The Boy is On Fire!

They say that the Law is a jealous mistress.  If that's true, baseball is that crazy bitch who slapped you and screamed at you the other day for no reason, stole your wallet so she could score some blow, but then cleaned the house, made dinner, shopped at Victoria's Secret, and gave you a weekend that you needed to go back to work to recover from.

After being sorta bummed at the boy's slump, he caught fire and has had a bit of good luck thrown in there, too.  Over the past 10 games or so, beiseboll been berry berry good to heem.

Saying he "caught fire" is a bit of a misnomer.  His stats over the past 10 games have been insane.  He's 8 for his last 9 ABs.  Has a 9 game hitting streak going.

Over the past 10, he's led the team in BA and OBP.  His numbers have been off the chart insane.

Date	Player	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	SO
Last 10	The Boy	.667	.714	.722	1.437	4

Overall, he's worked his way from dead-last on the team in most categories to 5th in batting average and 2nd in OBP. 

Date	Player	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	SO
Season	xxx	.524	.556	.619	1.175	2
Season	xxx	.500	.604	.526	1.130	3
Season	xxx	.500	.543	.690	1.234	4
Season	xxx	.488	.543	.512	1.056	2
Season	The Boy	.481	.588	.519	1.107	8

The key has been to minimize his instructions when he's at bat, in my opinion.  Instead of, "hey, you're ahead/behind in the count" or "start your hands" or any other number of things that puts way too many thoughts in his head, I'm just telling him "see the ball out of the pitcher's hand", or "good things happen when you pick up the ball out of the pitcher's hand."

That's it.  That's all we need.

Like any hot streak, he's gotten some luck, too.  Last night, he went 2 for 2 on a Texas Leaguer and a hopper to 3rd that he beat out.  He's gotten to first on a hopper like that so often that we're sorta starting to expect that he'll beat the throw.  So, it's not all stick.  His speed is responsible for at least 3 of his hits during his hot streak.



I did correct one technical flaw with the assistance of Clay Snellgrove at Bases Loaded Baseball School.  There are a couple of other things to address, but he's pretty hot right now.  I don't want to change anything for the time being.  Sometimes you can tinker with a swing just enough to knock a player out of their hot streak. 

http://www.betterhitter.com/



The team won their first game of the tournament last night.  Two games today.  We've faced these teams before and beat them.  It'd be nice to take this tournament.  We have one tournament title so far this year.  We have a shot at this one if we keep playing baseball.


Even though the boy is on fire, he's still hitting in the 11 hole.  This is a subject of considerable frustration for me.  (See previous note about Baseball being a crazy bitch.)  I was shocked when he was put in the 11 hole to start the season. 

However, it made me re-engineer his entire approach at the plate.  He's lost some power, to be sure, but he's contact hitting and his OBP has skyrocketed.  I see signs that his power swing is coming back, too. 

The re-engineering took a toll and probably prolonged his slump, but I could see even then that it was probably going to result in making him a better hitter, overall.  So far, so good.  He's gone from being a power hitter with a lot of strikeouts and an average OBP to being a contact hitter with a great OBP.  Once he gets that power stroke back, he'll be golden.

I thought, during the off-season, that he had the potential to be the team's best hitter this year.  (One of the reasons why the 11 hole was such a shock.) 

Based on what I'm seeing, now, he's back on track for that sort of potential. 

In the mean time, I'm loving the streak. 


Two games today.  One tomorrow.  If we advance out of pool play, up to 2 games on Monday.  Then, a game on Tuesday and a game on Wednesday.  Total of 6 to 8 games in 6 days. 

His numbers could change a lot by this time next week. 

All I can do is sit back and watch.


Oh, and sometimes I really need to watch what I say when I'm talking to a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds.

The other team tied it up in last night's game (we eventually won in the bottom of the 6th). 

The boys came back all dejected looking. 

So, I tried to fire them up by saying stuff like, "Hey, none of this moping around!  You guys are gonna stick.  You're gonna win.  You're a bunch of studs!"

One of the kids said, "What's a stud?"

Ummm... uh.... yeah... poor choice of words when talking to 9 and 10 year olds.  What to say?  What to say?  I don't think "you're wooden structural framing 2 x 4s" will get me out of this one.

"It's a big strong horse."  Yeah, that's what I was talking about.

Another kid said, "I don't want to be a horse.  They smell bad and make gigantic poops."

So, I pointed out that he smells bad and based on how much I've seen him eat, he probably makes gigantic poops, too.


Apparently, my little pep-talk worked because they held them scoreless in the next inning and scored a run in the bottom to win it.  Somehow, though, I don't think anybody is going to back me up on using "Smelly boys who make gigantic poops" as the team's new motto.