Colder Temperatures, Hotter Bats

After coming off an embarrassing 9-2 loss yesterday in our final game with West Michigan, we knew that a strong showing in the opening game of this three-game series with the Burlington Bees(Kansas City affiliate) was crucial. We responded with a solid 5-3 victory behind two homeruns and strong pitching.

Today began with some pitchers and hitters meetings prior to our 1pm departure for Burlington, IA. Since Burlington is only an hour and a half away, it is a commuter trip for us, meaning that we do not stay overnight for these road games. Rather, we drive back and forth each day to and from the games. The other two cities we commute to are Clinton and Quad Cities. Personally, I am not a fan of commuter trips, and I think that is a common sentiment among my teammates. It would be different if a team was 45 minutes away, but once you start traveling over an hour, it becomes tiring and I see it as a waste of time traveling three hours roundtrip per day. Sure, there is a lot to be said about being “home” (I use that term loosely because none of us call Iowa home) and in our own beds, but leaving at 1pm for 6:30 games and getting home as late as 1am or 2am gets draining very quickly. Fortunately, we won tonight in a little over two hours, so we should be home at a reasonable time of 11pm (I am uncertain as I am writing this entry on the bus ride home.)

It was very brisk today and felt more like late fall than the middle of spring. It was around 40 degrees at game time and windy, making it feel even colder. While the cold weather forced batting practice to take place in indoor cages, the pitchers and catchers still got their early work in outside. Being from New York, I have prior experience in dealing with these conditions unlike some of my teammates from warmer climates, especially the players from the Dominican Republic. However, that is not to say that I will tell you I am comfortable in that kind of weather (even though I am wearing two pairs of socks, tights, and three undershirts under my uniform. It really comes down to mentally taking the cold aspect out of everything and just going out and doing your job. A nice feature of playing in Burlington is that there is a small heater in our dugout, which is a very nice perk.

Tomorrow we are weight lifting at 11am, and then leaving for Burlington again at 1pm. We try to lift about two days a week. The lifts are not very heavy as they are designed to keep the muscles healthy and well maintained throughout the course of the season. There is no place to get stronger during the season; that must take place during the off season.

There is hope in the forecast tomorrow with a projected high of 56 degrees and partly sunny skies. We will look to continue on our strong outing tonight, with our hitters putting a strong emphasis on being aggressive in the strike zone, contrary to our aggressiveness at all pitches as of late. That was the point of our hitting meeting today: try to see as many pitches as possible, but hit your pitch when you get it. Lately, we have been swinging at a lot of pitches out of the strike zone and giving the other team easy outs. It was evident tonight our focus had shifted to this improved approach, and we were rewarded with solid contact up and down the lineup.

A Cold but Victorious Day

If we had to play a crazy game, at least we were on the winning end of it. It took us 11 innings, but we were able to pull out an 8-7 win after overcoming deficits twice.

Today was a brisk, cool day in Cedar Rapids with a reported game-time temperature of 59 degrees, although the chilling wind and blankets in the stands would have had you believing otherwise. This was a continuation of yesterday’s weather which was sunny and 75 degrees when I arrived at the stadium around 1pm, and 48 degrees and windy by game time after a cold front and thunderstorms came through. Tomorrow is not looking much better with a high of only 50 and showers likely. We thought we were finished with playing in this cold weather, coupled with the rain and sleet when we left for our six-game road trip to South Bend, IN, and Dayton, OH, last week.

We had a 2pm start today. After a night game last night, this made for an early morning and I was at the stadium by 9am. Our roving catching and pitching instructors are in town for the three-game series and they provide position-specific instruction throughout the time they are there. Other rovers include hitting, infield, and outfield/base running. They will visit our team four times during the season, as well as the three other full season minor league teams in the L.A. Angels organization. Lately, I have been a little slow with my times on throws to second base, but after a little work with Tom (catching rover), I was able to improve my mechanics to where they were coming out of spring training and I made good throws in between innings of the game today.

I caught today’s game and we had Fish on the mound. He did not have his best stuff today, but he battled through five innings for us and left the game with a 5-3 lead. After West Michigan tied it at 5-5, we took a one-run lead in the 8th, only to see them retake the lead in the 9th. We were able to tie it in the bottom half, and then win it on a 2-out double and single in the 11th. I did not have anything to show for my four at bats today but I did hit two balls well. Hitting is difficult enough as it is, and even more so when you are only playing once every three or four games as a backup. My hitting coach keeps telling me my swing is there, I just need to be patient and try to hit everything back through the middle. So, I’m still confident about things and just taking things one game at a time. The hitting will come around, I just need to keep catching well and working with the pitchers to keep winning us ballgames.

The win takes us to 12-9 on the year, and we’ve won our last three in row. We have another 2pm game tomorrow, but we are not taking full batting practice on the field, so we can sleep in a little, even though the catchers will be putting in extra work with Tom at 10:45am. So, hopefully we can keep the winning streak going and sweep the Whitecaps.

Introduction

Chris Rosenbaum is a catcher for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, a Class A affiliate of the L.A. Angels of Anaheim. Last year, he was with the Orem (Utah) Owlz, a rookie league Angels affiliate. Rosenbaum resides in Tampa, FL, in the off season, where he is working on his MBA and trains.  The Kernels’ website is www.kernels.com. If anyone has any questions for Chris, email him at crosenbaum@ut.edu and he will try to respond to as many questions as possible, either by personal email or in the blog.