Utah Valley @ WSU (Season Opener)

[Shocker3435]

What inning is it, pls? I need to go turn on the radio, but am busy getting ready to leave town.

Hey not trying to be a prack, but you gotta either get the TuneIn ap or save the live feed from the goshockers.com site to your phone's home page for 1 button tap and listen to any shocker event. Works great.

[THam]

Not sure those are the key metrics for a 2-hole hitter. You want someone who can put the ball in play, handle the bat a little by either bunting or hitting behind the runner, who can take a strike or two in needed and still not strike out a lot. Trey had one of the lowest, if not the lowest, strike out rates on the roster last year. I don't much care what he did his freshman year when he had to wear a back brace all year. Maybe I am just too much of a traditionalist in preferring table setters at the top of the lineup.

I agree with you on Young's potential as a leadoff hitter and thought we might see him there today. I also like Vickers, he's a tough, smart player who gives us an average-ish hitter at a defense-first position. But he arguably had the worst 2016 of all of our returners at the plate and barring significant improvement, I don't see how taking at-bats away from better hitters and giving them to Vickers maximizes our run production.

[Shocker3435]

Little bit of everything today.

Awful: Baserunning. Can forgive getting picked off. Not the blunder in the 1st. Inexcusable.

Bad: Hitting. Squared up about 2 balls all day. Not a good sign.

Jury out: Idk about the lineup. Seemed odd to me. Willie battled hard but if that's the norm for our Friday starter then it's going to be a long year.

Good: Pleasantly surprised about the D. No blunders, although Willie catching that fly was a mistake for me. Professionalism from the team. Felt like the guys were locked in from the first pitch.

Excellent: What an awesome opening day weather wise. Lots of fans, good to be at the yard after a long off season. How about the pen? Man those guys were dialed in. Low is good and throw strikes. Great job guys!

Also, great to see so many ex-players there. I think things are starting to get fixed and Crusty is missing the boat. Too bad. Seeing all those players made this guy smile and I hope there are more over the weekend.

Still lots of questions but 1-0 is better than 0-1.

[1972Shocker]

I agree with you on Young's potential as a leadoff hitter and thought we might see him there today. I also like Vickers, he's a tough, smart player who gives us an average-ish hitter at a defense-first position. But he arguably had the worst 2016 of all of our returners at the plate and barring significant improvement, I don't see how taking at-bats away from better hitters and giving them to Vickers maximizes our run production.

The only guys on the team who had slightly higher batting average than Trey Vickers last year were Greyson Jensita and Travis Young (and Travis had 56 fewer AB's) and they all strike out more then him and none handle the bat as well as Trey. There was a reason Trey was 1st Team All-Conference last year and it wasn't solely because of his defense.

A good way to maximize your run production is to SET THE TABLE for your RBI guys. Get some speed on the bases and then move it into scoring position.

The approach you prefer sure didn't produce much today although it is only one game. The table setting approach worked to produce 2 runs in the second although unfortunately we did not have our big guns batting behind Vickers and Young so perhaps we could have done even more damage that inning.

In the 5th Young and Boyer were able to get on base from the bottom of the order in front of Jenista and that ended producing the Shocks other 2 runs.

So the way I see it the table setting approach I am supporting was the key to producing all 4 or our runs today. I want the table set as much as possible for the big guns.

[THam]

I'm not sure how you wanting Vickers to bat second and me wanting him lower means the team scored 4 runs with your "approach" and 0 with mine. If "setting the table" means guys getting on base and other guys driving them in, that is exactly what I am advocating and exactly why I don't want Vickers getting several more plate appearances over the course of the year that could be going to guys like Jenista and Bohm and Dugas.

My position is, going off of last year's stats, Vickers was the second worst returner at getting on base behind Bohm and second worst returner in slugging percentage behind Debacker. Both of those are better predictors of run production than batting average. Better still at predicting run production is OPS (OBP%+SLG%). Vickers' .732 OPS is the lowest of the returners and 46 points below last year's team OPS of .778. I realize there is value not captured by these stats, such as productive outs and base running skills, but enough, in Vickers' case, to make up for him being the second worst at getting on base and second least productive when he puts the ball in play? So much so that he gets to be labelled a "table setter" and gets the second most plate appearances on the team?

Of course, in the end it probably won't make more than a couple runs difference over the course of the year on average anyway so it doesn't matter much. And Vickers may be the best hitter on the team this year, you never know.

[1972Shocker]

We will just have to agree to disagree although it matters little what either one of us thinks since we aren't making out the lineup card.

Whatever the lineup looks like today I think the Shocks will hit the ball a bit better today. Or at least I hope they do.

[1972Shocker]

Little surprised Alex Segal isn't getting a start this weekend but maybe they're looking for a little better spot to unleash the frosh.

Sounds like we won't be seeing Alex this weekend. Had some tightness in his forearm. Kennedy said they he has been examined and it wasn't thought to be serious. Hope that is the case. Seems like in the past whenever the term "forearm tightness" was mentioned it never seemed to lead to good things.

[1972Shocker]

Will be interesting to see what Steele's cap is this early in the season. Guessing ~65 pitches but we'll see.

89 pitches for Willie. It looks like the new sheriff in town does have a different approach then the previous sheriff. Whether that will yield the needed improvements in the Shocks' pitching results remains to be seen. I would say yesterday was a hopeful start but one game a season doesn't make.

I will say that what I have heard and read so far about Coach Steele's methods and approach I am liking. I thought the tweaks he made to Willie's mechanics to take the strain of his back was interesting and also showed a guy who maybe is a bit more sophisticated in terms of his understanding of kinesiology.

Looking forward to seeing what Game 2 brings from Shocker pitching.