A Sea Of Red

Bean doing what he does. Walking guys. Hitting the ones he doesnt walk then giving up bombs. What a dissappointing season from him this year.

Down 3 to 0

Lose 5-1. Ugh.

Giving up 5 runs is bad, but only scoring 1 is even worse.

ballcoach15 wrote:Giving up 5 runs is bad, but only scoring 1 is even worse.

Mostly agree. I do like to see great pitching, so I am happy with a 1-0 win.

Bean has hit the sophomore slump...hard.

Speaking of pitchers, what's the scoop on AJ Stevens? He appeared in one Radford game for 2/3 of an inning, struck out 2, and did not give up a walk, hit or run. Haven't hear of him since. Is he hurt?

Lighten up on the Bean kid I remember a number of guys calling for Close to be benched his Soph yr. I'm not a big Toman fan but that was a good move. And now look at Closes' Jr and Sr year. Its not a Soph slump its simply the bad guys have a book on you now and most Soph players have a hard time making adjustments after having successful Fresh yr. That's my advise from someone who lived it.

Bean's biggest problem is that he's been too fine trying to work the corners this year. Seems a little unwilling to trust his stuff, which is good when it's on. He's walking too many people, and even when he's not walking people, he's working too many deep counts. I think it's as simple as him needing to throw strikes.

Chris Lang wrote:Bean's biggest problem is that he's been too fine trying to work the corners this year. Seems a little unwilling to trust his stuff, which is good when it's on. He's walking too many people, and even when he's not walking people, he's working too many deep counts. I think it's as simple as him needing to throw strikes.

With all due respect saying Bean is trying to be too fine with his pitches is really giving him the credit for having some command of his pitches, In all honestly, watching him pitch tells me he really lacks command and that's the problem. He can't put two pitches in the same place, at this point, if he tried. Yesterday was a great example, he was all over the place throwing one over Sankey's head to the backstop. Agreed that he is always behind in the count to the batters and then has to groove his very hittable fastball.

My guess is the coaches have told him to trust your stuff and throw strikes. For him it's easier said than done. It seems he still struggles with repeating his pitching motion, arm angle etc - mechanics. But I'm not a pitching expert.

I think that's a fair point. He's told me he's been trying to work the corners too much, so that's where my assessment was coming from. He very well may end up back in his familiar Sunday spot this week since he pitched Monday, so we'll see if that does anything to help him.

Key to pitching is get ahead of hitters, then make them hit "your pitch". when you are behind in count, hitters can "set on whatever pitch they like", normally fastball down middle.
I have always liked those who can get a curve or change-up for a first pitch strike.