no run down

[bench]

just a look at where we are -

pitching - our pitching has improved and is at a point where we can match-up and give our team a chance to win. we have more quality depth than in recent history. will improve as year goes on.

defense - probably our strong suit. i gave up on the computer 5 or 6 times this weekend - in high pressure, high stress situations our team made pitches and plays.

hitting - in new order roberts, booth, smith and moore are seeing a different level of pitches and to their credit they are being patient and all but moore have improved from last year (and he seems to be swinging it much better). roberts, booth and moore have one less walk between them than the rest of the team combined. the others in the order need to do things at the plate to help the team - k's are a part of the game but you have to walk or put the ball into play to help. overstreet had a sac fly and i believe miller had a sac bunt , both plays helped big time at that point in the game. hitting is the weak spot in our game right now - if it improves we will be alright if not i am going to have more weekends screaming at my computer. moving moore in the lineup seems to suit him maybe such a move would help some of the ones struggling now.

coaching - its hard to tell over the computer about coaching, but this past weekend the coaching seemed to be pretty good. now looking back after the fact it would be easy for me to make some changes.

thats four areas of our game and my opinion. i too have pride in alabama baseball past and present. i have no axe to grind so i guess thats why i try not to run folks down. i have and will support all the players and coaches, not all will but thats theirs choice. what i would like to see is for the ones who question the players, coaches and others is this - you have 5 games this week post your batting order, lineup and pitching rotation and any other special coaching moves you would make, you can't fire coaches or get new players, just work with whats there now. i will watch all the games and won't post again until next monday then i will respond to how you did. who knows you could get a raise or you could be fired. until monday RTR

 

[bamajake]

Interesting proposition Bench. Here's the problem with it. I can post a lineup and a pitching rotation, but I can't make any proposed special coaching moves without being faced with a game situation and having a feel for the flow of the game. The biggest problem is that I can't be at practice to work with hitters on things like not looking at a medium fastball or hanging curveball for a strike on the first pitch then coming out of their shoes swinging at a breaking ball in the dirt on the second pitch nor can I work with them driving pitches on the outer part of the plate to the opposite field rather than trying to pull everything like our hitters seem to do so much these days. The vast majority of coaching takes place at practice and not during games. If the players are not getting the proper coaching at practice, the mistakes cannot be corrected during games.

 

[rolltydebb]

Its obvious that we aren't about to with the SEC or head to omaha, its obvious the the future should bring brighter days. Therefore I play the young kids.

I'd shake it up like this:

Moore- RF
Salem- CF
Booth- C
Smith- 1b
Roberts- 3b
White- SS
Baxter- DH
Overstreet- 2b
Blanchard- LF

I'm playing the guys that have actually played this year. I'm not opposed to seeing what some of the other youngsters would do, but like BamaJake mentioned, hard to know how they are progressing without seeing them in practice daily. I'm giving the coaching staff the benefit of the doubt in that they are actually playing the best guys.

I'd be looking hard for options to push Overstreet, Baxter, and Blanchard. But they are all young, I think overstreet needs to stay on field for defensive purposes and hit 9th, for this club at a minimum. But I would be looking for people that could better those spots. Again its hard to know this without seeing practice, but a DH spot has a been a black hole, and you'd figure we could find a LF that could produce or bring something more to the table, whether that be blazing speed, or all or nothing power.

However from whats been put out there and given at-bats, these are the best guys, and I'm lining it up accordingly.

From a pitching side of things. I'm okay with whats going on there. For the most part that hasn't been a huge problem. I'd be interested in seeing what Kamplain can do as a starter. He had success in that area last year. On the flip side, Our starters have only been going 6 innings so its good to have relief arms down there that can get people out.

 

[bench]

well rollyd you stepped up with a lineup. i won't fire you but your batting order would probaly come under fire from some of our forum coaches if only they could run practices, work on the hitters and oh yeah be on the top step of the dugout.
in all seriousness i actually believe the coaches actually watch and evaluate the players at practice. what the players don in the game can only be corrected after the game and when the players decide to listen and do what the coaches say and not what mommy and daddy say or what worked for them against an 80mph fastball and bad curve in high school.
i still support all the players and all the coaches and will cheer for this team to get better as the year goes on. rtr

 

[bamamick]

Miller played all three games against UTK and responded fairly well. Moore is really starting to roll. Really, after this past weekend it seemed like everyone was doing better at the plate. We will see on Tuesday against Samford if that was real, or just Vol pitching.

The next two weekends will be spent in Athens and Auburn. Neither of those squads should be overly intimidating. Hopefully our guys will come through with some much-needed SEC road wins.

rtr

 

[rolltydebb]

Been waiting to see if i was hired or fired!

With the lineup, I hope you could see that I was trying to shake things up. CMG did the shake it up, not exactly like I posted, but a shake up was needed. Overstreet and White needed to be moved down.

Also seemed like the other issues got addressed too... we looked for and gave ABs to Carslisle to try to upgrade the bottom of the order and hopefully we'll continue to do so. We currently have 2 guys hitting under 200 in the lineup and another one hovering slightly above it. We can carry two freshman hitting poorly that flash leather... but again i say we need more production out of left field.

Interested to see what happens if/when Wass comes back. Booth and/or Roberts plays some left field and our order gets a huge upgrade.

 

[Bama Baseball 1]

There is an article on AL.com stating that Wass may be done for the year. Coach Gaspard said he was having tests done to determine if he had a hand injury.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/03/promising_alabama_catcher_wade.html