Angels Catchers

Due to storms in the Peoria area, tonight’s game was cancelled.  We are making up the game as part of a doubleheader that will begin at 5pm CT.  The team is not crazy about the start time; we would have preferred it to be earlier since we have to travel home after the games tomorrow night to play a 2pm home game on Sunday due to a scheduling quirk.  Rainouts and their subsequent makeup doubleheaders are appreciated by players due to their favorable format of two seven-inning games, which results in four less innings played over the two-day format than the 18 originally scheduled.  However, it is preferred that rainouts occur in the middle of a long stretch, not toward the beginning like this one (we just had an off day Tuesday.)  But, with there being only 12 scheduled off days for the entire season, any rainouts are helpful for making it through a long grind.

These next two days are going to be a grind due to unfortunate scheduling, so I am going to use it as an opportunity to do another timeline as I did in my May 2 post.  Based on comments I received, that post was well liked, so look for that in the next few days.  In addition, I recorded a radio interview today discussing the blog and it will air at 4:40pm CT prior to tomorrow night’s game.  The link for the broadcast can be found here: http://www.kernels.com/radio.html.

A reader asked me to discuss what it is like being a catcher in the Angels organization, an organization that prides itself so highly on its catchers.  This is not surprising since the Angels manager, Mike Scioscia, was a Major League catcher, and the catcher development in the system definitely reflects his passion for the position. 

Other organizations often ask what the Angels are doing with their catchers to develop the quality in the position that they have become known for possessing.  For starters, one reason has to be that we work harder than any other catchers do in baseball.  From the time pitchers and catchers report to spring training, anytime we took the field, we were always doing something to improve and always paid attention to the smallest detail.  The drills we work on are receiving, transfers and throwing, blocking, plays at the plate, bunts, and pop-ups.

While we take our time to go through these drills to make sure we are doing them correctly, they are done with high intensity at game speed, and we are always running from drill to drill.  Our work is designed to both improve our skills as well as our conditioning.  We pounded these skills during spring training and we continue to work on these skills several times a week during the season.  We get refreshers when our catching rover visits, but we do them on our own throughout the season.

During games, our play is heavily scrutinized, with the number of balls we block and drop being kept track of in addition to the passed balls and wild pitches that show up in the box score.  Contrary to some thinking, we are not actually “taught” how to call a game.  That is a skill developed over time by learning and understanding pitchers, as well as through guidance from managers and coaches and trial and error.

If there is a common thread throughout all of the teachings throughout the organization as it pertains to catchers, it is the strong emphasis on the pitcher and catcher relationship. When a pitcher is comfortable with his catcher, he is confident and will perform at his highest level.  For this reason, fostering and maintaining these relationships is crucial for a catcher’s success in the Angels organization.  These working relationships are so strongly valued that they are viewed at the same level of any other stats kept track of by the organization and can be enough reason to keep a mediocre performing offensive catcher around for several years.

Hope Springs Eternal

After a much appreciated off day Tuesday (all I did was laundry; it rained yet again on the day off), our travels have taken us to Peoria, IL.  This was a shorter trip than our recent road trips with the bus ride from Cedar Rapids taking only about two and a half hours.  The four-game series with the Peoria Chiefs (Chicago Cubs) began on a positive note last night with a 5-3 win in a very well played game all around.  Tonight, we were not so fortunate and dropped a 7-4 decision, struggling both on the mound and at the plate.  This has been the story of our season so far, as we have been unable to play well on a consistent basis and string wins together.  However, this is a developmental process and the wins are expected to come with improvement over time.

Prior to tonight’s game, I was reminded of one of the reasons I love to play this game.  While I was going through my non-starting routine of stretching in the outfield 45 minutes prior to game time, I noticed a little boy sitting behind the fence who seemed to be taking the entire ballpark atmosphere in.  Typically, I do not notice much going on outside of the field and anyone that knows me well, knows that I usually have tunnel vision and tend to be oblivious to my surrounding when I am on the field.  However, tonight was different for whatever reason and I went over to this boy and introduced myself.  I met Mitchell, a five year old, who when asked what his favorite position was replied, “Everything.”  Who can blame him?  At that age, you wanted to play every position to see what they were all like, until you eventually came into your own at the position you were destined to be.

After a few minutes of conversation with Mitchell (who seemed quite excited to be talking to me), his mother came down and asked if he could have a picture taken with me.  I then met his older brother, Aden (I think this was his name, my apologies if I misheard), who was eight.  From speaking with their mother, the family was from Australia and has been living in the United States on and off for the past few years, and this was the boy’s first Peoria Chiefs game.  She also told me that that boys love baseball and are always hitting and throwing at home in the backyard.

While the conversation was short, it was fulfilling to know that I took the time to do something I do not normally do by conversing with this family and hopefully left a positive impact on the boys.  As much as we, as players, like to think we are playing solely for ourselves, we would be nothing without the fans.  Baseball would not be played at the level it has reached if there were not people buying the tickets and coming out to support the major and minor league players throughout the world.  Giving back to the fans and communities, along with being ambassadors of the game are two of our primary roles as professionals.  The boys expressed interest of playing baseball when they grew up I hope that my conversation instills optimism in them that through hard work and dedication, they can play professional baseball in the future.

Player Development

After some promising signs during the middle of the home stand that our outcomes were making a turn for the better, our struggles have continued over the weekend.  The absence of key hits and giving the opposition extra outs have cost us the past few games.  The losses have been hard to swallow but the team is doing its best to stay positive, as hard as it may be at times.  We keep working hard to improve, knowing that our fortunes are bound to change by making our own breaks on the field.

For the lay baseball fan, it often goes overlooked that we are really baseball players in training, and that the final product on the field every night is not always going to be well polished.  The time put in everyday working on hitting, fielding and pitching mechanics often goes unnoticed during days that usually begin five to seven hours prior to game time.  Playing at the Class A level, we still have four more rungs to climb to get to the Majors (A-Advanced, AA, AAA, MLB).  While we go out every night trying to win a baseball game, our primary objective is to develop as a player so that we are better players at the last day of the season than we were when we arrived in Cedar Rapids.

Players are constantly making adjustments with the focus on the big picture.  By this, I mean that we are all working toward the goal of becoming a Major League baseball player and we currently do not have the skills and the experience necessary to play at that level.  Hitting .300 in this league with mechanics that will not work at the upper levels when facing better pitchers does the player and the organization no good.  So, as frustrating as it may be at times, there will be stretches were a player might be struggling at the plate or on the mound, in part, to a mechanical change that is designed to pay off in the future. 

When these struggles are collective and the team has difficulties with wins and losses is the most testing of situations.  A team win always brightens up an 0-for-4 or a two error day; the food always tastes better, the sun is always brighter, and bus rides do not seem to take as long after victories.  The absence of victories puts a damper on the overall pulse of everything.  However, as long as there are games on the schedule, we have the opportunity to improve, get closer to our goal of making it to the Majors, and win a baseball game that night.

Changing Tides

We have been playing very well this past week and there is a collective feeling that the team is turning its fortune around. The streaks that I discussed in the previous post that have been going against us are starting to shift into our favor. The bats have been heating up with an increased focus on improving hitting mechanics and approaches. By approach, I am referring to the plan a hitter has when he gets in the batter’s box. A hitter’s plan is contingent upon several factors, including runners on base, inning, score, and the opposing pitcher. The team has been doing a much better job of working through at-bats, making productive outs, and getting key hits. Furthermore, our pitchers have continued to give us strong outings and have continued to keep us in every game, giving us a chance to win every night. 

Most importantly, we have been playing complete baseball games. We have all been battling through all nine innings, regardless of the score. While we have not been winning all of these games, how we are going about our business in them has been the best it has been all year. This is imperative for a team to succeed. The more often a team puts in a good position to win games, the more improvement will be experienced by the players and the more victories will be achieved by the team. 

I wanted to take the time to thank everyone who has been reading and commenting on this blog over its first month. For those of you who have been asking me questions, I greatly appreciate that and hope that you continue to do so. Having some questions to answer makes things easier for me and I can provide a more in-depth account of things that people are interested about.

Streaks

They may involve winning, losing, hitting, fielding, or pitching, and occur on both an individual and team level. Often, they are unexplained and no one can pinpoint their exact causes. Streaks have their place in the games just as all of the mechanics do, as players and teams seek to minimize the bad streaks (slumps), and make the good streaks last as long as possible.

Every athlete has encountered streaks and slumps, hopefully more of the former than the latter. Sometimes, things are just going your way; the ball looks bigger and is moving more slowly when you are hitting and the fielders look like little specs across the diamond. Other times, however, the ball looks like a pea and the entire field looks like a big glove.

As individualistic of a game that baseball is, the compilation of these efforts comprises the team’s results. Similarly, these good and bad streaks seem to guide a team during stretches of a season. Currently, we have been struggling as a team and at times, it seems that almost nothing can go right, all of the breaks go to the opposing teams, and we cannot get enough big hits or plays to secure a win.

Our struggles continued in this last series against Clinton (Texas Rangers affiliate) as we were swept, losing two one-run games in the process. We battled through the entire series but just did not have any wins to show for it. However, our bats have come around from a dry spell at Kane County and things are looking up.

What can be done to overcome this bad streak? The biggest thing is to stay positive and keep grinding through the days. It is a long season, destined to be filled with ups and downs. The law of averages is in our favor and we know that we will soon be winning more games than we are losing, just as we were at the beginning of the year.

KJ left us to think about something Saturday night after the game by telling us that ‘you are never as bad as you think you are, and you are never as good as you think you are.’ When you take time to think about it, this relates back to the “even keel” thinking that I discussed in my May 6 post. Minimizing the extremes and removing emotions from the game where possible is critical to keeping a clear head through the streaks.

Rainy Night

It is getting late (again) and I was not going to write a post but I decided to because it was another “odd” moment in the minor league world that I thought was worth mentioning.

Tonight’s start time was scheduled for 6pm. There were thunderstorms in the forecast, but they were not supposed to begin until later in the evening. However, during the national anthem, there was some lightning fairly close to the field. There is a rule that states we must wait 30 minutes if lightning is seen before we resume play. Since we never actually started, the umpires were a little lenient and we started 20 minutes later at 6:20.

We were progressing quickly through the game with us picking up a run in the fifth and that being the only scoring for the time being. In the seventh inning, the rain started, rumbles of thunder could be heard, and lightning could be seen in the distance. In the bottom of the 7th there was lightning that looked very close to the outfield, and we were pulled off the field with the Kane County batter having a 3-2 count with no outs.

That began the lighting delay that turned into a weather delay as we had storms for over an hour. This was my first “real” rain delay. By real, I mean that there was a good chance we were going to wait it out and finish the game after it was over. I have been in games where we would sit around for 20 or 30 minutes and then it was called, or where we sat around for a while waiting to start a game that was never played.

A rain delay is one of the least desirable situations to a player. We have to come in from the game, tone it down for a bit, and then get back up for the game. I found killing time to be the most difficult thing to do. In the clubhouse, there were two card games going, two Rubik’s cubes being played with (yes, that fad is being rekindled on our team), and some PSPs being used. After wandering around for a bit, I ended up listening to music and looking through some spray charts of the Kane County hitters.

We finally got word at 9pm that we would resume at 9:30. I had to go outside to get loose again and refocus on the game at hand. We resumed the game with a 3-2 count on the batter and froze him with a called strike on the outside corner. We went on to win 2-0 after tacking on a run in the 8th, and we finished a little after 10pm. Total game time was 2:20, with an almost two-hour rain delay. This made for our second long evening in a row.

Late Night

It is already late so tonight is going to be a short post that will recap the past few days.

We struggled a bit in Wisconsin, dropping three of four, and our struggles continued through tonight after suffering a 4-3 loss in 12 innings. Our bats have been quiet over the past week and our pitching has had its ups and downs. However, we have played well our last two losses and the bats showed signs of life tonight erasing a 3-0 deficit in the late innings to force extra innings.

Playing extra inning is occasionally expected, although it tends to put a damper on the rest of the evening, especially after a loss. Game nights tend to be late enough as it is and on the road, finding dinner can sometimes be an issue. Fortunately for us, the game times this week are at 6pm and the extra inning game had us finished by 10pm. We got back to our hotel by 11:30. Usually, pizza tends to be an only option this late on a Monday night or a fast food restaurant if you are lucky. However, we lucked out at this hotel as it is in walking distance of a T.G.I. Friday’s that is open until 1am. A few of us walked over for a midnight dinner after arriving back at the hotel.

It is 1am and I am headed to bed. Tomorrow, the bus leaves for a weight workout at 10am, and then we leave for the stadium at 1:30pm. Our catching rover is in town for this series, so the catchers will be doing extra work in addition to our pregame schedule.

Solid Win; Baseball Equipment

Although we have been struggling lately and lost five games out of our last seven, tonight we were able to turn things around in a 5-0 victory over Wisconsin (Seattle Mariners affiliate). Anton threw a four-hit shutout thanks to some solid defense and timely hitting. I caught tonight and it was a pitchers’ duel until the late innings, which made for a quick game, despite a very long eighth inning where we scored four runs to put the game out of reach.

We took the lead 1-0 in the seventh scoring an unearned run. Wisconsin would then threaten to tie it up in the bottom half of the frame, but were unable to do so after a crazy play. With a runner at third and one out a fly ball was hit to left field. Our outfielder made the catch and threw home attempting to throw out the runner trying to tag up and score. I was up the line a little bit to block the plate and tried to field the throw on a short hop and quickly tag the runner as he slid past me. I lost control of the ball in my haste and thought the runner had slid past me and touched home plate with his hand. However, the umpire never made a signal and I went over to pick up the ball, and I tagged the runner who was celebrating with his teammates. The umpire called him out for missing home plate and our team ran off the field, pumped that we still had the one-run lead. Wisconsin, as expected, was not pleased with the call, and had both the runner called out at the plate and the batter who hit the fly ball ejected for arguing.

It was an exciting play and was what I thought was a crucial turning point in the game to solidify our victory. I was surprised that he was called out when I tagged him, as I had no way of seeing the umpire standing behind me make a “safe” call when the runner slid past me. I only tagged the runner just in case he missed home plate, and it so happened that he did. Fortunately, I had the wherewithal to complete the play and get a crucial out in the game.

Someone recently asked me via email to discuss the baseball equipment situation: what is provided by the organization, and what are we personally responsible for? As far as apparel, the organization provides us with red shorts, a mock turtleneck, jacket, and a tee shirt. Playing with the Kernels, we are provided with a navy mock turtleneck, a baseball jacket (which we do not get to keep), batting helmets, catchers gear, and bats. The players are responsible for all other equipment, including gloves, cleats, turf shoes, batting gloves, and all undershirts and sliders. Some players have signed with agents, who represent the players and negotiate salary and signing bonus, as well as also providing some of this apparel and equipment by either purchasing it for their players or aiding the players sign endorsement contracts. Personally, I do not have an agent or any endorsements, so I am on my own as far as purchasing all of my batting gloves, cleats, undershirts, sliders, and anything else I need to play.

Coping with Ups and Downs

I got the idea of this post in the middle of my morning workout at the stadium. Players are required to weight lift about twice a week during the season to maintain our muscles and range of movement. I am currently one of three players doing an experimental workout that was drafted up by our strength coach to replace the existing workout that is several years old. Anyway, while I was working out I was thinking about the game we lost the Monday night, some things our manager, KJ, said after the game, and how the last two weeks have progressed.

The main idea of these thoughts was that over the course of a game, a day, a season, and a career, players are going to have ups and downs. Thus, these fluctuations extend to the team as well, since the team is a summation of individual efforts. We suffered a tough loss Monday night in the opening game of a three-game series with Peoria (Chicago Cubs affiliate) that was brought on by a sequence of mental mistakes. That was our fourth loss in the previous five games, of which have been to teams whose winning percentages are below.500. This appears to have been a low point in our young season for the team. Before this, we had won four in a row and we feeling very confident as a team. Tonight, we rebounded with a solid 4-3 win and were in the game, both mentally and physically for all nine innings. This is something we had struggled to do over the past two weeks.

As the team has been experiencing a string of highs and lows, it is important that we maintain a consistent outlook . As a baseball player it is crucial to ensure that you do not get too high when things are going well or to low when nothing seems to be going right. Growing up, my dad always told me to maintain an “even keel” through the highs and lows. As a younger player, I tended to be more focused on the things that did not go right for me during the course of a game, rather than looking at my overall performance and learning from my mistakes instead of criticizing myself. I was able to mature as a player, but it took me until about my sophomore year at the University of Rochester to say that I had become a player who was able to maintain an even keel.

This idea of an even keel was stressed by KJ during Monday night’s post game meeting. He highlighted that the players most able to avoid the extremes of being too high or too low would be those that had the best chances of moving forward in their careers. While it may seem easy at the outset to take this approach, this is far from the actuality of the situation.

Baseball is a game of slumps, streaks, and percentages. Matching left-handed hitters to right-handed pitchers, deciding when to hit-and-run, and putting defensive shifts on hitters are all designed to improve the odds of success for a given situation. However, the game is designed for failure. The best hitters to ever play the game failed 70 percent of the time and are commended for getting three hits every ten times they completed an at-bat. Baseball is such a special game in that you can do everything perfectly at the plate, make solid contact with a pitch, and have nothing to show for it when a line drive is caught in the outfield. This is why dealing with failure is such a crucial part of the game. Once a player has taken ownership of these thoughts and attitudes, then he is able to cope with the peaks and valleys of a game and a season, leading to a greater chance of success throughout his career.

What has helped me preserve this mindset is by focusing more on the effort that went into something than its outcome. I mentally replay game situations over in my head and ask myself, “What did I do correctly? Could I have done something better?” These questions can apply to both the physical side (mechanics and effort), and mental side (preparation, game awareness) of things. By doing this, I am better able to deal whatever the outcomes were, and keep myself at an emotional level that is neither too high nor too low.

Long Day

Today we began a three-game road trip in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I was asked by someone to go into detail about what a “typical” day is for me. As a preface, I will say that our “typical” days are dependent upon three things: whether we are at home or on the road; if we need to travel to get to the game; and, if the game is an early afternoon or night game. So, I will try to do a timeline for the various situations to give everyone an idea of the various days we may have.

3:50am – Wake up. Our bus departure time is 5am, and that is the actual time our bus will leave, if not a few minutes earlier. So, I am leaving the house at 4:10 to put me at the stadium by 4:20. This allows me to load my stuff onto the bus with plenty of time because if “we are ten minutes early, we are five minutes late.” That phrase was instilled in us from the first day of spring training.

4:20am – Arrive at stadium. I arrive at the stadium with my travel bags and pack my uniforms and personal baseball laundry from our previous game on Tuesday that was washed for us. Our clubby (equipment manager) washes all of our baseball clothes for us, including our uniforms and our personal items like socks, undershirts, sliders, etc.

5:00am – Depart for Fort Wayne, IN. We embark on our three-game road trip and I am exhausted at this point since I only got about three hours of sleep the night before. I am still trying to determine which situation is worse: having to travel this early to an away game and playing the same night, or traveling all night to get home and playing the following day (which we will do when we leave on Sunday night, arrive in Cedar Rapids Monday morning and play Monday evening.)

12:30pm – Arrive at hotel in Fort Wayne. I will note that all times listed are local times. Cedar Rapids is in the Central time zone and we lost an hour coming into the Eastern time zone in Indiana. I do my best trying to get more sleep on the seven-hour bus ride, but sleeping on the bus is very difficult. I hate the long road trips; being on the bus for extended periods is the worst part of being on the road.

The bus is a big motor coach that has almost enough room for all of the players to get two seats to themselves. I am fortunate to be a catcher in this sense as it is almost an unwritten rule that catchers get two seats to themselves. Sleeping is difficult for me if I do not lie horizontally, so the sleep I am able to get on the bus is some dozing here and there. Some teammates resort to sleeping on the floor under the seats and in the aisles, but I have not been able to bring myself to lie on the bus floor.

I bring my bags up to my room to drop them off. We are staying at an Econolodge and it is surprisingly the best hotel we have stayed at this season, aside from the Radisson in Dallas we stayed at when our flight was cancelled during our travels from spring training to Cedar Rapids. We have until 2pm to leave for the field, which leaves just enough time for food or a nap, but unfortunately, not both.

12:45pm – Eat lunch. Food has won out over sleep. A major thing I have learned in my short stint of minor league baseball is that you eat when you can and sleep when you can. But, since we are playing at 6pm, I am going to need food to hold me over for a while. Fortunately, our hotel is in a location in close walking proximity to some restaurants, and I walk across the street to eat at Cracker Barrel with one of our pitchers.

2:00pm – Bus leaves for stadium. Game time is 6pm, which is earlier than the typical 6:30 or 7pm evening start times. On the road, we usually arrive at the field four or five hours prior to game time. As if today has not been already crazy enough, there are strong storms in the forecast, so the uncertainty of pregame prep and the game itself are in question.

2:30pm – Pitchers and catchers on the field. Pitchers and catchers warm up and stretch, then go through their throwing programs and pitchers get their side work in off the mounds. Starting pitchers will play catch the day after a start, throw a short bullpen the second day, throw a long bullpen the third day, play catch the fourth day, and pitch on the fifth day. Relief pitchers throw when they want to on the side so they can stay fresh with their mechanics.

3:30pm – Pitchers and catchers meeting. Before every series, the pitchers, catchers, and staff meet to go over the opposing hitters we will be facing. We run through the opposing roster to see if anyone has information on hitters from playing with or against them in the past. Some of the things we discuss regarding hitters are tendencies, pitch location preference (inside vs. outside), and aggressiveness. While we use this information to determine how certain hitters will be pitched to, we will still pitch mainly according to our philosophy we have been using since spring training.

4:00pm – Batting practice. I could have called this pseudo-batting practice because the on-field batting practice was cancelled because of rain. Some stadiums have indoor cages, which are helpful for these situations; however, Fort Wayne does not. So, we wait until the rain stops and take some swings in the outdoor cage.

4:45pm – Final clubhouse preparations. I change out of my practice uniform and put on the game uniform. Before every game, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit, and cookies are put out, and I make sure to take advantage of another opportunity to eat.

5:15pm – Pregame. I warm up and stretch for the second time today with the position players, as we all get ready for the game starting shortly. I am not starting tonight so my pregame routine is rather basic, but I will detail my pregame routine in a later entry.

6:00pm – Game. I take notes on the opposing hitters as the game goes on. Tonight, our other non-starting catcher is the designated hitter, so I am on bullpen duty by myself and have to warm up the relievers when needed. We played a decent game tonight but lost a tough one 7-5.

8:45pm – Postgame meeting. The staff discusses the game and we go over things that we did well, and things that we could have done better. After this meeting, we shower and get on the bus to head back to the hotel.

9:45pm – Arrive at hotel and go to dinner. The early 6pm start time definitely helps the problem that we usually have on the road with trying to find restaurants open after games. Sometimes we get lucky, finish early, and can get to a restaurant before they close, or sometimes we play games like the 14-inning affair we had at Burlington and finish very late. This is when it is especially beneficial to be around restaurants that are open 24 hours (Denny’s, IHOP, Steak ‘n Shake; yes, gourmet delicacies, I know). Tonight, a few of us walk a few minutes down the street to IHOP and we eat dinner around 10pm. This road trip will be tolerable, but once we are on the road for seven or eight days at a time, I get sick of eating out all of the time at odd hours.

11:00pm – Arrive at hotel. The day has finally ended, but it was not without a quick trip to the convenient store next to the hotel to get some ice cream for dessert. I have a huge thing for ice cream, and one of my teammates has dubbed me “snacks” because of all the food and candy I always have with me.

What began almost 20 hours ago is now just a blur; one day in a schedule of many. Tomorrow will start another game day cycle with our bus leaving for the field at 11:45am for a 4pm game. Now, it is time to catch up on some needed sleep so I can be ready to do it all over again tomorrow.