Gator Dug Out Club team dinner

[BigOlGator]

Hope you find this interesting.

The Gator Dug Out Club had its “Covered Dish Dinner” with the team and coaching staff last night. It’s an annual membership event to meet and support the team. The players spread out and 1 or more sit at a table with the members in an informal meal setting. This year, Daniel Gibson and Connor Mitchell sat with us, but I got to speak with quite a few others too.

Here are some tidbits I picked up from various players –
Nicest ballparks – So. Carolina, MSU, Ga. with the trees surrounding its park.
Nicest fans – MSU. Polite/good sports (They BBQ by the outfield and always offer the players plates of food which, of course, they have to refuse because they can’t eat before the game.) :-(
Worst parks – Kentucky, Vandy (nice facility, but field surface is really bad), Vols
Worst fans – Ole Miss: None-alcohol campus, but area outside right field is not "campus". Students start drinking early and then throw their cups in the air whenever Ole Miss scores a run – apparently it’s quite a sight for first-timers. Visitor bullpen is in right field, so flying beer cans is an issue. SC fans not nice at all.

Gators takes bus to Jax. or Orlando on Thursday and they fly commercial to away games from those sites. Team bus leaves Wed. after practice with all their stuff so that when they arrive at airport everything is there waiting for them. They practice at the park Thursday night.

As mentioned in an earlier thread, Zach Powers is working at 1st base. Arm is pain-free; strength about 85% and improving. Also mentioned earlier, Gibson, Poyner and Gushue played together in Wisc. league this past summer. Gibson said he got more out of it than his Cape league exp. last year. Bus trips were 2 hr. rides. Longest was 6 hrs. to Grand Rapids, Mich. Players stayed with host families in Madison who provided them with room and board. Teams paid for the uniforms, equipment, etc. Players had to pay their way to and from Wisc. Sully calls around and tries to find teams for the guys to play on, but players have to be invited by the teams.

Multiple players talked about the speed on this year’s team. Definitely going to try to run the bases. As an aside, I watched some of Sunday’s practice. Bunting practice went on for the 2 ½ hours I was there in both batting practice and in an area behind home plate. Behind the plate area was used while others were taking batting practice, fielding practice, etc., but someone was always bunting.

Sully always has the kids come up and introduce themselves. It’s funny watching the freshmen because most aren’t used to talking in front of a group. Sully has them introduce themselves; say where they’re from and what position they play. It happens every year that at least one newbie gets tongue-tied. Last night one player said his name; where he was from and then said, “and I play left-handed pitcher” which got snickers from his teammates. When the Sophs. came up, one guy introduced himself and went on to say, “and I, too, play left-handed pitcher.” which got a big laugh. Dent and Ramjit are the only seniors.

Sully doesn’t like the term “small ball”, prefers to think of it as “an aggressive” style of ball. Players think there’ll be a lot of 3-2 type games. During Sully’s talk, his daughter wandered on up by the podium, so Sully picked her up and just kept talking. It was a cute scene. She had her pacifier in her mouth and her “sippy cut” in her hand. They have a baby boy now too, so Sully’s been busy - ;-) He said the bats are here to stay, but there’s apparently been a fair amount of discussion regarding making the ball more “lively”, but no decision has been made on that yet. We don’t have Ala., Ark. or Tex A&M on our schedule, but will have 12 teams in the SEC Tournament. He didn’t care for that as 4 teams will be 1 and done, so the travel isn't beneficial.

[GatorChoice]

Thanks for sharing!

[DoubleDown11]

It's going to be interesting to watch Sully manage games this year. Bunting and the hit and run are things that make baseball coaches get weak in the knees, but they can often hurt you just as much as they help you. He's going to have to be very careful not to fall in love with that stuff. You can make a very valid statistical argument that, for a team that has a hard time scoring runs, giving away outs by bunting is a horrible strategy.

[MadduxFanII]

Originally Posted by DoubleDown11

It's going to be interesting to watch Sully manage games this year. Bunting and the hit and run are things that make baseball coaches get weak in the knees, but they can often hurt you just as much as they help you. He's going to have to be very careful not to fall in love with that stuff. You can make a very valid statistical argument that, for a team that has a hard time scoring runs, giving away outs by bunting is a horrible strategy.

Yep. Very good point. (I was looking through some old posts the other day and I was amused at how often I started a post by saying, "I agree with DoubleDown...")

The other thing to keep in mind is that we haven't been very good at the small ball stuff during O'Sullivan's tenure, for all the talk of being fundamentally sound we've heard from O'Sullivan since he got here. We were an almost comically bad baserunning team last year. Bunting has never been our forte. And yet we've had the best three-year stretch in program history, which is an example of just how little the little things are.

[BigOlGator]

Gibson mentioned that there were 10 HRs hit between Fri. & Sun. practices, so we still have long ball hitters. I didn't get the impression from Sully that we intended to play only "small ball". Sorry I didn't do a better job of relaying that. Like all things, it depends upon the circumstances - who's at bat; what kind of ball the pitcher throws, strength of opposing infielders, etc.

Sully discussed the differences from year to year in team strengths and weaknesses. One issue he emphasized was the fact that we only have 2 "seniors" and how a team usually has more older guys to help sort of guide the younger guys.

He discussed how "energized" the staff was this year. By that, I felt he was making the point about how exciting it is to have so many new guys and trying to make the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Definitely not a negative.

At Sunday's practice, it was fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. It was fun listening to Weitzel during the practice. He had some funny comments and kept things light. Sully also mentioned how fortunate he was have had the same coaches to work with.

Part of the reason we didn't do better on the base paths last year was a lack of good base runners. Obviously, you have to have decent speed, but you also need good instincts (as Zunino proved). I think we ran sometimes, even though we lacked the best base runners, just to keep the other team honest.

Anyway, it should be an interesting season. Practices, for those who can stop by, start at 3 p.m. M-Th.

[gatorbogey]

great report! thanks for posting!
good info.

any mention on the pitching - starters? - weekend and weekday? specialty pitchers? closers?

curious about the outfields this year too?

met gibson's and connor's dads during the long rainout last year of the NCSU super regional: enjoyed talking with them.

[BigOlGator]

Originally Posted by gatorbogey

great report! thanks for posting!
good info.

any mention on the pitching - starters? - weekend and weekday? specialty pitchers? closers?

curious about the outfields this year too?

met gibson's and connor's dads during the long rainout last year of the NCSU super regional: enjoyed talking with them.

Sully didn't talk about any specific pitchers, but discussed the recent award Crawford won and had him take an extra "bow". Said the Sunday games will be as tough as the Fri. games, though.

A lot of guys will get early looks as he wants to establish his relievers. Justin Shafer introduced himself as "outfield and pitcher" which I found interesting simply bcause he was the only guy to state 2 positions. The only pitcher mentioned by any player was Tucker Simpson. He's Greg Larson size and apparently has a delivery that makes it very hard to pick up his pitch.

Two freshman were mentioned as being fast guys in the outfield, but I can't remember their names as the conversation was just in passing. I think fans will be surprised this year at how much taller and stockier the team is compared to last year.

[gatorbogey]

good stuff!

any other 'reports'? gatorgal usually attends. WES? HiFi?

[polkgator]

Was Brad Weitzel at the dinner??

[BigOlGator]

Originally Posted by polkgator

Was Brad Weitzel at the dinner??

Yes.

[gatorbait96]

Thanks for the info!