In a move that surprises, yet doesn’t, Ed Campienello has been removed as C’s hitting coach.
Not sure if he’s been pushed sideways, up, down or out as of yet, but former C’s manager Juan Navarette has stepped in to help until a permanent hitting instructor can be found.
Navarette’s specialty is fielding work, so it won’t hurt to have him about, but the C’s really do need a guy to come in who can fix a couple of swings in the batting cage - pronto.
When more details come to hand, I’ll post them ASAP.
Just when you think you have a team figured out, they go and change their entire gameplan, and come up with a change in form.
Though it’ll obviously take more than one win to claim ‘form’, the way the Vancouver Canadians won today’s nooner against the formerly dominant Eugene Emeralds indicates that, if they can’t beat a team swinging hard, they’re capable of beating them with a little Rope-A-Dope.
For those who don’t know the term Rope-A-Dope, it stems from the boxing tactics of one Muhammad Ali in a fight against George Foreman that is remembered as ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’.
As the fight loomed, conventional wisdom said Ali had no chance against the hard-hitting Foreman if he allowed the big man to catch up with him. Pundits suggested Ali would need to be light on his feet and dance around the champ, waiting for a late-round opening, if he was to have any chance at all.
Ali had other plans. When the bell rang, he did the exact opposite, standing against the ropes and leaning back, allowing Foreman to take big shots at his body, while ducking and weaving anything thrown at his head. Foreman readily charged in and went to work, landing big hits continually.
But Ali was able to take a body shot well, and by keeping his head back and letting Foreman punch himself out downstairs, by the 5th round Foreman had a big lead on the scorecard and not a drop of gas left in the tank.
That’s when Ali turned on the offense, peppering the big man with jabs and eventually knocking Foreman out in the 8th to regain the World Heavyweight Championship belt.
The Vancouver Canadians form of Rope-A-Dope, as seen today, was as follows:
Protect the heart of the strike zone only
Let the pitchers try to hit the corners and assume they’ll miss a lot
Swing at nothing that isn’t down the middle
Get a lot of walks
Panic the defense and take advantage of their mistakes
The result? 9 bases on balls, only 3 K’s, and five runs on four Eugene errors.
That’s smart baseball, right there.
And it makes sense. Right now the C’s couldn’t hit fresh air in a wind tunnel, so why beat yourself up every night trying to push back the tide? No more whiffs, no more chasing… let the pitcher earn his K.
If at least five players from this squad aren’t cut within the week, it’ll be criminally negligent.
Dusty Napoleon came back to Vancouver from Kane County tonight, and though it’s good to see The American Dream back again, he’s here because he was hitting like a Vancouver Canadian upstairs, so I’m not holding my breath.
Tell me, is there any point in even running Lorenzo Macias out there right now? The guy’s hitting .065, which you should be able to beat even if you close your eyes and swing at random.
I’d bet fifty bucks that the UBC Thunderbirds could beat these guys right now.
Man, it’s getting tough to find any optimism about this team the way they’re playing right now.
I’m sorry, C’s players. I’m dying for you guys to play some freaking ball so I can be a mad cheering fan again and scream from the rooftops about how great you guys are and how you’ll look good in Oakland green, and maybe even be able to look you each in the eye next time I’m lurking around the BP cage without feeling like I have something to be guilty about, but holy crap, you guys have taken ’suck’ to such a high level we could plant a flag on top and charge wealthy Americans to climb it.
Seriously.
Tonight we had another pair of errors, which between them pushed four runs across the plate. As it happens, that was three more runs than Eugene needed to put the stomp to us in our own house.
Ten strikeouts. One walk. Five hits. Two errors.
Three shutouts in eleven games.
All but three players hitting below .220
Seriously.
I mean, it’s okay to lose. It’s okay to come in second best when you’re low on impact players and early round draftees and the other teams are filled with bonus babies. That’s alright. I can take that - just as long as you leave blood and tears out on the diamond in an effort to steal a victory each night.
Lost by four runs? Okay. But be angry when it happens. Hate it. Be determined to make the home fans proud with the way you fought a losing cause. Throw a couple up and in. Slide with your spikes up. Take out a runner at the plate. Go after that grounder you’re sure you’re gonna miss, just in case it takes a good bounce.
But don’t give us this ‘whiff whiff whiff’ BS, complete with grounders through the legs and throws into Section 7, and expect anyone to stand and applaud, because we’re not a pack of motards up here. We know the difference between ‘tried and failed’ and ‘trying to hit homeruns in a ballpark that doesn’t give many up, in an effort to pad your stats, even though the situation calls for a slap to oppy field.’
You guys are supposedly on the road to being Major Leaguers, but right now you’re being burned on a nightly basis by the second-lowest level of pro ball there is, and it’s not because you can’t play, it’s because you play like it doesn’t matter. You’re used to losing. And when you do, it’s not your fault, it’s the other guys, or the deep outfield wall, or the pitcher was just too good…
There used to be a tradition at The Nat where, when you won, the players would stick around after the game and sign autographs for the kids. It was a great tradition - one of the few things the old regime got right - and the reason it was so good was not because it was good PR (though it was) or because it generated a fan following in individual players based on personal connections (though it did).
No, the reason it was such a great thing was because it meant you guys, the players, had to stand and look the fans who spent their hard-earned money to see you play right in the eye. And if you sucked, you had to wear it.
Now? You go out there, swing and miss a few times, rack up another loss and go play some Wii. The fans are barely a factor. You might as well be playing in the Arizona League, or for the god damned Mets.
Again, I’m sorry I can’t be the ‘Yay for everybody’ guy right now. It doesn’t please me to throw stones at the home team - trust me - I’ve been doing this blog for five seasons now, and I do it because I love the team. Though more than a few players in that time have taken affront to what I’ve written about them, ten times that number benefited from the positive press when they gave their freaking all, and a whole lot of people come to this blog if they can’t make the game. Together, me, Jeremy, the fans and the players, have over the years built something that’s unique here in Vancouver. When things are good, you just don’t find this kind of information and support system at any other minor league level.
But it doesn’t come just because you’re wearing my team’s shirt. It comes because you’ll run through a wall like Larry Cobb, or take a flying shoulder tackle at a catcher like Chad Boyd, or you’ll fly around the bases like Death himself is chasing you, like Mike Massaro, or you’ll monster pitchers like Anthony Recker, or you’ll take your freaking life in your hands just running out a bunt, like Justin Sellers, or you’ll peel off eight foul tips in the bottom of the 9th when you’re losing by eight runs, like Tommy Everidge.
This is professional baseball. Play it like you’ve been here. Play it like you might not be here tomorrow, because at least three of you are at risk of that being the case.
As for the match report… you haven’t earned the privilege. Try again tomorrow.
I don’t know if there’s some sort of pool where the guy with the most errors this season wins $48 and a coupon to Subway, but the ball-booting and throwing into right field must stop.
The C’s are starting to get some bats moving now, and the pitching is still strong, but the defense on this team is something close to what you’d see from my former beer league softball crew (Kids in the Hole, represent!) after the 5th inning top-up.
Last night’s game was a historic one for this year’s C’s, and an emotional one for fans of last year’s squad, as it marked the return to the Vancouver fold of one Brother Love.
No, not that Brother Love.
We’re talking about ‘The Inferno’, Dante Love, co-Beerhawker Player of the Year from season 2007, tireless battler, backup catcher, and symbol of all that is good in minor league ball.
And he has a cool name.
Love came to Van City (actually, to Yakima) from Arizona this week and last night opened his short-season account with an RBI triple in a 1-3 performance with a walk, to set the table for a competitive C’s outing.
I was really tired when I got home from work tonight. It’s been a rough working week, and this 5pm to midnight shift is starting to hurt.
So I kind of appreciate it when the C’s don’t concede many runs, thus making the post-game report easy to write at 2am. But it would be nice if they scored a few… or even one… so that I could write about their win, rather than their graceless fall to the bottom of the NWL.
Tonight, Carlos Hernandez pitched six innings of three-hit, one-walk, eight-strikeout, scoreless ball. While he was doing that, No Fear LeVier was going 3-4, knocking his BA up to .273.
Nobody else did a damn thing.
The proof of that? On LeVier’s three hits, he amassed a total of three bases.
Yes, folks. He didn’t get past first base all night. Much like Rob Fai at The Roxy.
Running out a lineup that included the .125 hitting Carlos Arrieche leading off (and collecting his fourth error of the season so far - not bad considering we’ve played 9 games, eh?) and featured Walt Correa managing one hit, but then getting picked off shortly afterwards, all that remained for the final humiliation was for all that great pitching to be undone by a Fabian Gomez hit-by-pitch, wild pitch, RBI double to left sequence in the 7th. Well done, sir. You were indeed a gamebreaker.
Admittedly, this lineup stank of ‘we have a bus trip to get through, so we’re resting some guys so they’ll be fresh tomorrow and running out a scrub or two in the meantime’, but even if the bossmen aren’t overly concerned about winning, the players need to start giving a damn ASAP.
Losing like this, and this often, has a way of not just becoming habit-forming, but also stigma-inducing.
The road to Oakland starts in Vancouver. There are a few players right now who need to grasp that concept.
Brutalized. Ten runs down after four innings. The baseball equivalent of a triple homicide. Ryne ‘Thumb Tacker took the brunt of it, and I’m not sure what’s wrong with the kid, but he clearly can’t throw a baseball right now.
But hey, let’s try to be optimistic. Four C’s got beaned through the course of the evening, including (of course) JD Pruitt, so that means four guys got on base. And Mitch LeVier got a pair of hits (one of them a triple!), so that’s novel.
Inoel Deaza lowered his ERA to 9.82… Jareck West stole a base… plenty to enjoy, right?
Oh, and Julio Rivera, defying my blast of his abilities a few days ago, didn’t just go 2-2, he also notched a double and a pair of walks, racking up the single best game of his professional baseball existence. Way to respond, Hu.
Of course, he also managed to get ANOTHER catcher’s interference… seriously dude, keep your hand out of the wheelhouse.
That said, on a day when the C’s got utterly destroyed, you really can’t be too hard on a guy who generated about half the team’s offense. I gave Rivera perhaps the biggest blast any player outside of Mark Kiger has ever received on this blog, and he took it in, made some changes, and dominated today, boosting his average to .333
If this kind of form is what you’re capable of, Julio, go out and play this hard every day and your career will be a long one.
As for Ryne Tacker… Geez, Thumb, what are you throwing, grapefruits? It’s getting to the point where Stephen Hopkins will start giving you pitching tips.
Recap | Box | W: I. Harrington (1-0, 0.84); L: R. Tacker (0-2, 14.14) HR: YAK: C. Cowgill (4).
Notes:
* Guys who wear hockey shirts don’t get laid. Unless they’re on the prairies.
* The Wire is so freaking good, you don’t even know. Go rent the whole thing now.
* Still can’t bring myself to buy C’s merchandise at the prices being asked. This may change if they cease sucking, however. Or even reduce things to a moderate slurp.
In a move that surprises, yet doesn’t, Ed Campienello has been removed as C’s hitting coach. 
Just when you think you have a team figured out, they go and change their entire gameplan, and come up with a change in form.
That’s my game report.
Man, it’s getting tough to find any optimism about this team the way they’re playing right now.
Seriously, just stop now, people. 
I was really tired when I got home from work tonight. It’s been a rough working week, and this 5pm to midnight shift is starting to hurt.
Running out a lineup that included the .125 hitting Carlos Arrieche leading off (and collecting his fourth error of the season so far - not bad considering we’ve played 9 games, eh?) and featured Walt Correa managing one hit, but then getting picked off shortly afterwards, all that remained for the final humiliation was for all that great pitching to be undone by a Fabian Gomez hit-by-pitch, wild pitch, RBI double to left sequence in the 7th. Well done, sir. You were indeed a gamebreaker.
Brutalized. Ten runs down after four innings. The baseball equivalent of a triple homicide. Ryne ‘Thumb Tacker took the brunt of it, and I’m not sure what’s wrong with the kid, but he clearly can’t throw a baseball right now.
Inoel Deaza lowered his ERA to 9.82… Jareck West stole a base… plenty to enjoy, right? 
