Long Time, No Talk

After I promised you guys I would keep up with the blog much better, the place where the Blue Jays house us in Bluefield cut our internet, so I have been left with no internet connection.  A lot has happened in the past 10 days or so and I will try to fill you in as best as possible...I have more stories that need to be told rather than game updates...

But first thing is first, the game updates.  Right now we are in Danville, Virginia playing the Braves in the final series of the regular season.  We have already clinched a playoff spot and now we are battling to see who comes in first or second.  Obviously, first place would be better in my opinion.  

The previous series we played the second place team in the other division, Elizabethton Twins.  There is no other way to put it besides....they whipped our ass.  They won all three games and won them easily.  Granted, we did not play the brand of baseball that we typically do, but nonetheless they gave us a reality check.  Our manager said that the game has a way of humbling everybody and there are two kinds of people in the game, the ones that are humble and the ones that are fixing to get humbled.  Thankfully, we came out today and beat the Danville Braves pretty bad.  It was good to see us playing how we are supposed to play.  

Before the Elizabethton series, we played the Greenville Astros.  We won the series, but the biggest thing that stuck out to me was their field.  It was UNBELIEVABLE.  It was the nicest field we have played on this year, hands down.  It was located on Tusculum College's campus.  They use the field as well.  As you all know, I went to Marshall University.  It is sad, but Marshall University has NO home field.  Their facilities are lack luster to say the least and it is truly a shame that the administration does not do something about it.  Being in CUSA (Conference USA) which is the 5th best conference in the country, they are the only team without a field and it is an absolute joke.  I could go on for days about this topic and I wish I could really express my feelings about it, but it would be quite inappropriate....

Moving on...We played Pulaski for a three game series before the Greenville series.  We won that series as well and nothing special happened that I can remember (the days are starting to string together if you could not tell...).  

Personally, I have been working on trying to stay tall and throw downhill as well as stay on my line rather than fall off toward the first base line.  When I do not stay tall, the pitching coach says it flattens my ball out making it easier to pick it up.  For those of you that do not understand what I am talking about, when I say stay on line I mean that I want to stay on line with the catcher and throw through the catcher.  I do not want to fall off toward the first base side of the mound because it makes it harder for me to repeat my delivery and throw consistent strikes.  When I say I need to stay tall to throw downhill, I mean that I do not want to collapse my back leg, I want to stay strong on the back side and throw the ball downhill to the catcher (some little league coaches call it the drop and drive which is the absolute WORST way to teach a kid and if your kid is being taught that or if you are even teaching that, you should look elsewhere...sorry if it's harsh, but its the truth.).  I have been doing countless amounts of Towel drills on my own to get better acclimated with the new pitching mechanics.  I think I can finally say that I am starting to feel comfortable with it and it has been working for me (Go figure, I would finally get the hang of it at the end of the year!)

There is just over a week left and I have always been told that it is not how you start but how you finish. I am trying to finish strong and hopefully win that ring!  

Twitter Questions

I  am very active on twitter in part because it is accessible on my phone at anytime.  My twitter name is Bearjew36, feel free to follow me if you have a twitter!  I recently posted on Twitter if anybody had any questions or topics they would like me to discuss in my next blog entry.  One of the topics thrown out was what we do on bus trips to make the time go by quicker?

Thankfully, the bus trips that we have had have not been long at all.  I think the longest bus trip this year has been 4 hours so we have been lucky with that, but as far as passing time most people sleep or at least try to sleep on the bus.  I know I have no problem sleeping on the bus because I have been out on every bus trip.  I will put my headphones in and listen to music until I am out cold.  I know other people bring their laptops or ipads and watch movies on the bus.  Everybody kind of does their own thing, either watching movies, sleeping, or listening to music.  People also play games on their phones or computers if they can.

Another question that was asked via Twitter was, what has been the most rewarding part of the season so far?

If I had to pick one thing that I will always remember from the season so far, it would have to be the people that I have met and/or played against.  I have played against some very high round draft picks and am playing with some high round draft picks.  Some of the guys that I played against will be in the Major Leagues in a few years.  The relationships that I have developed on my team with some of my teammates I will never forget as well.  Although the season is not over, that has to be the most rewarding part so far.  Hopefully we can win a ring here in a couple weeks and that will be right up there as well!

Both questions were asked by April Whitzman.  She works for the website Jaysprospects.com which is also a very cool website that is worth checking out for information on BlueJays minor leaguers.

Off Day...

Today is our third off day of the season...it was much needed to say the least.  I slept till 12:30 today...thats the latest I have slept in I don't know how long.  Although I felt like I wasted my day, I needed the rest.  So far my off day has consisted of laying in bed and going to the mall with Jonathan Lucas and Les Williams (I bought a couple of shirts because I feel like I need to get an "adult" wardrobe since I have graduated college and can no longer wear Marshall Baseball gear everyday...).  Now, we all are hanging out.  They are playing video games while I am catching up on some blogging.  I am not a big video gamer because I tend to take it too serious.  I hate when I lose and I do not have the patience for video games.  I think part of the reason why my mom wouldn't let me have a system or whatever they call it when I was a kid is because she knew I would get so angry I would end up throwing the controllers through the wall...I know, I know I need to be able to control it, but I can't!  I just HATE losing.

Now as for the baseball part...we just finished up a series vs. the Pulaski Mariners.  We took 2 of 3 from them and the first 2 games were quite lopsided.  We won the first game 10-2 and lost the second 15-5....weird huh?  That's just how baseball works.  The third game we won 7-2, but the game was closer than the score indicates.

Before the Pulaski series, we had a series with the Princeton Rays.  This series was the last series of the year between us and the winner of it would determine who wins the Mercer Cup!  We ended up sweeping them to win the Mercer Cup and I picked up the save in the deciding game 2 of the series.  With the sweep we also built our lead in the standings. We regained sole possession of first place and almost sank Princeton's hopes (unless they make a miraculous comeback) of making the playoffs.

A couple of series ago, we played the Johnson City Cardinals.  They are the first place team in the other division and they have the best record out of any team in the league.  In my personal opinion, I think we are still a better team than them, but it is hard to say.  When they came to play us, we beat them 2 of 3, but when we went to play them at their place they beat us 2 of 3.  The Elizabethton Twins and Kingsport Mets are tied for second in the other division.  Johnson City already has first place pretty much clinched with a 7 game lead.

Tomorrow we start a 3 game series with the Burlington Royals followed by a 3 game series with Pulaski all at home.  My Dad will be making his first trip down to watch this upcoming weekend.  My little brother cooper will be coming down with him.  Cooper would come to every game if he could.

That gets everything pretty much up to date with how the teams doing.  Hopefully we can finish strong and win a ring!  It'd be nice to get a ring in my first season of professional baseball...

Game update

Ok so picking up from the last time I updated everybody with what was going on...

To finish out the Burlington Royals series, we won the final 2 games to complete the sweep.  In game 3 we scored 8 runs in the first inning, basically putting the game away before the other team had even had a chance to hit.

From Burlington, we traveled to Kingsport, Tennessee for a 3 game set to conclude the road trip.  We ended up taking 2 of 3 from the Kingsport Mets.  I pitched once during the series.  It was the third and final game.  It gave us the series as well.  I picked up the save as well.

The road trip was a very successful one, we went 5-1 and has sole possession of first place.  We were only a game up, but going into the road trip we were a game back.  We were going home to play the Greenville Astros and hoping to build upon our first place lead.

The Astros series did not go as planned...they beat us 2 out of 3 games, but we caught some luck because Danville and Princeton (the two teams behind us) were playing each other.  Even though we did not win the series, we were still had a one game lead for first place.

Today, we just arrived in Johnson City (Cardinals).  They are leading the entire league with a 30-15 record.  They are in first place in the other division.  Tonight they got the best of us and beat us 7-3.  Danville also won...meaning we are now tied for first place.  Princeton is a game back of Danville and us.  This is a huge series because we need to show that we are the best team in the league.  Our entire team knows it, we just have to prove to everybody else!  Tomorrow we are back at it with a 6 pm game.

After the Johnson City series, we are back in Bluefield for the final leg of the Mercer Cup against the Princeton Rays (another HUGE series).

Stay Tuned...

I know it has been a couple of days since I last posted, but the internet in Bluefield was not working for a couple of days.  We are now in Johnson City to play the Cardinals. Tonight, I will have an update of what has been going on the past few days after I get back from the game tonight...this weekend is a huge series between the leagues top 2 teams!  

I apologize for the delay, but check in again sometime tomorrow and I will be all caught up!