We had our second game Tuesday and despite the 12-11 defeat I feel better about this than our first game, mostly because only 4 of the 11 runs we allowed were earned. And quite a few of those unearned runs can be chalked up to poor defensive play at third base. Ryan, in his role as utility man, had a couple of plays that a player of better talent would make. Danny, our #1 third baseman did not have a good game, having 2 first inning errors and letting a fiedable by him. Another performance like that and he won’t be our #1 third baseman anymore. In better news he proved a strike machine, pitching 2 ⅓ solid innings, though he did pick-up the loss (on an earned run none-the-less). He’s a pitcher good players can use like batting practice, in that they’ll see a strike to hit, but he doesn’t have enough velocity for the ball to go too far generally. Players like this will get chances to pitch on our team.
In other good news our bats came alive, though we were assisted by quite a few errors from our opponents as well. Someone whose bat did not come alive? Alex our (former) lead-off hitter who has still yet to put the ball into play. On the whole not a good day for him, as he decided to try and get an out at home at one point rather than getting the easy out at first. Not only did the runner he was trying to get out score, but so did another runner, after the ball got by our catcher. Oh and he got picked-off at first as well. At our practice yesterday he showed he can rocket the ball as a hitter, but until he does it in a game, he’ll probably be batting 5th or 6th. Andrew will be our new lead-off hitter, with his speed and spray hitting, classic lead-off hitter qualities.
Both the description of Danny and Alex seem brutal when reading about them. I will say that in both cases the player was handled with dignity. And simply explain that the team is meant to be competitive and so we’re going to try and put our players in the best position to help the team win.
On the whole the reason that this loss bugs me less than the first one, is that errors are par for the course with a team like this. If they didn’t have deficiencies they wouldn’t be on the B level team. That’s a far cry from making poor decisions. We’ll work to help the players improve the areas where they need more help, but the poor decisions demand a level of accountability. We’ve had 3 different kids picked off and it’s because in all of the situations they zoned out before the pitcher’s first pitch.
We were also required to submit a list of players who are not to pitch in house league, a list of players who can pitch in house league, and a weekly list of what the other players are allowed to do. Our list looked like this:
Do not pitch list:
Jordan
Danny
Nate
Andrew
Can always pitch freely:
Brett
Ross
Ryan
This week can pitch freely:
Justin
35 or less today, rest Thur-Sat:
Alex
David
Michael
Aaron
We have two games this weekend and I expect our 4 don’t touches, plus at least 2 of the 35 or less crowd to pitch. If I had to wager a guess the 2 from that list to pitch would be Aaron and Alex, though Michael looked good pitching during practice yesterday.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Izulde
I love your coaching dynasties and always get nostalgic to get back into it when reading them.
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Obviously I get frustrated at times, but the success of helping a player get better and making the right call to tilt the balance of a game means that I keep trying despite the failures.