In the Rough
To say it has been a rough travel baseball season for my nephew would be a bit of an understatement. They have been getting absolutely hammered in pretty much all of their games. @mrsbozz and I were talking about it the other day trying to figure out what might be going on. I know in my previous posts I was quick to point my finger at the coaching staff. While I am not backtracking on that, I do feel like everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Let's look at the facts though...
After two games yesterday, they are sitting at 0-15 on the season. Here's the thing though, my nephews school ball team was actually quite good. The odd thing about this is the fact that several of the players on this travel team also played together on the school ball team.
I think the big difference is the fact that there are also players on this travel team that played on other school teams. Meanwhile, perhaps some of the better school ball players went to a different travel team? I'm honestly not sure.
When we break it down even further, we can see that the majority of games are won by no less than a ten point margin by the other team. That tells me they are giving up way too many runs. Personally, from what I have seen, I think one of the key places they are struggling is with pitching. My nephew plays first base, third base, and outfield, so I am fairly confident he isn't the issue (a few fielding errors aside).
I'd be interested to know how many runs they have walked in over the season.
The fact is, they have given up 222 runs over those 15 games this season. That's a lot. Like really bad a lot. I'd honestly have to guess that maybe half of those runs were given away because they loaded the bases and walked runners in.
Meanwhile, they have only scored 54 runs themselves this year. The good news is, they are definitely scoring more runs now than they were earlier in the season, so I have to believe they have already made some adjustments that are paying off for them.
I think defense and pitching is really where they need to be focusing their attention. I can't say I would have played any better at this age level, but if you are putting out money for travel ball, I would think you should be improving. They need to clean things up in the outfield and infield. I can't see the full stats for the team, but I would also be interested to see how many runs they have given up due to errors.
I have a feeling it is a lot and if I am looking at these stats, the coaches should really be looking at these stats.
I've never coached a team in my life, but if I did, this would definitely be a come to Jesus moment for the team. Like I said, I think they have a lot of potential. They just need a bit more guidance. Either that or they need to find some more equally matched tournaments to play in.
I'm still holding out hope they can snag their first win of the season soon!
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
