Fall Ball thoughts

[Drill]

Playing up minus one year


Son is on a fun fall ball team that is happy go lucky and the kids are there to playand learn. We have 9-10 young men/kids on our team, I have noticed this fall we are playing mostly high school varsity teams, which is OK but after getting beat in one game the kids did not even line up to shake our teams hands. Come to find out the 3rd base coach was catching grief from the dug out the opposing coach, he was saying our team did not even deserve to be on the same field as his team.

Our coach just took it in stride, me after hearing this and getting pissed off and said to my wife and son that I was going to have a little chat with the coach, well my wife and son said to leave it alone.

So I slept on it and I decided all I am going to do is email and say to the opposing high school varsity team coach "you have a good team now all you have to do is teach sportsmanship after all its just fall ball and now is the time to learn."

I am also going to put my phone number in the email just in case something gets lost in the translation and he would like to talk to me "man up".

I love this game,


drill


PS - my son ran a regional cross country meet before coming to the game so warm up and race and warm down he ran about 6 miles. He played the out field for about 2 inning until he decided he had enough strength to catch, than in the last inning he went in to pitch. I almost fell out of my chair, he had a big grin on his face on the pitchers mound and tossed nothing but off speed pitches to them. All they did is pop them up no runs and one hit and a hit batter. oh will it fall ball, but he knew what he was doing throwing like that to talented hitter like they had, I never seen a grin on my son that wide on the pitchers mound before.

This last may have put the icing on the cake for the opposing team coach, because his team was trying to tee off on my son's pitches and they were unsuccessful.

[Jake Patterson]

Drill,
Having been through similar experiences I have found the best way to handle this is face to face or on the phone. Email seldom garners the response you expect.

I see two choices - let it go and use it to train your team in a positive way.
or
Call the coach and have a, "For what it's worth..." conversation.

If it were me I would choose the former and not the latter.


The only other comment I have... There are several legal requirements when coaching kids, one is matching and equating. While your intentions with the younger player may be noble I would question having 9 and 10's on the same field as 15 and 16's.

Jake

[Drill]

Drill,
Having been through similar experiences I have found the best way to handle this is face to face or on the phone. Email seldom garners the response you expect.

I see two choices - let it go and use it to train your team in a positive way.
or
Call the coach and have a, "For what it's worth..." conversation.

If it were me I would choose the former and not the latter.


The only other comment I have... There are several legal requirements when coaching kids, one is matching and equating. While your intentions with the younger player may be noble I would question having 9 and 10's on the same field as 15 and 16's.

Jake


we have only 9-10 players on our team and my son is 14 playing up on a 15+ team, sorry i was not clear about this.

I have had for what its worth conversations before and if he wants to continue a conversation with me he has my number. I got the sportsmanship point across.


drill

[StanTheMan]

All off-speed? Good stuff there.

My boy is playing Fall Ball again for the 4th season after giving up football after 4th grade... but with some huge changes this year. He's a 7th grader (12) and our league mixes 7ths, 8th and 9th graders into one league in Fall Ball. He's certainly not the worst 7th grader on the team, or even the worst player overall, and he's holding his own. The Golden Sombrero he had the first weekend pissed him off and he sulked for a few days. But his defense has been fine. WHen he gest the ball, he makes the play.

Doubleheaders every Sunday, not a whole lot of practice (we've had three) and it's Babe Ruth rules. 90 foot bases, 60 feet 6 inches. Running to first, some of the boys clearly have invisible piano's on their backs.

I'm hitting them grounders to shortstop the first practice, he step up, scoops his fisrt one, and despite me telling him the field is huge about 50 times, when he looks over to throw to first, he gets a little wide eyed and has that "holy sh1t" look on his face, but he gets it there.

Like I told him before the season started. Huge field, lots of older kids, some fine ballplayers, he'll see his first really good curve ball, and hit off of pitchers who kiss girls.

It's a different game indeed.

[Jake Patterson]

we have only 9-10 players on our team and my son is 14 playing up on a 15+ team, sorry i was not clear about this.

I have had for what its worth conversations before and if he wants to continue a conversation with me he has my number. I got the sportsmanship point across.


drill
I went and re-read... My bad

[TG Coach]

Like I told him before the season started. Huge field, lots of older kids, some fine ballplayers, he'll see his first really good curve ball, and hit off of pitchers who kiss girls.

It's a different game indeed.

He won't see his first good curve against 9th graders. He will see those in high school. He will see his first curve that's better than a hanging spinner. Last fall my son's 15U travel team with all kids entering freshman year of high school played in a 17U tournament. To quote one of the kids walking back to the bench after a called third, "That was nasty ****!"

[scorekeeper]

…I'm hitting them grounders to shortstop the first practice, he step up, scoops his fisrt one, and despite me telling him the field is huge about 50 times, when he looks over to throw to first, he gets a little wide eyed and has that "holy sh1t" look on his face, but he gets it there….

Are you saying the 1st time your boy ever fielded a GB or made the throw from short to 1st on the big field was at his 1st practice there? Just to satisfy my curiosity, why hadn’t you been doing that for maybe the last 2 years? Not instead of on the little field, but as a supplement to the little field?:shrug:

[shake-n-bake]

All off-speed? Good stuff there.

My boy is playing Fall Ball again for the 4th season after giving up football after 4th grade... but with some huge changes this year. He's a 7th grader (12) and our league mixes 7ths, 8th and 9th graders into one league in Fall Ball. He's certainly not the worst 7th grader on the team, or even the worst player overall, and he's holding his own. The Golden Sombrero he had the first weekend pissed him off and he sulked for a few days. But his defense has been fine. WHen he gest the ball, he makes the play.

Doubleheaders every Sunday, not a whole lot of practice (we've had three) and it's Babe Ruth rules. 90 foot bases, 60 feet 6 inches. Running to first, some of the boys clearly have invisible piano's on their backs.

I'm hitting them grounders to shortstop the first practice, he step up, scoops his fisrt one, and despite me telling him the field is huge about 50 times, when he looks over to throw to first, he gets a little wide eyed and has that "holy sh1t" look on his face, but he gets it there.

Like I told him before the season started. Huge field, lots of older kids, some fine ballplayers, he'll see his first really good curve ball, and hit off of pitchers who kiss girls.
It's a different game indeed.

Hey, that's my line. Actually, its ok. My son always seems to be playing up in sports because of his age to grade and age to size, so I used to make that comment. I always thought it was interesting seeing kids on the team walking around with their girlfriends and then kids his own age that were still into SpongeBob (not my son just to clarify - ). Then a couple of days ago, I picked him and a couple of his buddies up at school and one starts to talk about this girl. The other kid says, dont dis on Cord's (my boy) girlfriend, or he'll whale on you. "NO!" I thought. I can compete with his friends for daddy time, but now there's a girlfriend to contend with. She better be ready, she's going to have a heck of a fight on her hands:)

[shake-n-bake]

Are you saying the 1st time your boy ever fielded a GB or made the throw from short to 1st on the big field was at his 1st practice there? Just to satisfy my curiosity, why hadn’t you been doing that for maybe the last 2 years? Not instead of on the little field, but as a supplement to the little field?:shrug:

I've seen that wide-eyed "Oh sheet" look a time or two. We live really close to the HS practice field, so my son's been playing on it as much as 60' diamonds since t-ball (then it didn't matter anyway how far the bases were). We take his friends there sometimes. First thing they do is go over to the game field and drool / fall in love. Then they go to the practice field and you hear, "damn that's a long way" all afternoon until they get the hang of it and they don't want to leave. My son is comfortable playing on the big field and likes to see what his pitches will do when given another 14' (that is other than slow down).

[scorekeeper]

I've seen that wide-eyed "Oh sheet" look a time or two. We live really close to the HS practice field, so my son's been playing on it as much as 60' diamonds since t-ball (then it didn't matter anyway how far the bases were). We take his friends there sometimes. First thing they do is go over to the game field and drool / fall in love. Then they go to the practice field and you hear, "damn that's a long way" all afternoon until they get the hang of it and they don't want to leave. My son is comfortable playing on the big field and likes to see what his pitches will do when given another 14' (that is other than slow down).

Heck, almost anyone who’s has a kid play any kind of organized ball in the last 50 years has seen that look, sooner or later. But that aside, my guess is that what you describe is true for all the players. Of course there will be some who won’t quite be able to execute, but for most it’ll be because they’re just too physically immature, not that they haven’t got the CAPABILITY.

Maybe what people should do when moving to the big field is put the kids who have been decent outfielders on the kiddie fields, on the IF of the big fields. Other than some magnificent behind the base stop at 3rd, the longest throw will only be 125’, and the decent outfielders have been doing that as long as they’ve played the OF. ;)

Actually, I’ve never understood the big whoo haa about the little field and the transitional fields, because to me its all relative. When I was young, most kids played long before they got to LL Inc, and they were playing on big fields. Could the quality of the ball be compared to the quality of what gets played now? No way. But it wasn’t because they couldn’t, it was because the little fields weren’t available. So what happened was, the quality of play relative to other kids was great, but not great compared to today’s kids who only play on the dinky fields.

Heck, my boy was pitching and playing 3rd on the big field at 11, and so were any kids who happened to come up and want to take some grounders or throw while we were there. So they didn’t perform like ML ball players. BFD! I didn’t expect them to, and they didn't seem to care.

But there was something very interesting that I noticed and proved to other folks more than once. As long as no one was pointing out the fact that they weren’t doing so well, they just kept playing. But, if even one parent showed up and said anything to point out the fact that they could do a lot better, the enthusiasm would leak out just like air leaking from a leaking balloon.

[TG Coach]

Huge field, lots of older kids, some fine ballplayers, he'll see his first really good curve ball, and hit off of pitchers who kiss girls.

When my son was thirteen and 5'2" he was asked to fill in on a 16U travel game for a day. I told him it would be a good experience. I said he would probably play left field, bat last and just be expected to not screw up. Then to make him completely confident, I smiled and said, "These kids are no different than you other than they are up to a foot taller, drive and shave."

You should have seen the look on the other player's faces when I dropped him off for pregame. They must have thought he was the bat boy. He led off and played second.

[shake-n-bake]

We played a lot of pick up baseball when I was a kid. Most of it was on 90' diamonds, so I don't remember it being a big deal moving up to the big diamond. Just so happened that my friends and I were always playing with older kids too, so there again the pitching and the level of competition wasn't a huge shock either. Another downside in the decline of the pickup ball era.

[CPatt44]

We played a lot of pick up baseball when I was a kid. Most of it was on 90' diamonds, so I don't remember it being a big deal moving up to the big diamond. Just so happened that my friends and I were always playing with older kids too, so there again the pitching and the level of competition wasn't a huge shock either. Another downside in the decline of the pickup ball era.


I couldn't agree more with you Shake. The pickup ball era being gone has given baseball a big black eye. We too played with and against older, better players, which made us better players overall as we got older. Playing up should be a good experience for kids. They obviously have been chosen because of their skill.

Just my ramblings.

[scorekeeper]

We played a lot of pick up baseball when I was a kid. Most of it was on 90' diamonds, so I don't remember it being a big deal moving up to the big diamond. Just so happened that my friends and I were always playing with older kids too, so there again the pitching and the level of competition wasn't a huge shock either. Another downside in the decline of the pickup ball era.

Exactly! So then why do we even entertain the notion that there has to be some kind of transition from the small field to the large? To me its nothing but a crock invented by those who are most interested in seeing their little ones maintain some level of performance.

[StanTheMan]

He won't see his first good curve against 9th graders. He will see those in high school. He will see his first curve that's better than a hanging spinner. Last fall my son's 15U travel team with all kids entering freshman year of high school played in a 17U tournament. To quote one of the kids walking back to the bench after a called third, "That was nasty ****!"

Come on.......

Anything else about our league (that you have never laid eyes upon, mind you) that you want to foolishly point out or criticise?

Some of our 9th graders play varsity baseball. Not the #1 starter, but they play, and pitch. 9th Grade IS high school last time I checked. They are called freshman.

This Fall Ball league is partnered with the largest Little League in the state of Indiana, and many of the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders in this league play on some of the most elite travel teams in the state. The player pool is huge. This is not podunk stuff. Are there better leagues out there? Probably. No.... certainly, due to the sheer size of the USA. Would I dismiss any quality of those leagues sight unseen? No.

Will a HS Senior, on average, have better stuff than most if not all of the 9th graders my boy's hitting off each weekend? Sure. But to dismiss a Freshman in High School's duece as a "hanging spinner" and then saying high school (the same school said pitcher attends) curves are better is a bit shortsided if you ask me.

[StanTheMan]

Are you saying the 1st time your boy ever fielded a GB or made the throw from short to 1st on the big field was at his 1st practice there? Just to satisfy my curiosity, why hadn’t you been doing that for maybe the last 2 years? Not instead of on the little field, but as a supplement to the little field?:shrug:

Good question, but I suppose it is because he has the arm to get it there. He's taken plenty of fly balls from me and hit cutoff men and the like on a 60 foot diamond. The "oh sheet" look was as much for the 8th and 9th high level players who get the ball to first like a laser, and he was up getting a grounder. He gets along fine with them, especially after....

Second game ever, runner on first, one out.

Grounder to him at third, charges it, scoops it on the edge of the grass/dirt near the bag. Looks to second to get the lead runner, who was not going on the pitch. 2Bman is NOT covering, and my boy's already stepped and moved his upper body towards 2B expecting to go there with it.

After he realizes that he has not play there, he has to go to first. He balance is all out whack for a throw to 1B, and the runner is fast. He barely turns his torso at all, and instinctively thought enough to take a tiny step with his left away from 2B and towards 1B a bit.

Got it there with mostly armstrength and speed of thought to go there with it as fast as possible.

I stood off to the side in the dugout, took a regular length stride as if I was going to throw one direction, and then after taking that stride and nearly completing the throwing motion (arm all the way back, ready to fire) I tried to change the throwing motion just more than 45 degrees with just a small step in that direction. It was tough.

[TG Coach]

Come on.......

Some of our 9th graders play varsity baseball. Not the #1 starter, but they play, and pitch. 9th Grade IS high school last time I checked. They are called freshman.

If a freshmen is on varsity (especially pitching) in most cases, it's either a small school, the program stinks or the kid is on his way to becoming a big time prospect. In many quality high school programs it's a big deal to make varsity as a sophomore.

[TG Coach]

Come on.......

This Fall Ball league is partnered with the largest Little League in the state of Indiana, and many of the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders in this league play on some of the most elite travel teams in the state. The player pool is huge. This is not podunk stuff.

My son played on one of the top USSSA Majors teams in the state. A 15U curveball even from some of the top pitchers I saw, is nothing compared to a high school varsity curveball. Some of the best travel pitchers had big benders. But I didn't see the hard breaking curves associated with high school ball.

I don't mean this to be condescending. You will learn a lot as your son goes up the ladder. There will be times you look back and say to yourself, "I can't believe I used to think that."

[StanTheMan]

If a freshmen is on varsity (especially pitching) in most cases, it's either a small school, the program stinks or the kid is on his way to becoming a big time prospect.


One of those three? Gee, that narrows it down. Fair enough about your later comment regarding hindsight being 20/20... I'm new to this level. But seriously dude, it's already the BIGGEST youth league in the entire state? You still think it is a small school? Nope, two big ones (one being new) in what was formely the FASTEST growing county in the entire United States. Hamilton County. So then, the program stinks, or the kid may be a stud. That, or somewhere in the vast chasm you have created with your keyboard.

The fact that a great friend of mine, who went to Wendlestat's Umpire School after college ball and made it to AAA works with these kids, has worked their games (he no longer umpires full time) and he also has good things to say about the program speaks loudly to me. His name is Riley should you care to look up AAA games worked about 5 years or so ago.

I am trying to be no less accusatory than you are trying to be condescending. YOUR experiences may well be plentiful, sharp, and varied. They do not however translate as well, or as absolutely, as you may think.

This entire thing might be boiled down to hearing "varsity" in the dugout when the kid said "JV."

Relax. Let's move on.

Back to Fall Ball experiences that you have laid your OWN eyes upon.

[scorekeeper]

Good question, but I suppose it is because he has the arm to get it there. He's taken plenty of fly balls from me and hit cutoff men and the like on a 60 foot diamond. The "oh sheet" look was as much for the 8th and 9th high level players who get the ball to first like a laser, and he was up getting a grounder. He gets along fine with them, especially after....

I sure wasn’t trying to demean you or the boy, but rather trying to encourage more people to put the kids on the big field ASAP to let them get their feet wet. It really does seem silly to me for so many people to feel the only way to go is to go with some intermediate size field.

I think its great to see a player make a play like you described! I once caught an interview with Omar Vizquel where he went into a little bit of detail how he’d actually ask other IFrs to do things in practice to screw him up and force him to do unusual things like that. I have another friend who played 2B in the ML for 14 years, and he said he sometimes did the same thing, and so did most of the very good fielders he knew.

[TG Coach]

The fact that a great friend of mine, who went to Wendlestat's Umpire School after college ball and made it to AAA works with these kids, has worked their games (he no longer umpires full time) and he also has good things to say about the program speaks loudly to me.

In my years of exposure as a player, coach, parent of a college athlete and parent of a high school athlete I've heard plenty of platitudes over the years I considered nice comments more than valid comments.

[shake-n-bake]

Stan, it'd probably be one of the 3 things TG described if a freshman were pitching varsity in any scenario that I've seen before also.

We live in I think the largest HS district in the state. If not the biggest, it would be second or at most 3rd. There's been a tradition of great baseball at the school and the team is a perrenial powerhouse. I've been following baseball there for quite awhile and I cannot remember a freshman playing varsity. I think there have been some kids come through the program that potentially could have, but the logjam of good ballplayers ahead of them (that obviouly can't trade and play down at freshman level) is a second huge reason it is a rarity.

The one scenario that is possible is the kid has special ability and the varsity coach chooses to bring up a lot of underclassmen as a strategy to be good in 2 or 3 years. This blows for the Jrs. and Srs., I know first hand. My senior year the school district I was in split into 2 HS. I went to the brand new one. Basketball season the coach had a varsity roster with two seniors (one started and not the entire year) - I wasn't one of them. But lots of Sophs and a few freshman were on the varsity squad at least part-time. We went something like 3-21 on the year. Two of the wins were against out of conference lower division schools.

My HS didn't get good in 3 years. Its been almost 25 since I graduated and I don't think they've had a league championship yet. Just a lesson about playing up.

[StanTheMan]

I sure wasn’t trying to demean you or the boy, but rather trying to encourage more people to put the kids on the big field ASAP to let them get their feet wet. It really does seem silly to me for so many people to feel the only way to go is to go with some intermediate size field.

I think its great to see a player make a play like you described! I once caught an interview with Omar Vizquel where he went into a little bit of detail how he’d actually ask other IFrs to do things in practice to screw him up and force him to do unusual things like that. I have another friend who played 2B in the ML for 14 years, and he said he sometimes did the same thing, and so did most of the very good fielders he knew.

I didn't feel demeaned at all. In fact, you are probably right. Get the kid onto a larger field when he can make the throw... or almost make the throw.

The play he made was in the second game of the first doubleheader he played. It endeared him to some of the bigger kids, which has turned out to be a good thing.

What do you think about going BACK to the intermediate field in the Spring, after being on the 90 ft bases in the fall?

As for Omar Vizquel, Ozzie Smith used to do the same things... and of course Omar had trouble holding Ozzie's jock! :shhh:

[StanTheMan]

In my years of exposure as a player, coach, parent of a college athlete and parent of a high school athlete I've heard plenty of platitudes over the years I considered nice comments more than valid comments.

How do you post a little smiley guy holding up a mirror?

Seriously TG.... ever think the above statement should apply to yourself, or even perhaps to YOUR comments in this thread? Ever think that others "consider" (very important word in your statement above) to be something other than what you believe or intended? Probably happens every game/practice/tournament.

This umpire friend of mine was a scholorship college player who unfortunately wrecked his knee at school. He later made it to AAA as an umpire, saw more professional ballplayers while half crouched five feet BEHIND THE PLATE in professional ballparks all over the country than all of us in this thread put together, plus that of our fathers, brothers, and uncles combined. Single A World Series? Crew Chief? Check. Winter/Rookie League in Arizona? Check. Winter Ball in the Dominican Republic? Check. Double A World Series Chrew Chief? Check. AAA World Series? Check.

I don't know even ONE of the kids he was commenting on at the time.... but if he has good comments about a program he is working with, or a specific pitching coach, or God forbid players in games he has since worked after retiring from professional umpiring.... please forgive me while I consider his opinion more valid than nice.

I wonder what his opinion of your league would be? Oops, he probably would prefer to see it first.

Let's just drop the whole freshman-sophomore thing completely... chew on the valid comment vs. nice comment for a while.

Come on TG..... the world is a big place.

Bryan in Indy

[TG Coach]

I wonder what his opinion of your league would be? Oops, he probably would prefer to see it first.

My son played 16U USSSA Majors this past summer following freshman year. He was 14U eligible. Most baseball people have heard of USSSA Majors. They don't need to see it to know the quality of play. This fall he's playing 18U as a sophomore. It's fairly good ball too.

[StanTheMan]

That's just great.

[StanTheMan]

Had to come back... our season ended last night.

After a split in the first 5 doubleheaders, our boys rattled off 7 straight wins (some reg season, two tourney) to make the championship game.

Deafeating a previously unbeaten team to win it all was fun as hell. My youngster, a 7th grader on a 90 foot diamond for the first time, held his own. He improved a bit defensively by being on the big diamond (throwing a kid out a first from shallow right will do that for confidence alone - and I got to enter the wonderful 9-3 putout into the book!), he improved a TON on the basepaths, and outhit all but about 6 or 7 of the 13 on his team.

All in all a solid season, we got exactly what we wanted out of it, which was to progress. Any other Fall Ball results out there?

[shake-n-bake]

Fall baseball has been a bit different this year. In the past its been about stretching the envelope in terms of how much my son could play up. This year he played on a team where the ability and age level was on average only slightly higher, even a couple kids the same age or younger.

So far he has achieved at least one of his goals going in - no wild pitches. He hasn't been the most dominant pitcher on his team in terms of velocity, but it's refreshing to see a kid be around the strike zone with every pitch. Another of his goals going into next year is to pitch a complete game. Obviously in fall baseball a kid doesn't get that opportunity because there's an emphasis on moving kids around in the field a lot. He knows to pitch a complete game that he's going to have to throw some ground ball outs and not as many strikeouts. Mixed success here. While he's been very good at pitching down and away, he's also picked up a habit of going there too often and ran into some opponents that have been incredibly good at laying off pitches just off the outside edge. He's ended up walking some uncooperative hitters that he was ahead in the count with, hitters he could've struck out with a high fastball. Basically he's thrown more pitches with the intention of getting ground balls than he would have ending some at bats with Ks. I think that he's learned a lot in the limited amount of innings pitched. I foresee a nice season next spring if he has just the control and velocity he has now, and applies what he's learned.

The other thing that has impressed me is his maturity. Where a lot of kids have a love affair with their breaking pitches, he has thrown very few this fall. He's made it a priority to work on locating his fastball. Hitting? I just don't know what's up. I see every reason in the world for him to be a feared hitter, but so far he's had only 2 hits this fall. Part of it is that he's made so many adjustments that I think he hardly knows which end of the bat to hold. It's not a real big priority with him, but we're going to try a couple hitting clinics this winter then spend some time at the batting cages and see if we can't make that part of the game a little funner.

[shake-n-bake]

Today will be the end of the fall season and I am so regretting seeing it come to an end. My son's coach has been fantastic. He's been blessed with a great group of kids, but he's done such a nice job of balancing playing competitive baseball, teaching, and spreading playing time. These kids are playing some baseball that's an absolute joy to watch and they're having a great time. I'm sure tomorrow will be another day filled with everything that's right about youth sports again. Hate to see it end.

And, my son got his complete game shutout last night under the lights. The sweetest part is that it wasn't his best outing. He spread out a few hits, pitched out of trouble a couple times, and got some great defensive plays behind him. Not one breaking ball either, but pulled the string on some nice change ups. He's never really thrown a lot of change ups in a game until last night, but the way he was changing speeds was fun to watch. I'm really proud of him, his poise, and how he's maturing as a pitcher. I'm also grateful that he's had this opportunity.

[Jake Patterson]

Today will be the end of the fall season and I am so regretting seeing it come to an end. My son's coach has been fantastic. He's been blessed with a great group of kids, but he's done such a nice job of balancing playing competitive baseball, teaching, and spreading playing time. These kids are playing some baseball that's an absolute joy to watch and they're having a great time. I'm sure tomorrow will be another day filled with everything that's right about youth sports again. Hate to see it end.

And, my son got his complete game shutout last night under the lights. The sweetest part is that it wasn't his best outing. He spread out a few hits, pitched out of trouble a couple times, and got some great defensive plays behind him. Not one breaking ball either, but pulled the string on some nice change ups. He's never really thrown a lot of change ups in a game until last night, but the way he was changing speeds was fun to watch. I'm really proud of him, his poise, and how he's maturing as a pitcher. I'm also grateful that he's had this opportunity. Enjoy it while it lasts... I miss it greatly.