NO PRACTICE ON SUNDAY-Blue Jays game review

It turns out no coaches can make practice on Sunday, at any time the fields are free, so we have cancelled practice for Sunday. This coming week we have a 6:30 game on Thursday, and 2PM game Saturday.

As for today. I was really pleased with the effort. I only had planned for CJ for 3 innings, but he was pitching so great, I couldn't pull him. So that goofed my substitution pattern somewhat, but that is a small price to pay for a nicely pitched game.

Of course CJ got some help as well. Cole had a nice catch in LF. The wind had kicked up, and the ball was tailing, but Cole snared it. Wyatt made a couple nice plays too. He did a good job from short. He hasn't played there all year, but made a nice 6-3 out. We also executed a nice run down after a pick off attempt at first. And after an error on a throw to first, we were able to execute a nice tag out at home.

Our catchers all did a good job for us today. Will with the above mentioned tag. Drew hanging on to several strike 3s, to prevent dropped 3rd strikes, and Nick was solid in 3 innings behind the dish.

CJ gave up 5 hits, walked 2, and struck out 9. That is solid in 6 2/3 innings. CJ had enough pitches to go one more batter, but we coaches decided he was looking a little rubber armed, and with 2 guys on, brought Jerald in to get the save.

On the offensive side, we didn't do so hot. We only got 3 hits. However we were the beneficiary of 3 timely errors, and 3 walks and 3 plunkings. Austin took 2 of them for the team. CJ had 2 of the hits, and Sam had 1.

Josiah pitched really well for the Rays. He struck us out 12 times, and Brandon got us once in relief. And yeah, the strike zone was as big as Oprah. But that beats the 22 walkfest we had the last game. The hitters also have to learn to adapt to that zone, and protect the plate a little better. We struck out looking 7 times. That is not good.

So, really happy with the effort, especially when we looked like crap in the pregame. But then, we haven't practiced in 3 weeks, and we are going to go another week without practice. I also liked how the boys seemed to be engaged when we were batting, and were up, cheering on their teammates.

Well, we won....

Not exactly the most stellar of baseball games played. But that's what you get with no practice. And it looks like another week of no practice ahead, as Sunday Easter, Tuesday concert, Wednesday is church night for most, Thursday and Friday trackmeets. So next Saturday, we will do what we can do. If the boys have a chance, which I am guessing not, have them throw, or do some tee work, or something.

As for today...a lot of errors. Most physical, which I can live with, they make you groan, but so be it. I'm a little more bothered by mental, which we had a couple, not knowing the outs, not knowing the game situation on the bases, and stuff like that.

I made my own glaring mental mistake. I had just told Will, who was on 3rd base to go home on a grounder, unless it was hit to 3rd base or the pitcher. There was a dribbler to third, and I told him to go, and he got thrown out at the plate. My bad, in my excitement.

But we did plenty of good stuff. I saw better base running by our runners. I've told the guys not to play T-ball---when going from 1st to 2nd on a ball hit to the outfield, or an a grounder when they aren't playing on you, to round 2nd, and look to 3rd--don't just stop on 2nd base. I know Drew and Jerald each advanced an extra base for us in that situation.

I would say Zach and CJ were our defensive stars. Zach played a nice centerfield for us, with a catch, and backing stuff up-doing the little things. CJ pitched really well for us. They hit the ball, but when we field it, like we did in the last inning, things go well for us.

CJ and Sam also met my combined goal of 1 walk per inning or less. Sam got into some trouble in the first, walking the first 3 guys. That is not good. Then with some errors sprinkled in, we got into more trouble. But he settled in, and then CJ closed very consistent for us. My favorite out is when he picked the guy off at first. I haven't had time to work on a sign to throw to first. So I discretely held up my index finger, and over exaggerated a whisper "THROW IT TO FIRST" Good job by CJ to get him. He almost had a couple others as well at first and 3rd.

I really liked that we closed strong. Sam threw a guy out from 3rd, from his knees. That is awesome. Then Will got us an out from shortstop, and then CJ struck a guy out to end the game.

On the bats, Sam had a very long strike. He hit that bomb that unfortuately went foul. Sam did manage 2 hits on the night. Everybody got on base at least once, one way or another. And no one struck out more than once, which is an improvement over last game. We only struck out 4 times total, so that is good.

We also got walked a lot. I guess I'll take it, but I like to see the guys hitting the ball too. Walk fests are kinda boring to watch but that is no fault of our batters. Austin got on with walks all 3 of his at bats.

Considering our lack of practice, I'm pretty happy with our batting the first 2 games. As I tell the guys, this is a hitters league. In 32 plate appearances, we put the ball in play 18 times, walked 11 times, and struck out 4 times. They had 28 plate appearances, put the ball in play 14 times, walked 5 times, and struck out 9 times.

So again, no practice this week. Thanks to our concessionaires and pitch counter and book keeper. C'mon sun!

Pictures Saturday

Assuming we get our game in, we are going to have pictures on Saturday. The players will need to be there at 1:15. Let me know if that is a problem.

We just found out, so we were not able to distribute the order forms. I have attached the one from Tekippes, which you can figure out what you might like. Click on the picture above to make it bigger. They will have actual forms there Saturday, so if you want something, bring a checkbook.

However, you are under NO obligation to buy pictures. If we ever have a nice day, I am going to have personal picture day, where we will line everybody up, and let parents take all the pictures they want to post on Facebook, send to Grandma, or whatever.

But for our "official" team photo, it will be nice if everybody is there. As per usual, let me know if you son can't make a game as soon as you know.

Concession Schedule

Gang, as noted before, in a way to keep our league fees low, we run a concession stand at our games. So we need to "volunteer" you for concession duty. So I am going to assign games, if you can't make it, please find somebody to switch with, if you can. Hopefully with 2 families each, you can step out when your son is batting or doing something interesting. If your son has a responsible sibling, that might be a good task for them as well. We have 6 home games, and 12 families, so that works out pretty well. Here is what the hat drawing came up with.

Sat Apr 23 2PM Hadaway Tryon
Sat Apr 30 2PM Mortvedt Matheason
Sat May 7 2PM Arnold, Moore
Sat May 14 2PM Fritz Halleland
Thu May 19 6:30PM Halstead Mathis
Sat May 21 2PM Gray, Erickson

Smarts!

Just looking in last week's Story City Herald and it had the 3rd quarter Honor Roll listed. In the entire 8th grade only 3 boys made the A honor roll, and they are all Dodgers; Zach, Ryan, and Jerald. And we have 3 A honor rollers from the 7th grade as well, Will, Aren, and Wyatt.

Who knows if we will win a game this year, but we have the highest GPA in the league! Congrats to those guys.

Fun game

I would have preferred a different outcome, but that was a fun game. It was played reasonably well by both teams, and we each had our chances to not send it to extra innings.

Of course, I see lots of things we could do better. But the problem with Juniors is the lack of time to practice. I'd like to see our baserunning improve-better lead offs, looking to take the extra base on hits to the outfield, and stuff like that. But that will come. Oh, another thing. Outfielders taking an immediate step in after a hit. We had multiple instances where the outfielders stepped in, and the ball went just over their heads. Again, practice would improve that.

Stuff I liked...play of the game was the throws in in the bottom of the 8th. Wyatt hit his cutoff man, CJ. And CJ had a heck of a throw home. And Nick caught the ball, took a hit, held on, and made the out. Simply awesome at a key time.

This game was even in so many ways. We went to extra innings. They had 10 hits, we had 9, we each had 3 errors, we walked 6 times, they walked 8 times.

Our pitching was ok. At this level, I want to limit our walks to 1 per inning. We met that goal. Still a lot of walks, and if we go over that, I don't expect to win.
Jerald pitched 3 shutout innings, and then got in trouble in the 4th. I probably should have brought a quicker hook. Cole did a great job of pitching out of the jam.

Speaking of Cole, I gave him a tough task. Our league rules say no inning can start after 2 hours. In the bottom of the 6th, we were down 3, and we had 8 minutes to get them out, so we could start a new inning, and get another chance to bat. I told the guys no warmups, we wanted to go. Cole had thrown the previous inning, so I figured he was warm. But he and the team did a great job of getting the 3 outs in 6 minutes.

That allowed us to bat again, score those 3 runs in the top of the 7th, and at least give us a shot to win. And that was an exciting inning. After 2 quick outs, things were looking really grim. Down by 3, with 2 outs. But Drew walked, Nick almost jacked one, and got a double, CJ walked, Jerald got a single, and Sam got a single to get our 3 runs.

Another couple things I liked. We did a good job of getting lead runners while on defense. Also, and I'm guessing they didn't try to do this, but Austin and Wyatt each hit behind our baserunners, and though they got out as batters, they advanced our runners, and in both cases our runners who made it to second came around and scored. I've told the guys again and again this is a hitters league, and if we can put the ball in play, good things can happen.

Next up is Saturday at 2PM in Story City.

Today's game will be tomorrow, same time, same place

Field is a little too wet to play today. Would have taken a big effort in less than ideal conditions to make it go. So we are going to move the game to 2PM on Sunday at the East Diamond.

Players should be there at least 30 minutes before game time.

Old man has it

The key thing at practice we learned tonite, is that 80% of our team there can't beat an old man in a race. I thought the guys were dogging it a little bit, and asked which of them thought they could beat me in a 90ft race, the distance between the bases. 7 of the 10 there said they could.

So I made a little bet, if 7 of 10 beat me, I would do a 45 second leg lift. If I beat 4 or more, the whole team had to do a 45 second leg lift.

So we lined up on the left field foul line, and all raced at the same time past an imaginary line from 1st to 2nd base extended. It wasn't even close. Only 2 guys beat me. So we have a slow team, or I'm the man. I'm leaning to the latter of course.

Due to field space issues, we shared time with the Rays tonite. That limited some stuff we wanted to do, but got to do some other drills I have been putting off. We had a lot of time on a relay race, with 5 guys on a team, as we raced the ball down from one end of the line, and back. That really helps on relay throws--making good throws and catches.

We then played a mini scrimmage with the Rays. We pitched to the Rays, their entire lineup, and then vice versa where they pitched to our entire lineup. Will had his first effort on the mound. He threw strikes, so that is good. They whacked the ball some, but I like that better than walks. We had a few good hits of our own. Sam and Austin each had nice hits.

For now, next Dodgers event is a game on Saturday, not looking so good weatherwise, so stayed tuned.

Sunday scrimmage review

Not ideal conditions for playing baseball, but we got to play baseball, so that is good!

I was reasonably happy with our performance today. Some of the stuff that drove me a little cuckoo was stuff we had just gone over on Friday at practice, and wasn't getting done today. Namely my shortstop and 2nd baseman, and how they were to hold runners at 2nd. There was a lot of talking, and not paying attention on Friday in that drill, and it showed.

In reviewing the book, we hit the ball better than our opponent, or at least putting it in play. We put the ball in play 17 times, with only 3 strikeouts. Sam reached 3 times with 2 hits and a reach on an error. Nick had the hit of the day for either team with a bomb to left center.

Our pitching was ok. We gave up 12 walks, which is unacceptable. However 8 were in the last inning by guys without much pitching experience. So our 1st 4 guys gave up 4, so I like the sound of that much better.

Cole got 3 outs on 12 pitches, with a single mixed in. That is great for pitch count, and limiting base runners. CJ and Jerald each faced 5, with CJ giving up 1 run, and Jerald 0.

Our defense had its ups and downs. Aren made a nice play on a ball with a weird hop off the mound, going to 2nd.

We were short 2 guys today. Will had to go to Missouri, and Wyatt's Grandpa died (Stacey's dad). So keep that family in mind.

1st Game is Saturday, with a 2PM start, be there no later than 1:30. Against these same Blue Jays.

No practice on Friday, as there is a game then. So we are back to Tuesday this week, with no track meet. 6:30 to 8.

Important point

I know a lot of you are new to my team. Just a reminder that I have a rule. And that is "Ten run Tube Top Tuesday". If we 10 run an opponent on Tuesday, all the moms have to wear tube tops to the next game.

Friday practice

Had 10 guys there tonite. Didn't push too hard tonite, as the track guys were pretty gassed from track practice. Let some pitchers get some work. We worked on "bird dogging" runners on 2nd with our 2nd baseman and shortstop--and also, let the guys practice leading off 2nd. Got some bunting practice in, and then some live pitching.

I must say the pitching was a little ahead of the hitting tonite. Not that the pitching was that great tho. But such is life in April with limited practice facilities, and limited time to practice.

I'm expecting we will be fine, and definitely no worse off than anyone else.

Reminder that we are scrimmaging the Blue Jays at 1:30 Sunday, be there at 1. The guys are to wear baseball pants, and whatever shirt. I will hand out uniforms on Sunday (if I remember!)

Concession Schedule

Gang, as noted before, in a way to keep our league fees low, we run a concession stand at our games. So we need to "volunteer" you for concession duty. So I am going to assign games, if you can't make it, please find somebody to switch with, if you can. Hopefully with 2 families each, you can step out when your son is batting or doing something interesting. If your son has a responsible sibling, that might be a good task for them as well. We have 6 home games, and 12 families, so that works out pretty well. Here is what the hat drawing came up with.

Sat Apr 23 2PM Hadaway Tryon
Sat Apr 30 2PM Mortvedt Matheason
Sat May 7 2PM Arnold, Moore
Sat May 14 2PM Fritz Halleland
Thu May 19 6:30PM Halstead Mathis
Sat May 21 2PM Gray, Erickson

This weekend

Practice Friday 6:30 to 8 at the East Diamond.

Sunday: Scrimmage with the Blue Jays, be there at 1, scrimmage start about 1:30. We will play around 5 innings or so. Coaches will umpire, 5 run limit, with game stops to coach as need be. Guessing we will get done around 3:30 to 4.

I realize it is Sunday, so if you can't make it, that is fine. Please shoot me an email if you son is going to miss either practice tho.

Thanks

Thanks to those of you that helped with the Juniors field cleanup on Saturday. I was unable to attend, but I heard the Dodgers were represented reasonably well. So thanks for your efforts at the field, so the guys can play ball.

Sunday practice

Wow, what a surprisingly nice day. A little windy, but who is complaining? I think it helped for us to have a really good practice. That doesn't mean we were perfect, but we got some good learning in.

We did some situational stuff on defense, where I lined up an infield, hit balls to them, while the other guys tried to beat the throws to first. Defense was pretty solid. Our baserunning needs a little work. The guys need to know the situations a little better, and when to run, and all that stuff. (pop up with 2 outs-need to be running, stuff like that)

I got a couple guys on the mound, and worked with them in getting comfortable with being on the mound, and what to do with runners on base and all that.

Then we got to do some hitting. All in all, the guys did a pretty good job of whacking the ball around. Of course, I wasn't trying to get them out, but that went pretty well.

NEXT PRACTICE IS FRIDAY FROM 6:30 TO 8PM. Track meet this Tuesday. 13 days til our first game!

Friday practice

The team had a very good practice on Friday. First time all players and coaches were there. That was great. Just trying to do some throwing. Also did some leadoff practicing. That is a big change for the 7th graders.

We did some outfiled work too. I hit some out there, and got to see how the guys did catching pop flys. All in all, very happy with how we did. But still a lot of work to do.

Might try to do some hitting on Sunday. I realize Sunday if often family day, so if you have somthing going on, go do it. But if you can make it, Sunday, 1-2:30 at the East Diamond.