First, a few observations and comments concerning last night's game:
1. Tony "Call me Fabio" Vitello is even more obnoxious than Dave Serrano was. What a cry baby. He was literally bawling in the first inning, which is why he got a quick warning from the hapless home plate ump who wears glasses but even they didn't help much as he was bad all night. However, he was equally bad for both teams so that's basically a wash.
In any event, after Fabio tried the Paul Mainieri approach (crying) he then went to the "intimidation" approach (O'Sullivan) with "conversations" with the ump between innings. Later, his other coaches got into the crying game and it was the biggest cry-fest since Meryl Streep's plaintive "the dingo ate my baby!" In any event, I no longer even think of Serrano and will step up my game today with respect to badgering Fabio. What a jerk. He deserves every barb I intend to sling his way. He's almost made me forget how obnoxious Kevin O'Sullivan is.
2. Drake Fellows is a stud of a pitcher. It's odd but when I'm watching him on TV I'm always on the edge of my seat, fearing imminent doom. But when I watch him in person it's like he emits this aura to the fans in the stands of "hey, I got this, calm down." I believe he thrives on tough situations and, if you think about it, he mostly gets out of them. When all was said and done last night he really only had one bad at bat -- the leadoff homer -- and beyond that he shut them down (run 2 was on a wild pitch, otherwise they wouldn't have scored again.) So, Drake is 6-0 and on track to be SEC Pitcher of the Year should he keep this up. We'll see how that goes.
3. After starting off 3-0 to his first batter Zach King then flipped a switch and mowed down all 3 batters on strike outs. It was a welcome site. What I still question, however, is why not bring him back in the 8th? It worked out fine for Brown to pitch both the 8th and 9th but he ended up throwing over 30 pitches and may not be available on Saturday or Sunday as a result. Personally, I'd have used King in the 8th and then Brown in the 9th. But what do I know. I'm sure Corbs has a master plan for the weekend that is beyond my "born in the mountaintops of Tennessee" ability to comprehend. (I did NOT kill a bear when I was only three and I am NOT the king of the wild frontier.)
4. Julian Infante showed why we need him at first. He is incredibly good defensively. That play and throw by Gonzalez was incredible but, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure Scott would have caught the throw had be been at first. So Infante needs to stay where he is unless he does totally nothing with the bat. He was 0-2 last night but had a SAC bunt which contributed to Gonzalez's game-winning RBI and he also was HBP. So, despite no hits from him, that's enough offense to keep him on the field.
5. Jayson Gonzalez was great, both defensively and offensively. In fact, we played good defense everywhere. He basically won the game with his RBI single TO THE OPPOSITE FIELD and then saved the game with his 5 star fielding play. He still strike out too much but he's a much better hitter than last year and goes with the pitch instead of always trying to hit a home run.
6. JJ Bleday's home run once again reminded me of Aaron Westlake.
7. Harrison Ray is slowly becoming one of my favorite players. He's fleet afoot, he's slick with the glove, he's handy with the bat. What more can you ask for? His batting average is now up to .307
8. For the first time in history the Toss the T-shirt guy threw one near me. We finally figured out that was only because some cute young ladies were sitting in the row in front of us. I'm thinking about filing a complaint with Malcolm Turner over this blatant sexism. I guess you can just call me a Social Justice Warrior.
1. Tony "Call me Fabio" Vitello is even more obnoxious than Dave Serrano was. What a cry baby. He was literally bawling in the first inning, which is why he got a quick warning from the hapless home plate ump who wears glasses but even they didn't help much as he was bad all night. However, he was equally bad for both teams so that's basically a wash.
In any event, after Fabio tried the Paul Mainieri approach (crying) he then went to the "intimidation" approach (O'Sullivan) with "conversations" with the ump between innings. Later, his other coaches got into the crying game and it was the biggest cry-fest since Meryl Streep's plaintive "the dingo ate my baby!" In any event, I no longer even think of Serrano and will step up my game today with respect to badgering Fabio. What a jerk. He deserves every barb I intend to sling his way. He's almost made me forget how obnoxious Kevin O'Sullivan is.
2. Drake Fellows is a stud of a pitcher. It's odd but when I'm watching him on TV I'm always on the edge of my seat, fearing imminent doom. But when I watch him in person it's like he emits this aura to the fans in the stands of "hey, I got this, calm down." I believe he thrives on tough situations and, if you think about it, he mostly gets out of them. When all was said and done last night he really only had one bad at bat -- the leadoff homer -- and beyond that he shut them down (run 2 was on a wild pitch, otherwise they wouldn't have scored again.) So, Drake is 6-0 and on track to be SEC Pitcher of the Year should he keep this up. We'll see how that goes.
3. After starting off 3-0 to his first batter Zach King then flipped a switch and mowed down all 3 batters on strike outs. It was a welcome site. What I still question, however, is why not bring him back in the 8th? It worked out fine for Brown to pitch both the 8th and 9th but he ended up throwing over 30 pitches and may not be available on Saturday or Sunday as a result. Personally, I'd have used King in the 8th and then Brown in the 9th. But what do I know. I'm sure Corbs has a master plan for the weekend that is beyond my "born in the mountaintops of Tennessee" ability to comprehend. (I did NOT kill a bear when I was only three and I am NOT the king of the wild frontier.)
4. Julian Infante showed why we need him at first. He is incredibly good defensively. That play and throw by Gonzalez was incredible but, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure Scott would have caught the throw had be been at first. So Infante needs to stay where he is unless he does totally nothing with the bat. He was 0-2 last night but had a SAC bunt which contributed to Gonzalez's game-winning RBI and he also was HBP. So, despite no hits from him, that's enough offense to keep him on the field.
5. Jayson Gonzalez was great, both defensively and offensively. In fact, we played good defense everywhere. He basically won the game with his RBI single TO THE OPPOSITE FIELD and then saved the game with his 5 star fielding play. He still strike out too much but he's a much better hitter than last year and goes with the pitch instead of always trying to hit a home run.
6. JJ Bleday's home run once again reminded me of Aaron Westlake.
7. Harrison Ray is slowly becoming one of my favorite players. He's fleet afoot, he's slick with the glove, he's handy with the bat. What more can you ask for? His batting average is now up to .307
8. For the first time in history the Toss the T-shirt guy threw one near me. We finally figured out that was only because some cute young ladies were sitting in the row in front of us. I'm thinking about filing a complaint with Malcolm Turner over this blatant sexism. I guess you can just call me a Social Justice Warrior.
