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We played our first game of the winter league on Saturday, losing 5-2. Here are the stats from the day:

Hitting Stats (winter 2007):
.666/.750/.666 over 3 AB / 4 PA
2 H, 1 HBP

Pitching stats (winter 2007):
0-0, 0.00 ERA
1.0 IP, 3 K, 1 BB, 0 H

So, I’m off to a good start. I walked the first batter I faced, then eventually struck out the side, the last one coming off a great two-seam gyroball (of which I have good command of now). My velocity is picking up with a few minor adjustments I’ve made, and I am generally happy with the course I’m on. I will be sticking with a fastball/gyroball combo in relief and using my circle change as a starter for the 2nd time through the lineup as a new pitch. I’ll probably throw in a curve as my show-me pitch as well, but otherwise won’t use it because it sucks.

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Hitting Stats:
.300/.380/.410 over 113 PA / 100 AB
30 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 12 RBI, 14 R, 8 SB, 8 K, 9 BB, 4 HBP

Pitching stats:
2-2, 1 SV, 6.94 ERA
33.7 IP, 20 H, 32 BB, 18 K, 26 ER

Not too bad, I guess. I ended the season on an 0-for-15 slump with 3 walks and a HBP, so that explains the dramatic drop in batting average. That being said, hitting .300 with a little pop in the bat ended up being pretty good for me, and though I need to fix my swing after breaking it in the middle of the season, I’m confident I’ll get a home run next year if I stay here in Seattle (I might be moving back to Cleveland).

Pitching was another story, as my shoulder faded in and out of health and my command/control went with it. Nearly a walk per inning is inexcusable, especially when you don’t strike out enough batters, but in the middle of the season I had some of the best stuff all year as I rarely got hit hard (gave up few XBH and only one HR). Despite my fastball being barely average, the late life on it is something Jacob can attest to, and my change is a plus pitch at getting groundballs. My breaking ball started off terrible and was a real plus pitch for two outings, but faded back into obscurity. I barely threw the gyroball, never really getting the command on it like I wanted.

To sum it up, I didn’t work hard enough during the season to get to the level I wanted to. I consider that a failure, but I have all winter to work hard again with Jacob, Otto, and my students.

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Our game at Bannerwood (great field, by the way) for the PSSBL Mariners went extremely well today. John started on the hill and only allowed two runs over five innings. I entered the game in the sixth with a one run lead and finished it off, allowing 1 earned run (1 unearned run as well) on 1 hit, 4 walks, and 3 strikeouts. The defense played extremely well today (just a few minor errors) with two baserunner kills/pickoffs, and our hitting picked up in a big way in the seventh. We ended up winning 8-4, so I think I picked up a four-inning save!

The game with Nandemoya is fairly uninteresting except for the fact that we lost to a team who were a bunch of jerks just like our opponents, the Sox, in the PSSBL game. It’s not worth getting riled up about.

So, today my stats looked like:

Hitting: 2-for-5, BB, RBI, R
Pitching: 4 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 4 BB, 3 K

Stats in summation:

Hitting Stats:
.353/.438/.482 over 89 PA / 85 AB
30 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 12 RBI, 14 R, 8 SB, 8 K, 6 BB, 3 HBP

Pitching stats:
2-2, 1 SV, 6.94 ERA
33.7 IP, 20 H, 32 BB, 18 K, 26 ER

I’ve started a coaching over the Internet program with a known professional instructor who’s putting me on his pilot program. The cost is great, and we’re both going to learn a lot. I have a lot of flaws the need to be addressed, but I think before we even start to list them (bat drag, hip slide, oh wait…) I need to understand how a professional swing even looks like and works, broken down piece by piece.

At the beginning of the season I came out of the gates slicing doubles to the gap, stealing bases, and hitting for serious power and contact. I’ve regressed some, and not all of it can be attributed to luck, but it’ll be good to have that mental and psychological feeling back once I finish my lessons and continue to get more and more work in - which will be easier now, since my workload at the office has been diminished and I purchased a tee and a hitting net to go with my bucket of balls. I still get some running in as well (usually 2 miles), and I’m on a weight lifting program, but I’m trying to cut weight before I head back to Cleveland for my best man’s wedding. Hopefully I can wrap all this up without interfering with my in-season workouts and games!

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Hitting Stats:
.370/.432/.521 over 81 PA / 73 AB
27 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 11 RBI, 13 R, 8 SB, 5 K, 5 BB, 3 HBP

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Today was an excellent individual effort day, despite two losses. I went 5-for-7 on the day, all of them singles. I smashed a hanging curve foul pretty far, so the power is still there, but the tinkering of the swing has clearly positively affected my bat control and probably negatively affected my power. That’s fine; I’ll take a higher batting average and more solid contact numbers over doubles. It’s easier to work on power after finalizing a good line drive stroke.

My pitching today wasn’t great, going 4 innings and allowing 4 earned runs with two walks and no strikeouts, but I’m still not at 100%. The control was decent but not great, the velocity was below average, and the breaking ball was not sharp. That being said, I located the fastball fairly well, mainly working inside to practice hitting that spot (I have historically had problems pitching inside to right-handed hitters). My shoulder’s at 90%, and I was giving about 85% effort on all my pitches. After a bullpen session on Monday with Jacob and Otto, I think I’ll have the confidence and the mechanics down to really work more on velocity.

Speaking of velocity, it’s clear that throwing upper 70’s and occasionally hitting lower 80’s isn’t going to cut it. I know that location is more important than velocity and blah blah blah, but it’s time to stop kidding myself and face reality: I just have to throw harder. By next year, I want to be throwing mid-80’s consistently with a plus-rated changeup and a reasonable out pitch. It’s going to take at least that to succeed in the Baker leagues of PSSBL, where most of the players have varsity high school or higher experience.

But enough reflection on what I have to do. I’m really happy with the new swing mechanics I’m working with, and I really believe that I’ve found a good line drive stroke that will turn into consistent gap power. I was never a true “power” hitter in the first place - years of “level swing” instruction have basically seen to that. Many thanks to the guys at Baseball-Fever in the Baseball 101 section - their articles and forum posts on rotational hitting really helped me turn it around.

Now, it’s time to relax. I have a 9 AM game tomorrow.

Hitting Stats:
.377/.442/.536 over 77 PA / 69 AB
26 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 11 RBI, 13 R, 8 SB, 5 K, 5 BB, 3 HBP

Pitching stats:
2-2, 8.75 ERA
25.7 IP, 19 H, 25 BB, 13 K, 25 ER

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Today’s game at the White Center stadium went extremely well - we were ahead by a run in the sixth inning when they had to postpone the game due to an overhead lighting malfunction.

I caught for two innings and played center field for the rest of the game; nothing of note occurred at either position.

The real good news is related to my hitting. After studying some hitting videos and animated images (see the last post for specific examples), I took to heart the idea of shortening my swing and getting “fulcrum push” to generate power, rather than torquing with the hands (resulting in a long swing). I hit a soft liner to left field that was caught, an absolute line drive smash to left field that was unfortunately right at the fielder, and two small singles up the middle and to the right side of the infield.

I feel really good about my swing and look forward to this weekend’s games.

Hitting Stats:
.339/.414/.516 over 70 PA / 62 AB
21 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 9 RBI, 13 R, 8 SB, 5 K, 5 BB, 3 HBP

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Two games over the weekend, went 2-for-8 with a walk (no strikeouts), a hit, and a double. I swiped second base in one game, too! I threw four innings at 75-80% due to shoulder pain/discomfort over the past few weeks, but the control was there and the breaking ball was reasonable (threw no changeups). I allowed four runs, both in innings I walked a runner, but got out of two innings scoreless 1-2-3 by pitching to contact low in the zone. Total damage was four runs, two walks, one strikeout, and a no decision (entered the game down 8 runs, ended up losing the game by one).

That brings my stats to:

Hitting stats:
.328/.410/.517 over 66 PA / 58 AB
19 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 9 RBI, 13 R, 8 SB, 5 K, 5 BB, 3 HBP

Pitching stats:
2-1, 8.71 ERA
21.7 IP, 15 H, 23 BB, 13 K, 21 ER

Oh, by the way - I’m getting this motion down really well:

It really helps with control. Haven’t thrown at max speed yet, so we’ll see about the rest.

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Last year I made a bet with my friend that I could bat .333 or better over the course of a year. I didn’t (ended up batting a shade over .300), so I lost. However, this year the same friend of mine wanted to negotiate a bet again, so we settled on a .900+ OPS for the rest of the year. So far my OPS is .961, but I did run hot at the beginning of the year.

Still, I think I have the edge and should be able to maintain that level of performance for the rest of the regular season.

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This weekend I had two games and went 1-7 with a HBP. It wasn’t a great weekend individually, but we won both games, so that’s all that really counts in the end. Good progress was made in my second game, where I hit a flyball to the warning track. After it came off my bat I knew I missed it by a few millimeters, but I’m happy with the process instead of focusing on the result.

Workouts tomorrow morning and cage work all week. I need to get back on track with working out and being more dedicated to losing weight and increasing my skill.

Hitting Stats:

.340/.421/.540 over 57 PA / 50 AB
17 H, 8 2b, 1 3b, 9 RBI, 12 R, 7 SB, 5 K, 4 BB, 3 HBP

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