Captains Corner Week One
2/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Every day leading up to the season opener, andweeklyonce the season begins, the 2009 University of Michigan baseball tri-captains -- Chris Fetter, Kevin Cislo and Tim Kalczynski -- will take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of the U-M program. Everything from practices, game preparation, student-athlete life and of course all the ups and downs of the grueling season.
Captains Corner with Tim Kalczynski
FRIDAY, FEB. 6 -- Day Five of Practice, Situations Like Kevin Cislo's Tacos
If your counting skills are up to par, you know that today marked the fifth day of official team practice. As Chris said in his last blog, we practice the same plays every day or every other day. Today was no different.
The position players started practice with pre-game infield/outfield practice. For those of you that don't know, during infield/outfield, we go through various plays that position players might run into during the course of a game (i.e. ground ball double plays, steals, relays). I would compare our performance today to eating Kevin Cislo's homemade tacos. The first few are pretty good, but the plate gets messier with each one. By the time you get to your fifth taco, the plate is full of lettuce, stray cheese, and taco meat grease. It's all over your hands and your left wondering how there seems to be more food on your plate than in your stomach. Similarly, outfielders Nick Urban, Tyler Mills, Bryce Aspinwall and company set a strong tone as their throws were right on target. When we moved to infield work, it just wasn't as clean. It's nothing to get too worried about. It was one of those days. Hopefully, we don't have any more of those.
During infield/outfield, the pitchers did CYN (Check YourSelf). Coach Keller stands 60 feet away and takes his aggression out as he hits lasers back at the pitchers. It's supposed to simulate a quick ground ball. When asked about the drill, pitcher Tyler Burgoon replied, "It went well." Thanks Ty.
We moved on to Defensive Series 1, which consists of nine-minute stations where position players and pitchers go through a series of plays ranging from double play starts to "4-hole communication" (soft ground balls between the first and second basemen). This went much smoother than infield/outfield. Pitchers Travis Smith, Matt Gerbe and Kevin Vangheluwe looked exceptional during their double-play starts. Their footwork was smooth like Skippy.
We ended practice with hitting stations. We went through tee work, soft toss drills, and batting practice against the coaching staff. Some notables: (1) Coach Ust's slider is dirty (2) Coach Keller will throw inside to lefties.
I look forward to tomorrow's practice ... 6 a.m.
Go Blue!
Timmy Kal
Captains Corner with Chris Fetter
THURSDAY, FEB. 5 -- Day Four of Practice, Don't Think and Squaring Up
I am back for my second installment of the Captain's blog! I hope you have enjoyed these just as much as Tim, Kevin, and I have had writing them. It is fun to let the fans know what goes on inside the locker room and in our daily lives as student athletes.
I get asked the question "What do you guys actually do during a baseball practice" quite a bit. To answer that question, I just say one phrase, repetitive repetitions. There are only so many plays in a baseball game, but in order to be a solid team, we have to be masters of each possible play that might come our way. Baseball is not like football where we can plan out what ten plays we are going to run in the game. Sure, we can go through the scouting reports and see how we will pitch the batters, but after the ball has left the pitcher's hand, the game is wide open. Before every pitch, a good baseball player will ask himself what he will do if the ball comes to him, so if we cover each of those possibilities countless times, it will become instinct. Instinct is better than thinking, just like Crash Davis says in Bull Durham, "Don't think, it can only hurt the ball club!" We practice for situations that we may see only one time a year, and it just so happens that one of those plays was put in my hands two years ago, and helped get me out of trouble in the biggest game of my life.
Two years ago, in the Regional final at Vanderbilt, I was in a bit of a jam. With one out in the 4th inning, the #1 ranked Commodores had runners on first and third with the power of the order up. My coaches called a play that we might use once or twice a season. We practice this play almost every day in our pitching breakdowns so I had experienced it thousands of times beforehand and was ready when my moment had come. I went through the steps and ended up picking the guy off at third! That pick got me out of the inning and kept me in the game, because I saw coach send my teammate Mike Powers, to go get warm in the pen. This is just one example of being ready for anything at all times in the game of baseball.
Along with being repetitive, practice can help build mental preparation for a baseball game. Baseball is a sport where you cannot get too high or too low, because you are always one hit away from being in the ball game, plus the games usually last over three hours and if you got excited for every play, you would be completely exhausted by the end of the game. Being consistent with your play and mentality are the keys to being a successful player. Failure is a part of baseball. If you fail 70 percent of the time at the plate, you are going to be a Hall of Famer! Understanding that hard times will come, but being able to recognize that and not get down on your self is extremely important. Practice helps to erase the fear of failure because we practice each play so many times at a high level that each man knows he is able to make the play, so when it comes to him, he is ready.
Today we had our live hitting at the beginning of practice and it was good to see some of the hitters get comfortable and square some balls up today. I think it is much harder for the hitters to get accustomed to seeing live pitching again, and in talking to Ryan Lamarre and Mike Dufek, those sentiments were agreed upon. However, I got to see a few at bats today and I will give him his due, Ryan exploded on a ball today, which is good to see out of a guy who will put up runs for you when we play other teams!
After hitting we did outfield relays where our outfielders work on throwing to the different bases with runners in different positions. From relays, we went into a long bunting drill that was not only effective for the hitters to work on their bunts, but it allowed the pitchers to field live bunts. To end practice we conditioned hard. As coach says, we have 4 games in the first 3 days we are in Florida (in the heat), so our stamina must be there if we are to be successful.
Thanks for reading again and look forward to Timmy's blog about our Friday practice!
Go Blue!
Captains Corner with Kevin Cislo
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 4 -- Day Three of Practice, Mock Rock and Kangaroo Court
Hello again from the Michigan Baseball Captains' Blog, my name is Kevin Cislo. I am a senior and like fellow captain Timmy Kal, I am majoring in secondary education; however, my focus is in history. Before I go discuss the team's third day of practice, I would like to talk about what the team did after practice last night.
We were able to get out of practice a little early in order to make it to Mock Rock. This is a very popular event on campus where the athletic teams do a variety show to raise money for Motts Children's Hospital. In all, Mock Rock was able to raise over $50,000 with $33,000 going directly to Motts. The freshmen on the team were able to demonstrate that their athletic abilities such as coordination, flexibility, and overall lack of athletic physique could transfer over into their routine. They were able to show their skills off by having a dance off with the hockey team's freshmen. With their efforts, they were able to muster a score of 31 on a 40 point scale. Overall, they were able to entertain the crowd and at the same time rack up fines in the locker room kangaroo kourt which is a team bonding event where teammates fine each other for saying or doing laughable, unintelligent things.
As for the third day of practice, we were blessed with the presence of former captain Jeff Kunkel and closer Mike Powers. Practice started off with infield/outfield, first and third plays, and bunt defense. We then moved into defensive breakdowns, this is where you are broken down into infield, outfield, catchers, and pitchers. You spend 20 minutes working with your respective coach. Infielders are with Coach Maloney, outfielders are with new wolverine Coach Ust, catchers are with Coach Husted, and pitchers go with Coach Keller.
After defensive breakdowns, we went into the hitting portion of practice. This consisted of bunting, situational hitting, soft toss, and facing live pitching for the third day. This was the first day of live pitching for the group of pitchers that were throwing. The hitters are beginning to look more comfortable in the box and are adjusting to seeing the ball come in at faster speeds. Both pitchers and hitters still need to get more work in to be prepared for the first game coming up at the end of this month. Coach Maloney keeps emphasizing that every day we need to do something to get better.
I can still hardly believe that my fourth and final season of baseball at the University of Michigan is only 16 days away. I look forward to giving you the inside scoop of Michigan Baseball during my final year.
Be sure to check back tomorrow when Chris Fetter gives you an inside look into day four of practice on our way to the 2009 season opener!
Go Blue!
Captains Corner with Tim Kalczynski
TUESDAY, FEB. 3 -- Day Two of Practice, Wearing Fastballs and Dirt Bags
Greetings from Ann Arbor, Michigan. My name is Tim Kalczynski (pronounced kal zin' ski), but my teammates know me as Timmy Kal. I am a fifth-year senior working towards a degree in secondary education and I love the University of Michigan. Like the Wolverines before me, I take great pride in wearing the big "M". With that said, I'm truly honored to be part of this blog and I will do my best to give you an inside look into what our lives are like.
Today was the second day of practice. The temperature was 19 degrees Fahrenheit with winds blowing 5-10 miles per hour out of the west. For you southerners, that's pretty warm for this time of year and if there wasn't snow on the ground, it's possible that we would be outside taking fly balls and ground balls on the football field. However, there's still about eight inches of snow on the ground so we were forced to stay inside. Luckily, we have great athletic facilities here in Ann Arbor, mainly a little building called Oosterbaan Fieldhouse where the air is warm and dry. It's an indoor football field that many of the varsity sports use to compensate for the weather.
Practice started at 5 p.m. with hitters facing off against the pitchers in the cages. One-on-one, baby! I don't know how it is as a pitcher, but as a hitter, there are a lot of emotions flying. There's excitement to be facing a live arm mixed with outright fear of being hit by that same live arm. Ask utility player Mike Kittle about that. He was the first victim yesterday, manning up to wear a fastball in the back. No worries, though, that's just part of the game and we have to try to purge any fear of being hit before we start our season. Coach Maloney loves "dirt bag" players and wearing pitches is part of being a "dirt bag".
Following live hitting, we went into relays as outfielders Ryan LaMarre, Alan Oaks, Kenny Fellows and company let the cannons loose. The focus today was on hitting the cutoff man and for the most part, the outfielders did their job. Following that, we finished up with PFP (Pitcher's Fielding Practice) as the pitchers worked on various plays ranging from double-play starts to fielding bunts.
As Coach said, overall, practice was good, but there is still much room for improvement. We are 17 days away from opening day. I look forward to seeing you all in Clearwater, Florida.
Go Blue!
Timmy Kal
Captains Corner with Chris Fetter
MONDAY, FEB. 2 -- The Start of a New Year
Hello, and welcome to the new Michigan Baseball Captains Blog! My name is Chris Fetter and I am currently in my fifth year at Michigan. I can't believe it is already my last season, but I along with the rest of the seniors would like to finish our careers as the first group to ever win four consecutive Big Ten championships!
The past 3 seasons have been quite a ride, but with the loss of some key players and the addition of some fresh faces, it is an exciting time to be a part of Michigan baseball.
Today marked the first day of practice and it did not take much time at all for everyone to get back into the swing of things. While our first game is only 18 days away, it seems like it has been an eternity getting back to this point in the year. Many of you out there have no idea what our baseball team goes through after our fall practice period. So I will give you, the reader, a glimpse into the life of a Michigan baseball player over the winter, before I go into how our first day of practice went.
After the last pitch of fall ball, our team goes into the "conditioning" phase of the year, where our lifts are increased dramatically. Playing 56 regular-season games during the year is a challenge and in order to prepare for the strenuous schedule, we need to be as strong as possible. Not only do we add on harder lifts in the weight room and more days lifting, but we also go through early morning conditioning sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 a.m. Waking up at 5:30 a.m. when it is 15 degrees out, to go run nonetheless, is a chore in itself, but add on classes and more individual practices later, it can make for a long day. During this time, we get eight hours with our coaches, so our lifting and running takes up six of those hours during the week, which leaves us two hours in the week where we get individual attention with the coaches. The pitchers can utilize the indoor facility for bullpens with Coach K, or the fielders can get their hitting and fielding practice. This "conditioning" phase lasts only four months, one of which is spent at home over Christmas break, but it can seem much longer with the excitement of the season ahead of us.
The past 3-4 weeks, Kevin, Timmy and I have been running voluntary captains practices where we had the chance to go through all of our different plays and get everyone back up to speed, so we could hit the ground running when official practice started. I believe this time with everyone really paid off this year because today was one of the crisper practices I have seen for the first day. Infield/outfield was solid, as was our 1st and 3rd plays, and also bunt defense. It was apparent that everyone had taken our captain's practices seriously with the way we were able to jump right into the drills without explanation.
At the end of practice, we have our live hitting session where four of our pitchers will throw a predetermined amount of innings to live hitters in our cages. There is no L-screen in front of the pitchers, so it feels like 1-on-1 in basketball, where it is just the pitcher vs. the hitter. It can be intimidating at first because neither the pitchers nor the hitters have faced hitters and live pitching, respectively. Again, for the first day, both the pitchers and hitters looked sharp and talking with Coach K during practice, we both believe that our pitching is much further along than this point last year.
Most of all, the excitement and energy level was there, as it should be for our opening practice. This team has a lot of holes to fill from last year, but that makes each and every day a battle in practice. As it says in Proverbs 27:17, "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
Competition at each position can only make us stronger when the season rolls around in just over two weeks. Thank you for taking the time to read our new blog and look forward to future blogs from the other two captains as we lead you to our opening day February 20th in Clearwater, Florida!
Make sure to check back each day leading up to our season opener on Feb. 19th for more from the Captains Corner.
Go Blue!
