AJ and more Pong

Headed to the ball game yesterday with the boys, and watched AJ pitch the lights out. People are starting to jump right back on the AJ bandwagon, after being on the get AJ the hell out of town and AJ's just a 500 pitcher bandwagon about 3 weeks ago.

Here's the thing. he's ALWAYS been this good. he's always had the ability to strike out 10 guys. what his problem has been in the past is that he suffers from the same thing i do in golf. the blow up inning (hole). he'll pitch 6 flawless, then walk one guy, get pissed, and throw fastballs down the middle and let 4 come across before getting yanked. thats his M.O. so really for me, its a matter of managing him and this flaw (which is not likely to improve - he is who he is). Get him out of there, and don't let him pitch out of jams that he creates for himself. if you do that, you're likely to get 5-6 innings of solid pitching, and a few guys on base that hopefully, your bullpen can get you out of.

personally, i'm still optimistic that they extend him, rather than letting him go at the end of season, but i guess i would understand if they wanted to take that extra cash and give it to some less injury prone, big bat.

with that being said, the main problem is STILL hitting. the jays had something like 5 hits last night, and left a few guys in scoring position. luckily, the pitching was so solid that they only needed 2 runs to take it. but if they want to get back in this (need a miracle now), they're gonna have to do better than that.

as for the ping pong update, i faced off against the machine a few weeks ago. though i progressed, and we had several long points, i fell once more 3-2 in sets, and 11-8 in the final set. tough loss.

i learned that we have both been beating up on our competition by simply outlasting our opponents and keeping the ball on the table. our game was basically a war of attrition, with each person doing their best to just keep it on the table.

today, i faced off again against the machine, who continued to roll through the rest of the roadkill in our division. i was determined to change up the previous strategy, since clearly, it didnt work as well as i would have liked (i.e. i lost). she showed up a little late for the game, and i used the opportunity to hit around with one of the "A" division players. with the extra warmup, i went on to dismantle the machine, 3-0 in sets, with 7 being her highest point total. seemed like she didnt know how to handle the newfound aggression. so it looks like i've found something that works. with just a few weeks left, and both of basically having secured the 2 finals spots, we'll see how it goes when i have less of a warmup in a few weeks.