University of North Carolina Athletics
Wes' Word: October 5
October 5, 2004 | Baseball
Oct. 5, 2004
By Wes Moyer
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - We are going into the third week of practice this week with five scrimmages behind us and only a week and a half to go until the true World Series - the Carolina Baseball Fall World Series! The teams and managers have already been selected and will be revealed Thursday on SportsCenter ... not really but they will be posted in the locker room.
Bragging rights are always on the line, but for the last couple of years so has 10 miles! In the past the losing team has had to run 10 miles and the winning team only five, but this year is a little different. Positive and negative at-bats for every player are written down every scrimmage, but this year they carry some weight. If you strike out, it goes down as a negative at-bat, and if you walk, it is a positive at-bat. At the end of the fall, the walk-to-strikeouts ratio will be looked at for each player. Players with more strikeouts than walks will have to add miles to their five-mile run, and players with more walks than strikeouts get to subtract distance. You can also take off miles by doing various things such as advancing on balls in the dirt and making "heady" baseball plays. It was mentioned at the beginning - but I'm not sure if it will remain true - that if you go negative on miles for the fall you can give them to other people, including the coaches ...
In the fall scrimmages so far, the pitching and defense have been the strong points. Pitchers usually have the advantage to start the fall because players have not seen live pitching for several weeks - since the end of summer ball - but our staff has been especially strong. They are throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes, staying ahead in the count and not walking many batters. That speaks a lot of our pitching staff, but as hitters we need to be more aggressive early in the count and avoid hitting in pitcher's counts.
That is a lot easier said than done when facing Freshman All-America Daniel Bard, the Cape Cod League's top prospect Andrew Miller and former Freshman All-America Adam Kalkhof. Matt Danford, who was named to the all-regional team at Mississippi State in 2003, is strong and healthy after missing last season.
Rob Wooten, who was a part of last year's top-ranked freshmen class, is also strong, healthy and eager to earn a spot after missing last season. Robert Woodard, Jonathan Hovis and Bryan Phillips were a vital part of our relief and midweek pitching staff last season and will be a big piece to the puzzle this year. Throw in this year's awesome freshman class and, needless to say, us hitters have our work cut out for us!
Wes Moyer is a senior first baseman and journalism and mass communication major from Apex and is one of the most well-respected leaders on the Carolina team. A part-time starter at first base and designated hitter in each of the last two seasons, Moyer batted .312 in 2003 and .253 a year ago. He has seven homers and 40 runs batted in over the last two seasons. Check back each week at TarHeelBlue.com as Moyer and his teammates offer their thoughts and insight on fall practice in Chapel Hill.
