BlueTip

I heard this a couple weeks ago and was happy that Matt will be going to a good program. He's a good kid and good pitcher. Of course if you know the family then it's no big surprise Matt's going to NKU:thumb:

Maines pitched the jv regional final last year. Nelson pitched the semi-final against Ryle. And I agree with CM that Maines has been the best looking pitcher this year but isn't used much. Joe Albrecht is a regular starter with pretty good off-speed stuff but haven't seen him lately. I'm surprised Leichty hasn't been used more. Neither Simpson or Way are overpowering but their stuff moves a lot. Hard to square up.

Coaching philosophies certainly differ. One coach takes his starters out after 2 AB's each game while another coach keeps 3-4 .200 hitters in the lineup every at bat of every game. So which one is worse?

A lot of credit goes to the Conner pitching coach who called about 35 straight 75mph fastballs in the first inning (with a curveball/changeup pitcher on the mound). If that wasn't enough we got to see more fastballs in innings 2 and 3. I think there was finally an offspeed pitch called at some point in the 3rd inning. Too little too late against a good hitting team like CovCath. That idiotic approach is contrasted very nicely by something I really like about CovCath's pitch calling...they throw inside fastballs. I wish I saw more of that in HS baseball. It's such an effective pitch.

Gotcha CM, I'm with you then on your observations. From what I've seen from Conner's coach the last 2-3 years he's used bunting quite a bit. I could see a hit-and-run in that spot but I was pretty surprised he was just hitting away with the winning run on first and no outs. It's early in the year so maybe coach wanted the kid to have a chance to swing away there. It's probably no big deal in the long run. The defense, on the other hand, is a bigger issue. Footwork, preparation, concentration, anticipation, soft hands....I didn't see a lot of what I've tried to teach in the past.

I think someone posted in the previous day's game results that Conner had been playing good defense. I'll mildly disagree. In a couple previous games I saw there were some balls misplayed but the opponent couldn't string together more baserunners to make it hurt, so those plays didn't lead to runs. When you win games it's easy to overlook that stuff. In last night's (Friday) game vs. Holy Cross, the defense wasn't good. An E3 with 2 outs, followed by a stolen base and two doubles gave HC their first two runs (both unearned), putting them up 2-0. HC's fourth run was also unearned as the inning started with an E6 and that hitter ended up scoring. It was 4-4 and Conner had what seemed to be a great chance in the bottom of the 7th (I'm pretty sure it was the 7th might have been the 8th). Leadoff single by Fogle and rather than bunting him over, the #2 hitter was allowed to swing away and hit into a FC. The next batter hit a double that would have scored a runner from 2nd but did not score the actual runner from first. With R2 and R3 with one out Conner couldn't get a run across. I don't keep a book and missed a few batters but I counted three E3's, three E4's, and one E6. Conner has put up runs in previous games vs. middle-of-the-road pitching, including Thursday night's game vs. HC...so I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw Tiberi on the mound to start for HC Friday. In last week's game vs. Cooper they faced Dunn and Thompson. Though Dunn is young he throws pretty well, and of course Thompson was even better. I believe Conner scratched out 2 runs in that game. Someone please correct me if that's off. Last night (Friday) HC pitched Tiberi and Fuller, and then closed one inning with #7 who I don't know. I was pleasantly surprised that Conner hit a few balls hard the other way during the game, as Tiberi and Fuller both stuck with fastballs more than I would have called given the situations/counts they were in. So while Conner's defense deserves some criticism, the offense deserves some praise as they did pretty well vs. some good pitching Friday.

Thanks for posting that.

Is the Bluegrass 15u roster posted anywhere? I don't see anything on the bluegrass site.