Over for Now

The Cubs played one of their best games since their fast start but it wasn’t enough to top the up and coming Pirates.  Both hurlers pitched complete games but the Pirates ace overmatched the Cubs batters giving up only 2 runs on 1 hit.  The book showed evidence of a real ball game marking 6-3, 6-3, K in the first. Strong defense continued throughout the 5 inning affair but the Pirates capitalized on every opening the Cubs provided and pulled away to a convincing win. 

So the tournament was over in a game which marked the close to the Robbinsdale regular season.  Now to battle with the likes of neighboring cities and the mixed talents and foibles of their best, and worst, and middle of the pack teams.

Go Cubs!

Hitting a Wall – Game Planning

Need 3 of 4 at 3-6 +8  , Isaac =50+75 / 2angels = 125

 2 Isaac Jackson Luke Peyton

3 simon riley luke Isaac

4 luke p riley jack kellen tyler

6 isaac Jackson luke peyton

5 simon jamirus peyton luke P Jack O Luke R

8 Jackson Isaac Jamirus Jack o Luke P

7 jackson Isaac Jamirus Riley

9 Kellen Tyler Dustin

1Isaac 2 Jack O 3 Simon 4 Luke P 5 Jamirus 6 Jackson 7 Riley 8 Peyton 9 Tyler

Why so lame you ask?

Some of you faithful readers way have wondered why the posts have degraded to levels of mindless drivel and downright incoherent thought. Well the truth is I haven’t had a tone of time to write and even worse I think that my ability to think has been a bit low. In short I’m pretty confident that I’m pretty dumb right now.  Oh sure I can come up with some insightful musings on direct questions but musing from my own meandering mind has been all but unthinkable.  I’d say there are a few factors at play; one of which is baseball.  A good portion of my mental energy outside of work has been allocated toward generating lineups, analyzing at bats and generally considering the consequences of the defensive cohorts that will take the field  5 or 6 times a night.

 Below is a sample of part of an evening’s work.  Winning isn’t my primary goal (though no one likes to lose). Fielding a competitive team in which all players get a chance to play in the outfield, infield and sit on the bench is my prime personal directive. I like it a lot, but it doesn’t leave time for much else. GO CUBS! The season is half over!

Conundrum

What do you get when an unstoppable force encounters an immoveable object? We’ll find out at tomorrow night’s little league game when the 3-0 Cubs face the 3-0 Mets.  Should be epic.

3 for 1

Tonight I wrote three lineups for tomorrow’s game. The first went unfinished for over an hour because I couldn’t make it work.  My challenge is in balancing relatively equal playing time with fielding a competitive team while giving everyone a chance to play infield a few times during the game. 

The second lineup was produced by the recognition that there’s an app for that.  After a brief search of the Market my lovely wife found and downloaded an app for generating lineups that balance playing time and bench time.  The computer did a decent job of distributing playing time and provided enough control to assign pitchers and catchers.  However, where it excelled in efficiency it lacked in the human element (as you might expect from a mindless computer with limited data available). This lineup could have worked but it left us exposed in ways defensively that would have made us less competitive and put players in positions they were not ready for.

The third lineup started with a very systematic distribution of bench time. This method benched one player from the top, middle and bottom thirds of the batting order. In this way I was guaranteed to have a balanced team on the field and avoided having to schedule an inning where “I had to” bench two top players to avoid over sitting the middle and bottom players.  Pitchers and catchers went in after the bench positions then shortstop and first base followed by second third and the outfield positions.  This was a nice way to get the kids evenly distributed while still having a bit more control on the positions and personnel filling each role.  This method was pretty good but I fear its mechanical nature has led me to miss something that I’ll have to either endure or question and adjust in the middle of the game. And as I’ve told my team, it’s best to not ask me questions during the game because there is just too much to think about to think. 

The Opener

Opening day is upon us.  The uniforms are crisp and distributed but after 9 o’clock pictures the prominent pinstripes of our team pants will give way to an alternating pattern of green grass stain and red infield clay.  First Pitch 11:30.

How do you hit with 2 strikes on you?

Tonight we scrimmaged and as you’d expect we had several strikeouts.  It was interesting to watch the kids approach the at bat when they had two strikes on them.  There were two basic reactions.  There were a few who seized up and didn’t swing at all.  It was as if the fear of striking out became a self fulfilling prophecy and, as long as the pitcher put the ball over the plate, a backwards K was inevitable.   The others were so committed to not watching the 3^rd strike go by that they either swung at balls far out of the zone or were way too early.  With these kids their desire to hit and their aggressive approach limited their chance even for contact.

So the question is how to improve.  If there is one thing that is sure a two strike count is pretty tough.  There are the physical challenges of making contact with the ball if it’s close while letting balls out of the zone go by and there are the mental challenges of the added pressure of an impending strikeout.

Notice I haven’t offered any advice for a two strike approach? I’m planning to work with the team on this and give them a few tools to work with.  They will all have to do with increasing the likelihood of making contact with the ball: Move closer to the plate to be able to cover the outside corner better, choke up on the bat to increase bat speed and control and practice making contact when faced (mentally at least) with 2 strikes (in practice).

At the Old Ball Game

Less than two weeks from opening day I need to start thinking about a line up and positioning strategies.  A-minor is an instructional league so a good balance of equal playing time and fielding a competitive team is essential.  As with any team we have a range of skills and experience.  As the season develops I have some data and experiential information to help shape a game plan but these early games can be the hardest to be good and to be fair.  I have systems in place to ensure equity in playing time but I don’t have a formula yet for being good.

Back on My Mind

Now that baseball is back in season it is back on my mind too.  I was talking with some friends about hitting.  In some way hitting is very simple: See the ball hit the ball.  On the other hand hitting is very complicated:  Know the game situation and what to accomplish at the plate, interpret the signs from the base coach move into the box, establish a comfortable and balanced athletic position, weight slightly back, hands up, find the ball in the pitchers hand, pick up the seams, identify the spin, load, squash the bug, stride toward the pitcher (or not), throw your hands at the ball (the barrel with follow), firm front leg, open hips, follow through, stay balanced.

But you can’t tell that to a 9 year old, or a 32 year old for that matter. As a rule of thumb start from the ground up and much of the rest will follow.

Baseball

We had little league tryouts this weekend.  As one of the coaches I will draft a team then we will spend about a month preparing for the season before we play about 11 games followed by the post season.  Needless to say, over the next few months there will be a lot of baseball.  Tonight I was talked with the other dad that will coach with me and one of the thoughts we shared is that we are really lucky.

Sure the season can get long and there will be nights that I don’t want to go to practice and there will be game plans I don’t want to write and there will be kids who play in the dirt when they are supposed to be getting ready for the next pitch.  Sure all of those will happen but there are some other things that will help me keep perspective during those rough times. 

We live in a time and a place where I and my kids can dedicate significant portions of our time to a game.  My kids don’t have to work to help support the family and after the game we’ll always have a home to return to and food to eat.