Thursday, May 19, 2005

Post-season Roster

Here is the 18-man playoff roster for the Sharks. All statistics are for varsity games only.


No.NameYearPositionGABHBAHRsRBIsOBPSLG
1C. BellJR1B, 3B20318.25808.378.387
2B. WeinstockSR2B, SS226631.470017.563.591
3G. KernodleSOSB, SS661.16700.286.167
4A. WestineSRP810.000 00.000.000
7G. RothSROF, P227224.333013.377.389
9J. WeinstockSOOF, 1B173211.34402.432.375
11D. WilliamsSROF227942.532220.568.696
12J. DispenzaSOOF000.00000.000.000
17M. GwynJRC, 3B214614.30416.411.391
18G. AzziSR3B11113.27304.273.273
19J. PuklusSRSS, P225818.310114.487.448
21D. DawSROF830.00000.000.000
24A. BeckSROF, SS17256.24001.269.240
25B. FitchJRP, 1B216218.290324.382.532
29P. JohnsonSRP, 3B216222.355124.468.532
33J. Van SoelenSROF, 1B215223.442425.544.808
44S. WilliamsFRC, 1B132812.42918.543.679
45W. SemkinJRP, INF210.00000.500.000

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I think pulling a pitcher, and the timing of that, can make or break a team. I don't think any of our leading pitchers are as good late in the game as the next pitcher behind them, a fresh arm, a different delivery. I think if we did a better job of hooking pitchers we have a better record, which gives us a better seed in the playoffs and we are still in the game. In fact, we could have won last Friday with a more sensitive hook. I know many who were screaming "Hook Him!" way before the too late move was made.

Robert E. Williams said...

I'm completely convinced (and I should hasten to add that this is based on managing experience at levels no more exalted than Little League and Pony League) that deciding when to change pitchers is the toughest decision a manager has to make. Likewise (and for the same reasons), it's the easiest decision to second-guess.

For three years, I had the privilege of managing the Malibu Little League Dodgers. My last game with the Dodgers, a Tournament of Champions game played in West LA at the end of a season in which we had won every single one of our previous 25 games, came down (in my mind, at least) to a decision about whether to take out my starter late in the game.

Jacob Perrin was my starter and he had been brilliant all season long. When he put the tying run on base late in that tournament game, I went out and talked to him and considered taking him out. I had both Stephen Williams and Sean Conrad available. To make a long story short, I left Jacob in, he gave up a homerun, and we lost.

The moral of the story (1): You gotta dance with the one who brung you.

The moral of the story (2): It's a team game and big games are won and lost as a team, not on the basis of individual effort.

Pick one.

As I told Jacob--and the entire team--after the game, if we were going to lose, I wanted it to happen with my ace on the mound. Of course, Jacob could have said (and I would have agreed) that we would have preferred not to lose.

I'm old enough to remember Dandy Don Meredith telling Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football, "If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas." My favorite "if" is this: If Daniel Williams had checked his swing in the fifth inning and walked rather than striking out with two on and two out and if Philip Johnson had followed with a grand slam, Malibu would have won, 6-5.

Here's the bottom line: There were only five balls hit out of the infield against Tucker. The guy wasn't unbeatable, but the door was never opened very wide.