Heartbeat of the Team: Unfortunate loss last night. You hate giving up early leads. Combining a bunch of factors--first game since Thorpe injury, first game of the series, getting ahead 3-0 of a team that had lost three straight, and many more--that would have been a great win to have.
The hitting is improving. No one will ever complain about 12 hits. It's the timely hitting that's still been inconsistent. Later today I am going to take a look at the team's strikeout numbers compared with runners on base compared to other team's in the league. It just seems that we strikeout a lot with runners on base, especially in scoring position, and less than 2 outs.
I personally thought Blair Walters looked very good after the first three batters of the game. He settled down, worked well inside and outside, and was throwing multiple pitches for strikes. He made one mistake.
The injury to Randall Thorpe certainly hurts the team. Batting average aside, he has been a fixture on the base paths and based on his four steals in five attempts, it seems like he is taking steps in the right direction from being a just a guy with great speed to becoming a base stealer.
Crazy start to Kevin Vance's professional career as he has struck out the side in each of the first three innings he has pitched.
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The players and coaches get talked about bunch but the two other men that make up the team staff, Tim Rodmaker (Strength Training and Conditioning) and James Kruk (Athletic Trainer) do not get credit for the hard work and long hours they put in. "Timmy" is always working with the players and it isn't like they all show up at a certain time and do the same thing, he has various programs for various players at various times that he has to keep up with. James, other than taking care of the players, is also the team's traveling secretary, arranging all the little things that people do not think about. Together, they have been great to me and have been two guys I have become close to since arriving. I appreciate how they have taken me in...
Timmy has a special message he wanted to deliver for a special person:
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I love having the opportunity to talk to broadcasters and to pick their brain. Whether its someone established or not, it is great exchanging tricks of the trade and tips. I had an opportunity today to talk to Ken Wilson today and he was so generous with his time and I learned so much from him. Ken is a well established broadcaster, formerly with the St. Louis Blues and has done baseball for several years as well, currently with the Mariners. We talked about story telling and techniques and such. It was truly neat.
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