Baseball in Nashville

[jetz]

Just starting a thread for opening weekend.  New game notes and a nice piece from SID Brad Collignon have been posted to the baseball website.  There are also links to listen/watch the game live--Sidearm Stats, etc.  Brad, will there be a blog for the away games this year or will that not start until conference play?  I will be in Nashville and will post occasionally here.  GO VALPO! 

[VULB#62]

Actually, Brad's piece was borderline eloquent.  It was the first piece like that that I can remember on a VU Athletic website.  It really evoked the emotions surrounding baseball.

[valpotx]

Yes, that was different to read from our Athletics website, and was quite good.  He will do well for us it seems. 

I am very much looking forward to the time of year when basketball, baseball, and softball are all playing!  Softball is off to a good start, and I will assume the same for baseball.  Our hitters need to pick up the pitching in the early part of the season, until we find our roles on the mound.  Though pitching usually beats hitting early in the season due to not seeing the different pitchers during the offseason, I am hoping our hitters come out swinging  .

[crusadermoe]

This is probably on another thread.  coaches voted Baseball #1 pre-season in Horizon.

[Enrico Palazzo]

I appreciate the kind words.  As far as the blog, I wish I had an answer.  But I don't as of tonight.  To be honest, I've got to become more familiar with StatCrew software and there's no better place to do that than on the road.  If I'm unavailable during the game, I'd be happy to come back on here and answer any questions afterwards.

[valpotx]

I just hope that we don't see the Twitter talk relating to the baseball news on recaps/previews, that we see in basketball 

[Enrico Palazzo]

Though I'm unsure what you're alluding to, Tx, I will say that anything that comes out of the baseball account will be baseball-related.  I have no shame in saying that I'll be keeping a close eye on the men's hoops game Saturday while baseball is in the latter innings.  It's one of the few nights that should be good theater for both baseball and basketball.  In my opinion, this is the best time of the sports year: March Madness and the beginning of college baseball.

[valpotx]

Though Aaron does a good job in regards to information provided, many of us on this board don't like how most of the game preview/recaps have a large section that mention @ this and @ that.  I assume it is done to relate more to the current student base, but it just looks bad.

@ValpoBasketball has also been tabbed the preseason @HorizonLeague favorite by @CBSSports and @AthlonSports, among others.
- The Crusaders were ranked seventh in the preseason Mid-Major Power Rankings by NBC Sports College Basketball Talk (@CBTonNBC).
- @ValpoBasketball is currently ranked 12th in the Mid-Major Top 25 poll, voted on by mid-major coaches and produced by @CollegeInsider.
- @ValpoBasketball earned 3 points in the preseason @AP_Top25 poll.
- The Crusaders had not received votes in a national poll since a 4-week stretch near the end of the 2010-11 season in the coaches poll.

...looking back at last year
- @ValpoBasketball claimed its first @HorizonLeague regular season title in 2011-12, winning the crown by two games.
- The Crusaders earned the right to host the #HLMBB postseason tournament by winning the regular season and advanced to the championship game.
- @ValpoBasketball played at Miami in the first round of the postseason NIT, the Crusaders' 11th postseason trip in the last 17 years.
- The Crusaders won 22 games overall in 2011-12, their 12th 20-win season in the last 19 years.
- @ValpoBasketball boasted the #HLMBB Coach of the Year (Drew), Player of the Year (Broekhoff) and a second First Team selection (Van Wijk).

[valporun]

tx, I talked with Ryan Wronkowicz about this a few months back, and unfortunately for us, we have to struggle with it because it's just how the print and internet media handles things now. Its meant to help the media with getting to know some of the players a little better, or to help them do a little more research leading into the games. Enrico, it was just feeling long and disjointed to read the game previews and recaps, and have every other word or line broken up by Twitter handles for the teams, coaches, and individual players. It's a generational change in media that will take some getting used to, but until Twitter fizzles out, it will be here to stay, as it helps the marketing and value of the program and players. We'll just have to deal with "In the last game vs. @soandsojackwags, @vuforward6 (just an example, not actual handle) had 27 points and 10 rebs in 15 minutes..." It just makes reading the game previews a bear, but it's how the media is working with free technology anymore.

[valporun]

Guys, I don't know how many you are that familiar with the collective sites devoted to individual NCAA sports, outside of the football and basketball realms, but for those of us here who love to follow NCAA baseball, there is a site to follow scores of every game played. www.d1baseball.com is a great source for all your baseball wants in the NCAA games. It also allows for quicker access to finding out how Valpo's non-conference baseball opponents are playing. They breakdown the scores by conferences, so you can search any and all local conferences in the d-1 ranks.

Link:
www.d1baseball.com

[Enrico Palazzo]

I won't have the blog up today, but I will be live-tweeting/taking any questions from @Valpobaseball1 (there we go w/the social media  )

[Enrico Palazzo]

Some quick points on tonight's opener:

- Chase Brookshire was outstanding.  The lefty was hitting the gun at 86-88, decent movement, a great knucklecurve, and a fabulous changeup.  Belmont did the Crusaders a favor by pulling him after 5.

- Not to take anything away from Brookshire, but it was evident that tonight was the first time Valpo hitters had seen live pitching outside.

- As expected, the wind was a factor all night.  The Bruins' first run scored via a triple on a ball that must be caught.  Hara got turned around in center and just lost it.  Neither of the doubles hit by Morman and Belmont's Neil Hickman carried as far as I thought they would.  Both balls were ripped.

- Wormington looked pretty good.  I thought he threw a little better than what his line indicated.  He just ran out of gas in the 7th. 

Valpo will be getting Ohio on their second game of a doubleheader as they play Belmont before the Crusaders tomorrow.  I'll be on the Twitter account again tomorrow.  There were some first-game-of-the-year technical issues up in the press box so I was a little behind at times, but I hope/assume there weren't any issues with the Live Stats.   

[valpotx]

The knucklecurve can be a really good pitch if you throw it correctly.  Some guys throw it in the league I play in now, and it sucks to hit against when you only play weekends lol.

Too bad about the loss, but it will take a few games for our hitters to get used to hitting outside again.  We have always struggled with that, and I am sure most cold weather teams do as well.

[jetz]

I like the lineup, despite the poor results last night.  It just FEELS like a bunch of runs waiting to happen.  Moorman can obviously hit the ball.  Vavra won't go 0-4 very often this year, and is a perfect 2-hole hitter.  I hope that Hara works out as a leadoff hitter.  Bain, Manning, Vavra, and Hara can all run.  Much more speed than last year.  Interesting that Cribbs was pulled for pinch runner Jeff Edwards in the sixth or seventh last night.  Freshman Jake Hanson replaced him defensively.  This NEVER happened last year, and there were a number of times when Cribbs was in scoring position and could have been replaced.  Newcomer Andrew Bynum, who has a big bat, also warmed up at the catcher spot, so we'll see how that position plays out.  I thought the coaches were looking for a way to get Bynum's bat in the lineup, so the Hanson choice at catcher was a bit of a surprise.

Captain Mike Jacobs pitched the eighth last night, and was much improved from last year.  His velocity is way up and it's good to have a lefty option in the pen.

Obviously, we need to hit to avoid the poor start we had last year.  We lost a ton of one run games in early 2012, and last night was eerily familiar.  I would bet the house that our top five in the lineup won't go 2 for 22 again this year.  Let's go get the Bobcats and pick up a win today...

[jetz]

Wow.  Cole Webb was impressive today.  Not a big guy or hard thrower, but very efficient and threw a lot of strikes.  One hit allowed through eight innings and I don't remember a walk.  Hope we get this kind of outing from Cole all year....Valpo wins 1-0 and moves to 1-1 on the year.

[valpotx]

Didn't you say last year that Jacobs was clocked at 69 at one point?  Sounds like a good performance from Webb, which is great to see

[jetz]

Yes, Jacobs has added 10 mph and still has lots of movement.  He pitched just a little last year, and got hit hard at the lower velocity.  He should see more action as a lefty option this year now that his mph is up.  Much improved and a team captain...

[valpotx]

Was his arm hurt and now pain-free?  He is now in the speed range that I was after my Tommy John that took away all my speed from the low/mid-80s to high 70s lol.  Good to see that Woodson seems to care more about location and results than straight speed  .  Twenge didn't care about that as much, it was just height (he loved tall pitchers that you could mold) and speed that mattered to him, even for us lefties.  I could still spot it on a dime with all 4 pitches at various times, but since I didn't throw in the 80s anymore, the opportunities were limited.  Jacobs is now my favorite pitcher lol.

[jetz]

I'm not entirely sure why Jacobs was slower last year.  I don't remember him being hurt, but he's been throwing harder since back in the fall of this season.  I hope he holds up in 2013, since we appear to now be very limited in LHPs.  Jacobs made two appearances in Nashville, and Sean Kennedy never warmed up.  I'm not privy to why that is, but Jacobs and Lundeen were the only lefties to throw in Nashville.  Walsh, Mahar, and Ryan Kennedy all looked good in their short relief stints out of the pen.  DeBoo's outing in LA will be huge for our starting rotation.  He has a few pitches he can throw and his velocity is up around 90, but he was hit hard in Nashville (by a free swinging Belmont team) and needed to spot his pitches better.  He really needs to pitch well in LA to shore up the Sunday starting spot...

[valpotx]

I'll take average speed and the ability to spot all of your pitches any day over someone that just throws hard.  We had quite a few people that threw high 80s-low 90s in my day, but walked way too many people, and hit too many batters.  The most intriguing thing I have ever seen was similar to what Rick Ankiel did towards the end of his pitching career.  Adam Paetznick threw pretty hard (high 80s I believe), but every now and then, he would just launch a pitch about 12-15 ft over everyone's head.  He did it in the batting cages while throwing off a mound, as well as in games.  Most interesting phenomenon I can remember seeing live. 

[jetz]

Here's a link to some pix from Nashville.  As you can see, it was cold.  Saturday was 35 and blowing, but at least it didn't snow or rain...

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107694216823525506352/albums/5846276034604038081?authkey=COG74NaV2u2eLA