One thing Becker can do is bunt. Burgess now 2-0 on the season. Murphy with an incredible outing he may have to be our #3. Conor Smith is not a better hitter vs leftys than Chaffin it makes sense when players our equal to each other but that is not the case here. I like platooning Hawkins (R) and Cheray (L) at SS and putting Spiker at 2B. This would allow us to take advantage of our hitting depth at OF Mattea, Drake, Maddox, and Massenberg. I'd like to see Maddox get a shot at DH because Peebles has not impressed me.
Ditto especially coming back late in the game against a supposed pretty good relief specialist showed a little back bone
Seifert was amazing defensively. The best I've ever seen at 3B for us. Burgess looked really really good. Great command on both sides of the plate. Very impressed with both Cheray and Hawkins defensively at SS. One of Cheray's errors was on a ball he should have never been able to get to and botched the throw. Never seen anybody like him at SS in a Bears uniform in 20 years. He is so tall he only takes three steps to his left and he is behind 2B. Hawkins really steps out when the ball is pitched to him and he wasn't even close to covering the outer half of the plate because he stands so far away to begin with. Texas tech picked up on it quick and just peppered the outer half of the plate resulting in his golden sombrero. The first base umpire was absolutely terrible. The relief pitcher we knocked out was a pre-season all-american. Keenen smoked 3 balls but two were right at people. Clay was amazing.
Thanks for the report red. I've been excited about Burgess since we signed him. He could either be an ace reliever, or a Sunday starter for us this year. Great to have that flexibility. A little concerned with Schumacher since his numbers weren't great in Juco, and he got handled pretty good by a team not known for their bats. Just one outing, so I hope to see him bounce back next time out. Cheray is highly touted. I'd expect him to have a good season for us this year. 2-2 is fine, would have liked 3-1 obviously, but the weekend was a success all in all. Found out quite a bit about the team, and the response is a good omen.
