BP with wind = bad habits

We had to move our batting practice from Round Lake to Starring Lake last night because of field availability issues. This turned out to be good because we play one regular season game at the Starring Lake field in June, so now most everyone knows how to get there.

The wind was howling, blowing straight out which can be a bad thing. With the gale-like gusts, we saw a lot of fly-ball swings. That hurts us during the season no matter which way the wind blows because we have a four-homerun limit during games and when the wind blows in, all those pretty fly balls are outs.

However, it was also good to see a lot of guys swing with authority and give the ball a ride here and there. We had 12 players, great work to Eric Johnson for manning the phone tree and for everyone for finding the spot in a decent amount of time. In attendance were Jamy Antoine, Eric & Jeff Johnson, AJ Larson, Matt Hanson, Matt Shuster, Lee & Jared Valle, Brendan Finn, Chris Burr, Jon Engbrecht and me.

Chris and Eric looked rusty but still showed why they were 1st Team All-League last year, smoking a few balls including a dinger or two.

Finn hit the longest ball of the night, probably a 340-350 foot shot to left-center. He also hit consistent lasers.

Dr. Jamy had a good first showing, lifting a few dingers and making solid contact on some other swings.

AJ stayed consistent with his low-liner approach and sprayed the ball all over the field.

Matt Hanson improved again and hit more line drives and we're expecting him to continue his progression upwards as the season goes.

Shuster showed some more pop with his low, long swing and narrowly missed a couple homers and drilled few liners.

Jared also improved and once he starts getting on top of the ball more regularly, he'll see some better results.

Jeff stayed on the ground just like Saturday but still hit the ball well. If he keeps this up, he's looking at a very high on base percentage for the season.

Lee hit a ball about 280 feet in the air, but the fence is also 7 feet tall so it didn't go over. Tough break. He did show more good pop all over the field.

Jon E. had no rust on his swing as he hit with some serious authority and knocked a handful of balls over the fence. He also raked in the gaps and did an all-around great job.

I had fun. Lefty and righty. I was swinging too hard sometimes, but it was fun. I must say that my running commentary was spot-on last night.

The "Outs" game was good too. Team 1: AJ, Lee, Matt H. and me dominated. The "little" infielders worked over everyone else. Our bad. Maybe next time guys.

Everyone has a schedule and a hat now, so please review the schedule and tell me ASAP what games you'll be missing for sure.

Scrimmage tomorrow, 11 AM at Round Lake. I'll try to get there early enough to lock down a field.

Great job last night, lots of fun hopefully for everyone and we all mashed pretty well.