when we got guys in scoring position. I respect that. Stricklin coached hard too.... it was a very intense game.... I left tonight with a different level of respect for Martin than I had previously, and Stricklin too.
-I've been to a couple of hundred Georgia baseball games and probably 100 or so Georgia football games.... tonight was the first time I've ever seen snow at a UGA sporting event. It was really neat. Tonight would have been memorable either way, but the snow added to it.
-I wrote last night that Florida State probably has the best OF that we'll see this season. I think Danny De La Calle will probably be the best catcher that we see this year too. He was tremendous behind the plate tonight... How impressive was the play he made to retire Nick King in the 7th? I don't know if it was a good call on Tray Logan at 1st.... But in a way, it was almost fitting that the game ended that way.
-Tonight was everything that I thought it'd be, other than the final result. Expect two great games tomorrow.... I love a double header.... Can't wait to spend all day over there tomorrow. I like watching us play, I really do. We had some issues tonight where we didn't overcome adversity in specific situations, but overall, we really fought hard tonight. That whole 9th inning rally came with 2 outs... If you didn't have a dog in the fight, you would have really enjoyed tonight's game anyway. If you bleed red and black, you have to be proud of the way we played tonight. These guys did themselves and their school very proud.
