I haven't been very dedicated to my blog posts this season, so hopefully I can at least paint a picture of how we're progressing at this point. With an overall record of 14-8 and a conference record of 14-4, one game behind first place Hope College, we are in a position that we haven't been in in quite some time. Last year we (Adrian College) only had four losses in our entire 28 game MIAA season, so our work is definitely cut out for us if we want to finish in first place again in order to earn the right to host the conference tournament.
Since coming back up north, we have made progress in all aspects of the game: hitting, defense, and pitching. From the pitching standpoint I think we are in a pretty good position. As we enter this weekend's series with Calvin College, who also sits at 8-4 in MIAA games, we are in a position of having five, and perhaps six, starting pitchers who have earned the right to be in the rotation this week. That is a good problem to have, since some teams are perhaps still searching for a fourth starter and perhaps even a third. We have also been pretty good at the back end of our bullpen, and have actually used those pitchers more than we have in recent years, which will help us considerably as we get later in the season.
One of the things I have wished the MIAA would do is incorporate a couple 9-inning games into each weekend series. I think that would help prepare each team better for the post-season, since all post-season games are nine inning games. From a more selfish standpoint, those extra four innings each weekend would give our pitching staff an opportunity to develop a few more guys and give some more pitchers a chance to pitch in and gain experience in critical situations.
Since we don't play any nine inning conference games, as the pitching coach I have to remember to control what I can control, which are things such as how I view the more limited opportunities and how I can try to prepare the entire pitching staff for the post-season. We do have a handful of single, non-conference 9-inning games that allow us to use many pitchers who don't get many innings in our weekend conference series. In addition, we have a pretty good amount of JV games. Unfortunately, we have had about ten JV games cancelled in the past couple of weeks due to the cold and rainy/snowy weather. There would be some valuable innings that many guys could use to improve and gain experience in competitive situations. Again, control what I can control.
We have been pretty good in some important pitching statistical categories, and we are improving as the season develops in almost all of the important categories. One of the things that we are making slower improvement on is forcing hitters to swing at pitches that they don't want to swing at when they are behind in the count. We have still given up a significant amount of hits when we have hitters down in the count at 0-2 and 1-2. We have also allowed more leadoff hitters on base than we want to do, which creates more stressful pitching situations, both mentally and physically, especially in close games.
As soon as we make gradual improvements in those two areas, we will give our team a chance to win more consistently than we already are. Last weekend we got a little better, giving up seven runs in the four game series against Albion in winning three of the four games.
We are heading in the right direction and are on course to play our best baseball in May!
Since coming back up north, we have made progress in all aspects of the game: hitting, defense, and pitching. From the pitching standpoint I think we are in a pretty good position. As we enter this weekend's series with Calvin College, who also sits at 8-4 in MIAA games, we are in a position of having five, and perhaps six, starting pitchers who have earned the right to be in the rotation this week. That is a good problem to have, since some teams are perhaps still searching for a fourth starter and perhaps even a third. We have also been pretty good at the back end of our bullpen, and have actually used those pitchers more than we have in recent years, which will help us considerably as we get later in the season.
One of the things I have wished the MIAA would do is incorporate a couple 9-inning games into each weekend series. I think that would help prepare each team better for the post-season, since all post-season games are nine inning games. From a more selfish standpoint, those extra four innings each weekend would give our pitching staff an opportunity to develop a few more guys and give some more pitchers a chance to pitch in and gain experience in critical situations.
Since we don't play any nine inning conference games, as the pitching coach I have to remember to control what I can control, which are things such as how I view the more limited opportunities and how I can try to prepare the entire pitching staff for the post-season. We do have a handful of single, non-conference 9-inning games that allow us to use many pitchers who don't get many innings in our weekend conference series. In addition, we have a pretty good amount of JV games. Unfortunately, we have had about ten JV games cancelled in the past couple of weeks due to the cold and rainy/snowy weather. There would be some valuable innings that many guys could use to improve and gain experience in competitive situations. Again, control what I can control.
We have been pretty good in some important pitching statistical categories, and we are improving as the season develops in almost all of the important categories. One of the things that we are making slower improvement on is forcing hitters to swing at pitches that they don't want to swing at when they are behind in the count. We have still given up a significant amount of hits when we have hitters down in the count at 0-2 and 1-2. We have also allowed more leadoff hitters on base than we want to do, which creates more stressful pitching situations, both mentally and physically, especially in close games.
As soon as we make gradual improvements in those two areas, we will give our team a chance to win more consistently than we already are. Last weekend we got a little better, giving up seven runs in the four game series against Albion in winning three of the four games.
We are heading in the right direction and are on course to play our best baseball in May!
