Friday, June 29, 2007

After further review . . .

After looking over the box scores and summary of (click on the title above) last night’s game, I found myself perplexed over how we could send one of our best pitchers, Cory White, to battle the bulls and lose so badly. I couldn’t believe what I was reading in the 3rd inning as Cory walked 2 and hit another 2 with pitches. Then it occurred to me something I’d heard (from reliable sources) from the night before when we won 2 games easily over the Bulls. This is not an excuse for not scoring runs, but probably a factor in our pitching. It seems the pitcher’s mound at VFW Memorial Stadium is not in very good shape. I was told that several of the Bull’s pitchers in the doubleheader on Wednesday actually hurt themselves during warm-ups. Now Cory, who pitches complete games, is 4-0 going into the game and throws 90+ mph fastballs, doesn’t make it through 3 innings of play. What’s wrong with that picture? John Sciba didn’t fair any better, and Arron Varnum only had to clear a couple of guys to end the game in a mercy killing. Gosh, I hope none of guys are hurt! One thing for certain, something really changed overnight (like the weather threatening our game tonight). Now I’m not saying the Bulls didn’t play well in the stampede over the Railroaders, but their pitcher must have studied that mound well and knew how to use it.

I’d be interested in hearing some of our guys give their observations on this. Meanwhile, my doctor has cleared me to play if called up. Don’t worry about the patch over my eye; Doc says it’ll be all right in a couple days. Besides, I never use that eye. I assure you I'm ready to play Pirates tomorrow night.

4 comments:

  1. The mound was terrible or lack thereof and effects pitching from both sides, certainly the velocities are effected. But I have to say the mound was no better the days before and it didn't impact the pitchers those nights, so to me it is just looking for excuses for things going badly and sometimes they do, thats baseball. Just like the errors that happen from the bad bounces on rough fields in previous games and the pitchers are being looked at for the loses, for balls that would normally be routine outs. On some of these fields Derek Jeter couldn't field the ball cleanly. Both teams play on the same field and maybe there is some minor advantage to knowing the mound circumstances, but it can't be that much of an advantage. If I were going to look to anything pitching wise in these games, I would look at the the umpires, because there are no corners on the plates at any of these games. It is like little league umpires out there.

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  2. I agree with everything you said! The mound is no excuse for a bad outting. Selb threw a 1 hitter! And Craycraft threw very well. No excuses for the bad pitching!

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  3. You do have a point..and I concede there are nights when nothing goes right. Sometimes you get the worm and sometimes the worm gets you. The Bulls certainly showed that a team down and out for a couple of games can come back with great play to win big. The reverse is true of course, and displayed by the Railroaders last night. Isn't it a wonderful game...just wish we hadn't been rained out tonight.

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  4. dont worry i dont think that anyone is worried about your eye but thanks for the update... and there is not one player on the team that is better than another it is a TEAM!!!!

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