Guest Batting Instructor for Thursday!

Our next practice is Thursday from 5:30 until 7:45 pm at Humphrey #3. During the first 30 minutes, we will review rundowns--since we struggled so much with rundowns in our last scrimmage. For the remainder of the practice, our team will receive some expert hitting instruction from Doug Pringle. Doug will review the basic fundamentals of batting with the entire team. This discussion generally takes 10 to 15 minutes. He will then analyze each player's swing and offer two or three tips for improvement.

Doug is one of the finest hitting instructors in the area. He played baseball at a very high level and has studied hitting for many years. He does a great job keeping things simple. And, he's been effective in helping many baseball players make progress with their hitting.

I am thankful that he has accepted my invitation to work with our players. This session will be an invaluable development session.

Doug Pringle working with my nephew at his home's "hitting station"

Jimmy Smith Joins Team as Alternate

Given the limited availability of some of our "revolving" roster players, our team was expected to be shorthanded (less than 12 active players) for the Bourbonnais tournament. If a team has less than 12 players, it's likely that the tournament would automatically assess an out each time the 12th spot in the order is scheduled to bat!

So, our team requested and was granted permission to add an alternate player to the roster. Jimmy Smith accepted this invitation and will play for the Blue Thunder throughout the Bourbonnais tournament.

We are pleased to have Jimmy on the roster. He was one of the top pitchers in the Bronco's National League this season and should help our pitching staff a great deal.

Jimmy may also play in a few other tournament games. He is available to replace players who become ill or who do not hustle during the games.

1st & 3rd Defensive Signals

We plan to implement the following defensive signs when an opponent has runners on first and third base. Although it probably appears complicated at first glance, I'm confident that our players will grasp it after two or three practices.

The verbal signal involves three numbers. The first number indicates the type of play (a throw, a fake, or a pitch out). The second number indicates which player the catcher will throw or fake to (using the baseball player position numbers from an earlier posting below). And, the third number indicates the base, if applicable, where the play will take place (if the base number exceeds three, then the play will take place at the player's position rather than a base).

The following chart illustrates how this works along with four example plays. We will cover this during this afternoon's practice and review it during Thursday and Friday's practice. We will implement this play calling system for our exhibition game against Tinley Park on July 3rd.

Please be sure to call me with any questions.

CLICK ON ILLUSTRATION TO ENLARGE.

Defensive Positioning

One of the team's challenges during the scrimmage against Lemont was getting into good defensive positioning. Unless we call for a special defensive alignment (e.g., infield in, playing a hitter to pull), players should align in a "straight away" position. Straight away positioning looks something like this:

Note that the centerfielder is positioned nearly on a straight line from the plate through second base. The leftfielder is positioned on a line between the third baseman and the shortstop, while the rightfielder is similarly positioned between the first baseman and the second baseman.

The third baseman is off the line a few paces and somewhat behind the bag, while the shortstop is deeper than the third baseman and closer to second base than third base. Similarly, the first baseman is a few paces off the line and behind the base, while the second baseman is deeper than the first baseman and closer to second base than first base.

Fun at the Old Ballpark

One of our team's goals is to have fun while playing baseball. I had the pleasure to watch my niece's OYA 3rd/4th grade girls' softball playoff game the other night. It was evident that the girls were having a lot of fun playing the game.

I also had a lot of fun taking photos of the game. I thought I would share a few and hope that they capture the spirit of the event (click on any images to enlarge):

Early Practice Experiment Fails

In our first try at an early practice time (9:30 am), less than half of the team was able to attend. Many players had trouble getting a ride to the park at that early hour. Although several players expressed a preference for morning practices, the attendance isn't strong enough to justify having any more 9:30 am practices. The team will practice next at 4:00 pm on Thursday at Centennial #3.

The Importance of the Count

In an earlier posting, I wrote about how Ted Williams refused to swing at pitches outside of the strike zone. At the Bronco level, it is critical for hitters to be selective at the plate and only swing at strikes. Once a hitter is ahead in the count (e.g., 2-0, 3-1), the pitcher is forced to throw a very hittable pitch--or he may start aiming the pitches and walk several consecutive batters.

The statistics support the fact that a hitter's count benefits the offense. In a recent study of college baseball statistics, the batting average for hitters with a 2-1 count was 150 points higher than for hitters with a 1-2 count! This benefit becomes even greater with more favorable counts such as 3-1.

Letting pitchers off the hook by swinging at pitches outside of the strikezone has just the opposite effect. Pitchers get an immediate sense of relief when a bad pitch turns into a strike. They can then ride that momentum to get back into a groove. We often tell our hitters to "make the pitcher work" or to "make the pitcher earn it."

Although it is more difficult than it looks, one of the goals for our tournament team is to be more selective at the plate. We want our hitters to be aggressive, but we also want them to be aware of the count and when it is appropriate to be aggressive.

Tournaments Are Finally Announced

The OYA 12U Blue Thunder team finally received its tournament schedule for the month of July. The team will play in four tournaments during the month:

Oak Lawn - July 5th through the 11th
New Lenox - July 13th through the 16th
Bourbonnais - July 20th through the 22nd
Orland Park - July 26th through the 29th

As you know, our team has 15 players on the active roster. There are 10 "full-time" roster spots. Full time players will play in most of the tournament games. There are 5 "revolving" roster spots. Revolving players will play in some of the tournament games. We will try to determine which tournaments each player will be participating before July begins.

OYA Picnic All-Star Game Pics

I had the opportunity to capture of few images of the OYA Picnic All-Star games at Centennial Park on Saturday night. It was a special atmosphere out there. Everyone (the players, coaches, fans and even the umpires) was having a good time. In most of the games, there was plenty of offense--so the crowds had plenty to cheer about.

CLICK HERE if you would like to view the photos. As would be expected, there's a heavy Marlins' emphasis throughout the gallery.

The Athletic Position

One of the fundamentals we stressed during the first practice is the importance of getting into an "athletic position"--or the "baseball ready position". To accomplish this, a player will have his weight over the balls of his feet, knees slightly bent, back bent slightly at the waist, hands in front of the body, head up and eyes looking forward.


This "athletic position" is practiced in nearly every sport (with very slight modifications). It's the position that Brian Urlacher assumes while playing middle linebacker. It's the position that a basketball player uses while playing defense. It's even used in golf--just watch Tiger Woods as he prepares to drive a golf ball.

The athletic position is also used in nearly every aspect of baseball. Most commonly, our team goes into this position on defense as the pitcher releases the baseball. But, this is the same position (with slight modifications) that we use while leading off of a base, during our batting stance while preparing to hit and while getting ready to delivery a pitch. Note how this batting stance is nearly identical to the fielding position with the exception of having the arms raised slightly:

It's a focus on the basic fundamentals that will allow us to build the foundation for improvement during the season. One of our goals is to be sure that all of our players are in a proper athletic position so that they give themselves the greatest chance for success.