With the first game of the season approaching on Sunday, I realized yesterday that I had not really given the chance for our pitchers to get out there and show me their stuff. So, I did something that I do not normally let the players do at Wednesday practice: bat.
With six pitchers at practice, I was especially interested to see what our two new pitchers had to offer. I broke the team down into three groups with one catcher and two pitchers per group. Each pitcher would throw ten pitches to three batters. The tenth pitch is treated as “live” and the batter runs it out if he hits it, sits down if he strikes out, or walks if the pitch is a ball. I was able to get all of my pitchers at least twenty pitches each. The first four got all thirty, but I had to cut the last two short at twenty each as we were running out of time.
I was very happy with what I saw in general. I was especially happy to see that the pitcher who I felt needed the most improvement from the Fall got a bit stronger in his arm and was able to throw many strikes. He has a bit of a disadvantage from the other pitchers as he is a bit smaller than they are, but he has certainly come along on the mound over the long offseason. I was also happy that the player who I think has the best velocity on the team had not lost any of his zip. He has had a few confidence issues on the mound because he has not been throwing many strikes when he gets the chance to pitch in games, but he looked pretty good if you ask me.
Now comes the time to plan for the game on Sunday. I have a pretty good idea of what I want my batting order to look like. It will be confirmed on Saturday after we have batting practice.
The Marlin Way 