Ramblings from the Eastern Regional

El Gato because you say coaches are simple and pitchers are overrated give me your evaluation of which coaches are simple and which pitchers are overratted, you must be a knowledgeable baseball person to continually put down coaches and players that you dislike.

quote:

Originally posted by DCHEAT:
El Gato because you say coaches are simple and pitchers are overrated give me your evaluation of which coaches are simple and which pitchers are overratted, you must be a knowledgeable baseball person to continually put down coaches and players that you dislike.

DCHeat, I am surprised. I thought you kept up with the forum better. Don’t you see that El Gato is referencing comments made previously by other posters that he is hoping will not resurface in this thread? He is not claiming that pitchers are overrated or that Beach coaches are simple. The comment on “overrated pitchers in the Southeastern District” is referencing an earlier posting after the All SED teams were announced, a posting that suggested that Ali, Cox and Thompson were over-rated. It appears that the posting may no longer be present. The comment on “simple coach(es) in the Beach District” is referencing, in part, Odubaseball’s rantings and ravings about what “idiots” (his words, not mine) the Beach coaches were because they did not choose more FC players to be on the Beach All District teams.

DC Heat, my comments were not criticisms directed at the Beach coaches or the (mortal) trinity of Ali, Cox and Thompson. (Always wanted to use that word). Rather, they were directed at those who openly campaigned for the player of their choice before and during the coaches' post season meeting and, after their player was not selected, bashed the coaches and/or the players. That was just not right!

And now for some more ramblings from the Eastern Regional.

Last night, Menchville and Western Branch had runners on third base with less than two outs on multiple occasions. Has the safety or suicide squeeze gone out of fashion in high school baseball?

Did anyone else notice how wide the plate got last night in the Menchville and Western Branch game? With each passing inning, the Menchville catcher kept moving further and further out, especially with right handed batters.

Bet Western Branch got home after 11:00 pm, and Gloucester after 2 or 3:00 am. Which team will be more rested? Which team has pitching left?

Re Gloucester pitching. Jacob Houston, #15, pitched only 2 innings on Monday, facing 7 batters and throwing 24 pitches. He did not pitch any last night. Am betting that he is one of the pitchers WB will face.

I saw only one home run in the regionals - Anthony Stokes' home run against Cox. Did I miss another? Would have anticipated more, or are ODU's dimensions that much larger than usual high school dimensions?

Western Branch's wins, in retrospect, seem unlikely. They faced (and defeated) Ocean Lakes and their top pitcher, Menchville and their top two pitchers and Gloucester's top two pitchers. What do you think the oddmakers would have given you before the tournament? Judging from the Virginian Pilot's articles and comments, not very good odds.

Congrats to all the teams that participated, and good luck to Gloucester and Western Branch next week.

quote:

Originally posted by El gato:
I saw only one home run in the regionals - Anthony Stokes' home run against Cox. Did I miss another? Would have anticipated more, or are ODU's dimensions that much larger than usual high school dimensions?

I saw every one of the seven games, start to finish and Stokes' home run was the only one, and it cleared the fence by a lot. My recollection is that ODU is 325 down the lines, which I think is in line with the dimensions of many high schools. However, alleys of 375 and center field of 395 is larger than the local high schools. A number of high school fields are shorter and not all schools post their dimensions. For example, isn't Great Bridge 365 to center field? (Maybe Luvbaseball or Earlydawn can help.) And isn't Hickory shorter than that? I don't remember Western Branch currently having its centerfield dimension posted but am thinking it is 375-385 (and definitely not 395). Also, I hear of Beach schools (other than Landstown) having smaller dimensions. What are they?

As for the odds and Western Branch, "that is why you play the game."

Good job wb reporter.im glad western branch could respent the southeastern district.

I don't think there are many High school fields in the area that go much deeped than 355 in the alleys and maybe 370 in center. Many are 5 to 10 feet closer than that. The ball also carries better in some places than others. For example Grassfield is slightly larger than most and the ball doesn't seem to ride there as well as GB or IR.

Many SED fields seem to be sided up to tree lines and I think that creates some circular breezes depending on where the open space is and the general direction of the wind. The Beach schools seem to be more openly situated so you might get more cross winds rather than pushing in one direction or the other. Getting out of my depth on the jet stream so I am going to quit while I'm ahead.

The older beach schools have the weird dimension fields(FC, KVille, Kellam, PA, Bayside) with certain parts being very short, in the 200's like at Kellam down RF and Kempsville down LF with CF and so on being almost 400. This being due to the fact that they are square lot fields. The most consistent is Baysides, which I believe is 300 to 325 all the way around; a small field. OL is 310 down the lines or so and 365 to dead center. Landstowns is the biggest consistently all the way around. Tallwoods is different at every part, a weird shaped fence.

One final note of congratulations to Gloucester and Western Branch, the Eastern Regional representatives. Tough semi-final loss by Western Branch to eventual winner West Springfield.

Hickory is 350 to CF.

Kellam is 283 to RF and 420 to CF.