Opening Weekend: Minnesota / Bradley / UConn

[buzz_wiser©]

best venue in baseball!

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Hughes with 4th walk, walks the bases loaded. Two wild pitches and Bradley up 1-0.

I'd have replaced Hughes after the second wild pitch. Too damn slow with the hook. Not his day, that's why we have a bunch of pitchers who should be given a chance.

Got out of the inning with a in-field to 1st.

Time to put Tristin in!!!!!!

I'm going out and doing some grass. (Grass plugs in the yard.)

 

[THWG]

Welcome back Tristin English!!

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Ugly game. Ugly pitching, memories of last year. Down 7-5. 7th .......

I think Shirah is going to be good. Had problems with control but 6 SOs shows he can do it. Slow hook on him.

Glad to see Hall is quicker with the hook, just pulled Ben S. If they can't throw well, pull them FAST.

English just put in, want to see this!

 

[buzz_wiser©]

Hughes with 4th walk, walks the bases loaded. Two wild pitches and Bradley up 1-0.

I'd have replaced Hughes after the second wild pitch. Too damn slow with the hook. Not his day, that's why we have a bunch of pitchers who should be given a chance.

Got out of the inning with a in-field to 1st.

Time to put Tristin in!!!!!!

I'm going out and doing some grass. (Grass plugs in the yard.)

This was a good idea Nuke

 

[THWG]

Way too many walks today. 11 free base runners makes it hard to win a game.

 

[THWG]

I will not be surprised if Thomas is the starter next Saturday instead of Hughes.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

This was a good idea Nuke

Grass always helps.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Did I hear right 10 free passes plus 2 HBP’s????

 

[THWG]

Did I hear right 10 free passes plus 2 HBP’s????

Unfortunately, you did. Hughes set the tone for the day.

 

[buzz_wiser©]

The walks were ridiculous and I am in no way making any excuses, but the strike zone was so inconsistent for both sides.
We were not getting any close low and in calls like Bradley was getting.
It definitely attributed to some frustrating times.

Nonetheless we should have never been in that position.
This Bradley team was in no way dominant.

They just made the best out of our mistakes.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Well I’ve got 10-7, 1 out man on 1st. We’re not done yet.

 

[FightWinDrink]

Did I hear right 10 free passes plus 2 HBP’s????

sounds like a normal game from last year

 

[LibertyTurns]

Ouch. 11 free passes, 3 HBP & 3 errors. That’s nearly 2 extra guys on base per inning.

 

[THWG]

I liked what I saw from the freshmen Hurter and Shirah even though they struggled. Shirah was kind of jumpy when he got in, then settled down and pitched well until he got tired. Hurter didn't record an out, but he should of had a double play turned behind him to help with that jam.

 

[FredJacket]

Tough to watch. "How to Lose a Baseball Game 101"

The greatest thing about this is in less than 20 hrs it'll be T1 0-0.

 

[MWBATL]

Can't see any of these games...but from looking at the box scores, seems like "Same Stuff, Different Year".

 

[FredJacket]

Can't see any of these games...but from looking at the box scores, seems like "Same Stuff, Different Year".

If it matters or makes you feel better, 2 of the errors were throwing errors on difficult plays:

1) 3rd inning. McCann trying to make the throw moving to his right back to pitcher (Shirah, I think) who's on move to cover first. This could've/would've been a great defensive play by both McCann & Shirah for a 3rd out after Shirah had loaded bases on "freebies"
2) Rookie mistake by Waddell in 9th. Bases loaded again on freebies... 1 out. Bad decision by Waddell to try inning ending DP by stepping in 3rd & firing to 1st. Gets out at 3rd... but throws it away to 1st. Ball wasn't hit hard enough to make that play. The (better) play was there to throw home for the force.. & live to hopefully get next guy out. Kid played SS in HS. Yesterday, he made 2 stellar plays on pop flys behind him... maybe the difference in getting W v Minn. This will likely be the roller coaster with Freshman at the hot corner. Get accustomed to it, I reckon.

Not throwing strikes results in too many walks... that's bad & obvious. It also gets your defense flat footed & likely less than focused. Just throw strikes. Please!

It's way too early to say this is a "repeat" of 2017. Today's game looked like a carbon copy of much of last season. Friday (v Minnesota) looked much more promising. We have 53 more games to see what we're made of.

 

[65Jacket]

Very disappointed for Hughes, he looked as bad as last year. Thomas looked great, hope he can get righties out too.
Overall, do we look at our pitchers in live hitting sessions before the start of the season? Can't we tell then who can throw strikes and who can't? If they can't in practice, don't pitch them in games. If they can in practice,but not in games,how do you fix that?

 

[RoosterJacket]

Very disappointed for Hughes, he looked as bad as last year. Thomas looked great, hope he can get righties out too.
Overall, do we look at our pitchers in live hitting sessions before the start of the season? Can't we tell then who can throw strikes and who can't? If they can't in practice, don't pitch them in games. If they can in practice,but not in games,how do you fix that?

Once full team practices are allowed, I am pretty sure they do a lot of scrimmaging. So that must mean that either 1) our hitters are not very selective and swing at bad pitches during scrimmages 2) our pitchers throw strikes in bullpen sessions and in scrimmages, but just can’t perform in a game or 3) our pitchers struggle with control all the time even in scrimmages, but we really don’t have anyone who can throw strikes consistently so CDH has to put them out there anyways.

Of those, I’d guess it’s 75% #2 and 25% #1.

As to how to fix that...if I knew, I wouldn’t be typing on a message board, haha.