Travis
08-23-2007, 12:46 PM
Seeing as how there was quite a movement back for the naming thread, thought I'd supply an end of the regular season update for the initial season for the slow pitch team known as Operation Shutdown.
We started the season off on a down note, as our pitcher from last year tore his ACL during the offseason, eliminating him from play for the entire summer. Our next choice for pitcher was a woman who hadn't played organized ball in ~8 years due to various injuries, and as luck would have it, she ended up playing in just 7 games (18 game schedule) this season, never more than 2 in a row, and ended up pitching a grand total of 4 innings on the season. I had also sustained a knee injury (fun little moment of the patella tendon deciding it didn't like where it was and wanted to see what the other areas around the knee looked and felt like), so rather than sitting out the first month of the season, I took over pitching duties.
We proceeded to give up 59 runs over our first 3 games, losing the season opener 25-19, but then bouncing back with a pair of high scoring wins. I started to be able to at least hit the strikezone regularily after this and turned into somewhat of a ground ball pitcher which was good, but I was still only throwing about 55% of my pitches for strikes, which was truly annoying. Enter Joe (the Swanson). Brother to our previous pitcher (he of the ACL tear), Joe made the move from LF to pitcher when my knee was good enough for a return to 2B to try and get back in the swing of things for the near approaching tournament season. Another break in period, but not nearly as awful as mine, Joe showed a good aptitude for pitching and has been there the rest of the season for us, which leads us to our lineup breakdown in this 7/3 (male/female ratio in the field) league:
P: Joe (the Swanson) (early 30's) - Has really grown into the P role. Very girly delivery (great wrist flick), but locates his pitches well. Got his nickname due to running like somebody in a wheel chair. No actual chair, but with the combination of his hunch and arm motion (even more pronounced when turning corners), it's well earned. Also the resident hacker on the team, he's a lefty that will let a pitch hit the heart of the plate, but give him something at his ear and he'll turn on it.
C: ? - Been a rotating door here due to injuries and "prior commitments" this year. The girl (late 20's) we have playing for us at the year end single day playoff/tournament is probably the best mix of hitting/fielding we've had all season, but she only got in to about 4 games this season, so it's hard to really tell.
1B: Sean (mid 20's) - Co-worker of mine, hadn't played ball of any type in 10 years, never played slow pitch. Defensively probably the top glove at first in the league, coming along at the plate. Cut from the John Olerud mold if I can make the loose comparison.
2B: Myself (late 20's) - Knee injury + time off sports = reduction in range, but will usually make the plays I should and can facilitate the double play. Off season at the plate power wise, but a drastic increase in average and doubles over previous years altered my effectiveness as a cleanup style hitter.
3B: ? - Usually a position of strength as my sister (mid 20's) is a lock here, but a late season ball hockey injury has her on the shelf for 3-5 weeks, taking our best girl out of the lineup (both in the field and at the plate). Her replacement (late 20's) the rest of the way is a dedicated singles hitter who uses her speed to beat the throw from SS/3B where she hits 95% of the time.
SS: Greg (early 30's) - A new pickup to the team this year. Very solid in the field, great read and reaction ability counters what could be seen as average range. Another lefty in the lineup, usually hits well until he starts trying to pinpoint too much at the plate. One of our smartest players in all facets of the game.
LF: Lindsay (mid 20's) - Was a full timer for us in the past, only played 4 games this year due to working out of town. Classic farm boy, but moves better than you'd think when seeing him. Good arm, line drive hitter and will catch what he can get his glove on, very reliable.
CF: Mike (late 20's) - Another heady player who reads hitters supremely well. Above average range plus his recognition skills gives us (I feel) the best CF in the league. Gets to a lot of balls he shouldn't really have business getting to and will make the crazy catch more often than not. Big power increase at the plate this year has evolved him from a leadoff hitter to a #3 type.
RF: Chris (early 30's) - Masher. Steady in the field, but not a lot of range. But if he watches strike one and we make fun of his shorts, he has around an 85% chance of hitting a home run during that at bat. I don't make the rules, just commenting on them. Hits the classic home run trajectory and does it repeatedly. If it was a fenced league he'd be even better, but his consistency can work against him.
Rover: ? - Another position of rotation, will be filled by the wife (early 30's) of the pitcher at the tourney. A former softball player, she has great wheels and knows how to read the play for stopping runners. Still working on getting used to hitting this style pitching but her speed helps her beat out a lot of throws.
Reservers:
Dillon (mid 20's) - Buddy of Sean's who hasn't played ball in a similar time frame. Great speed and glove in the outfield, still trying to get his judgement back however. Another who is developing into a line drive hitter then letting his speed do the work.
Rodney (late 30's) - Work contact of my sister, also hasn't played in a long time. Multipurpose backup, pretty comfortable playing anywhere other than SS and CF. Solid but unspectacular at the plate and in the field.
The rest of the season goes, we experience a lot of the up's and down's of a new team, but our offensive output not only surprised me completely, but inflates our win totals beyond that which our defensive play meritted at times.
The highlight of the season was a 19-14 win over the previously undefeated Storm (who were coming off a weekend tournament and not in perfect health). This was the lone blemish on their dance card until the second last game of the season. Our low point, a 6-1 loss to the same team in our rematch. A complete disappearing act by our bats led to one of the more frustrating games we played this year, especially with two errors on our part leading to 3 of their runs. I provided the lone RBI on our side, but left 3 other runners on base in what was a huge let down game.
Checking the final standings finds Operation Shutdown in second place, *hopefully* en route to a third and deciding matchup with the Storm in the finals Saturday night.
Team: Record, Points (Points For, Points Against)
Storm: 16-2-0, 32 Pts (264 PF, 169 PA)
Operation Shutdown: 12-6-0, 24 Pts (366 PF, 266 PA)
Killer Frogs: 11-7-0, 22 Pts (281 PF, 248 PA)
Those Guys: 9-9-0, 18 Pts (241 PF, 260 PA)
Slave Traders: 8-10-1, 17 Pts (224 PF, 314 PA)
FA: 8-10-0, 16 Pts (259 PF, 253 PA)
Isotopes: 8-11-0, 16 Pts (260 PF, 214 PA)
Base Pirates: 5-12-0, 10 Pts (184 PF, 299 PA)
Sandbaggers: 3-13-1, 7 Pts (202 PF, 258 PA)
On a personal note, I would not be happy losing to the Slave Traders or Isotopes (personal issues with their captains), would prefer not to lose to the Frogs (friendly rivalry, subbed for them last season) and would love another crack at the Storm (fun team to play, had their captain play for us at a tournament a few weeks ago).
So this Saturday, starting at 8am local time is the big day for the first season. Win out and we take home the big trophy in our first season, stumble along the way, and maybe we'll all be replaced in short order like our name sake...
I know this was long and rambled a lot, if there is any other information people would like, just let me know, to the rest, it's all in fun :D
We started the season off on a down note, as our pitcher from last year tore his ACL during the offseason, eliminating him from play for the entire summer. Our next choice for pitcher was a woman who hadn't played organized ball in ~8 years due to various injuries, and as luck would have it, she ended up playing in just 7 games (18 game schedule) this season, never more than 2 in a row, and ended up pitching a grand total of 4 innings on the season. I had also sustained a knee injury (fun little moment of the patella tendon deciding it didn't like where it was and wanted to see what the other areas around the knee looked and felt like), so rather than sitting out the first month of the season, I took over pitching duties.
We proceeded to give up 59 runs over our first 3 games, losing the season opener 25-19, but then bouncing back with a pair of high scoring wins. I started to be able to at least hit the strikezone regularily after this and turned into somewhat of a ground ball pitcher which was good, but I was still only throwing about 55% of my pitches for strikes, which was truly annoying. Enter Joe (the Swanson). Brother to our previous pitcher (he of the ACL tear), Joe made the move from LF to pitcher when my knee was good enough for a return to 2B to try and get back in the swing of things for the near approaching tournament season. Another break in period, but not nearly as awful as mine, Joe showed a good aptitude for pitching and has been there the rest of the season for us, which leads us to our lineup breakdown in this 7/3 (male/female ratio in the field) league:
P: Joe (the Swanson) (early 30's) - Has really grown into the P role. Very girly delivery (great wrist flick), but locates his pitches well. Got his nickname due to running like somebody in a wheel chair. No actual chair, but with the combination of his hunch and arm motion (even more pronounced when turning corners), it's well earned. Also the resident hacker on the team, he's a lefty that will let a pitch hit the heart of the plate, but give him something at his ear and he'll turn on it.
C: ? - Been a rotating door here due to injuries and "prior commitments" this year. The girl (late 20's) we have playing for us at the year end single day playoff/tournament is probably the best mix of hitting/fielding we've had all season, but she only got in to about 4 games this season, so it's hard to really tell.
1B: Sean (mid 20's) - Co-worker of mine, hadn't played ball of any type in 10 years, never played slow pitch. Defensively probably the top glove at first in the league, coming along at the plate. Cut from the John Olerud mold if I can make the loose comparison.
2B: Myself (late 20's) - Knee injury + time off sports = reduction in range, but will usually make the plays I should and can facilitate the double play. Off season at the plate power wise, but a drastic increase in average and doubles over previous years altered my effectiveness as a cleanup style hitter.
3B: ? - Usually a position of strength as my sister (mid 20's) is a lock here, but a late season ball hockey injury has her on the shelf for 3-5 weeks, taking our best girl out of the lineup (both in the field and at the plate). Her replacement (late 20's) the rest of the way is a dedicated singles hitter who uses her speed to beat the throw from SS/3B where she hits 95% of the time.
SS: Greg (early 30's) - A new pickup to the team this year. Very solid in the field, great read and reaction ability counters what could be seen as average range. Another lefty in the lineup, usually hits well until he starts trying to pinpoint too much at the plate. One of our smartest players in all facets of the game.
LF: Lindsay (mid 20's) - Was a full timer for us in the past, only played 4 games this year due to working out of town. Classic farm boy, but moves better than you'd think when seeing him. Good arm, line drive hitter and will catch what he can get his glove on, very reliable.
CF: Mike (late 20's) - Another heady player who reads hitters supremely well. Above average range plus his recognition skills gives us (I feel) the best CF in the league. Gets to a lot of balls he shouldn't really have business getting to and will make the crazy catch more often than not. Big power increase at the plate this year has evolved him from a leadoff hitter to a #3 type.
RF: Chris (early 30's) - Masher. Steady in the field, but not a lot of range. But if he watches strike one and we make fun of his shorts, he has around an 85% chance of hitting a home run during that at bat. I don't make the rules, just commenting on them. Hits the classic home run trajectory and does it repeatedly. If it was a fenced league he'd be even better, but his consistency can work against him.
Rover: ? - Another position of rotation, will be filled by the wife (early 30's) of the pitcher at the tourney. A former softball player, she has great wheels and knows how to read the play for stopping runners. Still working on getting used to hitting this style pitching but her speed helps her beat out a lot of throws.
Reservers:
Dillon (mid 20's) - Buddy of Sean's who hasn't played ball in a similar time frame. Great speed and glove in the outfield, still trying to get his judgement back however. Another who is developing into a line drive hitter then letting his speed do the work.
Rodney (late 30's) - Work contact of my sister, also hasn't played in a long time. Multipurpose backup, pretty comfortable playing anywhere other than SS and CF. Solid but unspectacular at the plate and in the field.
The rest of the season goes, we experience a lot of the up's and down's of a new team, but our offensive output not only surprised me completely, but inflates our win totals beyond that which our defensive play meritted at times.
The highlight of the season was a 19-14 win over the previously undefeated Storm (who were coming off a weekend tournament and not in perfect health). This was the lone blemish on their dance card until the second last game of the season. Our low point, a 6-1 loss to the same team in our rematch. A complete disappearing act by our bats led to one of the more frustrating games we played this year, especially with two errors on our part leading to 3 of their runs. I provided the lone RBI on our side, but left 3 other runners on base in what was a huge let down game.
Checking the final standings finds Operation Shutdown in second place, *hopefully* en route to a third and deciding matchup with the Storm in the finals Saturday night.
Team: Record, Points (Points For, Points Against)
Storm: 16-2-0, 32 Pts (264 PF, 169 PA)
Operation Shutdown: 12-6-0, 24 Pts (366 PF, 266 PA)
Killer Frogs: 11-7-0, 22 Pts (281 PF, 248 PA)
Those Guys: 9-9-0, 18 Pts (241 PF, 260 PA)
Slave Traders: 8-10-1, 17 Pts (224 PF, 314 PA)
FA: 8-10-0, 16 Pts (259 PF, 253 PA)
Isotopes: 8-11-0, 16 Pts (260 PF, 214 PA)
Base Pirates: 5-12-0, 10 Pts (184 PF, 299 PA)
Sandbaggers: 3-13-1, 7 Pts (202 PF, 258 PA)
On a personal note, I would not be happy losing to the Slave Traders or Isotopes (personal issues with their captains), would prefer not to lose to the Frogs (friendly rivalry, subbed for them last season) and would love another crack at the Storm (fun team to play, had their captain play for us at a tournament a few weeks ago).
So this Saturday, starting at 8am local time is the big day for the first season. Win out and we take home the big trophy in our first season, stumble along the way, and maybe we'll all be replaced in short order like our name sake...
I know this was long and rambled a lot, if there is any other information people would like, just let me know, to the rest, it's all in fun :D