Went to the game and a bunch of random thoughts after talking baseball for more than 5 hours.
Lee put in a great performance. In the first, Peurifoy should have been given a error for the ball hit over his head. He flat out misjudged it and it led to a triple. But then in like the 7th Peurifoy made a superman dive catch that saved a few runs.
In fairness, the wind was massive and swirling. Us hitting 4 HRs and them hitting 2 was largely wind aided for both sides. They all would have been Omaha outs. While Lee gave up 4 ER, one was on the Peurifoy "error" and two others were wind aided HRs.
Gorst is a man. Period. Never got flapped and you could see it in his body english. In the 8th there were some questionable plays but he acted like a bulldog (not a inbred dwag) out there and just seemed to get more pissed and stronger. I told the guy I was with in the third that I'd put Gorst in since letting us give up another couple runs would make his appearance later in the game moot. Never guessed that Hall would do what I thought
I've got to think more about whether it's better to start Gorst or have him relieve. I kind of think start since getting down 0-5 in the first is too big a mountain to climb. But being a long reliever is good too. Just don't leave the starter in as long as Hall usually does and give up 4, 5 or 6.
Justus made a charge and throw of a slow roller infield hit in the 5th that I am still amazed he made. His footwork, speed and accuracy of the throw are the best I have seen at any level. Hope he gets drafted real high.
Kel was gimpy running in warm ups and didn't have a strong arm in warm-ups. He really ran hard once to beat out a double play at first.
Long talk with the parent of a player. He/she had some very interesting things since what parents say is usually what their kids tell them.
- Looks good for Gooden to come to GT as long as there isn't a $1M draft offer.
- A pitcher was having a mechanics problem and it wasn't our staff that tried or fixed it but a long time personal coach. (If this is only an isolated anecdote it means little; if it is typical then it affirms the need for a shakeup of the staff (in my opinion)).
- Hall is an awesome recruiter and really good for the kids. The person agreed that sometimes Hall puts the players before the team interests.
- Dulaney and Gauvreau are expected to be very good. Winborne should be pitched more (he was not the son of the person I was talking to). Pitts has been pitched way too much (duh).
- Many if not all of the summer league team rosters are made up and someone should be able to get the listing.
Of course I liked the UVa fans and some/most we friendly, especially when I complemented the UVa program. Some of the old farts were, well, old farts. There are obviously a lot of knowledgeable college baseball people there. I observed that UVa probably has the best cold weather program in the country (while not 100% true it is close since Charlottesville is fricking cold). I didn't see a Zima anywhere. The stadium was nice with a good back drop of the mountains. They have gotten a couple $M from Zimmerman for some improvements.
Oh yeah, it was nice to win. Made the 2 1/2 drive a hell of a lot better coming back than if we had lost by a run. As I wrote, I didn't expect us to win at all. The UVa starter just didn't have his stuff; at least to me his pitches had little movement and we hit him hard all day. A 1.35 ERA pitcher with 60 IP was not at all how he pitched to us. But thank God. Winning beats losing.
