WPBL Week Two: Such Great Heights

Welcome to your Week Two recap of all issues WPBL. As a reminder, these weekly roundups are designed to cowl every week’s motion by highlighting essentially the most notable gamers, moments, and the rest I deem worthy of additional commentary. For every version of the recap, I re-license the naming rights to this checklist of highlights to whichever staff I really feel has received the week. And the way does a staff win the week? Properly, in contrast to precise wins and losses in baseball, the sort of win is solely subjective and can function underneath the time-honored custom of constructing it up as we go alongside.

Together with the checklist of highlights, the Unforced Errors checklist discusses the extra confounding features of the prior week as a result of good religion criticism is a crucial part of continuous progress. Rounding issues out are the Historic Firsts of Lesser Renown. The league’s momentous firsts will clearly get their shine, however there’s one thing to be mentioned for the more odd and mundane firsts, the smaller day-to-day occurrences that make a brand new league really feel acquainted and full. Consider these firsts because the knickknacks on a shelf that make a brand new home really feel like a house. Baseball followers received’t actually really feel settled into their new league till the primary time a participant on their favourite staff commits a TOOTBLAN.

In case you want a refresher on the league’s construction and mechanics, try the Week One recap.

However sufficient preamble, let’s get to the Week Two winner: The New York Heights. The Heights went 2-1 within the second week of WPBL motion, together with a victory within the league’s first extra-inning recreation on Sunday. Although the Los Angeles Queens personal the league’s greatest file and run differential by two weeks of play, they did endure a 12-3 loss to the Firebells, whereas the Heights have but to lose a recreation by greater than three runs. Add in what Denae Benites and Natsuki Yonetani have been getting as much as (extra on them beneath), and giving the dub to New York feels fairly apparent.

On the subject of wins and losses, I’ve determined to incorporate an up to date have a look at every staff’s file, run differential, and Pythagorean profitable proportion as a fast snapshot of the place every membership stands. Right here’s how issues look following Week Two:

The Queens sit atop the standings, the Heights and the Firebells each look strong, and the Hunters already discover themselves sitting within the basement. So how did we get right here? Let’s check out who and what’s waving down at us from the Such Nice Heights spotlight reel this week.

Such Nice Heights

A Concussion Protocol

When Queens second baseman Amira Hondra took a pitch to the top throughout the backside of third inning of Wednesday’s recreation towards the Hunters, supervisor Eric Younger Sr. jogged out to verify on her, and the 2 continued to talk as she walked all the way down to first. After she took her base, a coach lastly materialized to verify her out, however the dialog was quick. Hondras then went first to 3rd on a single from third baseman Ashton Lansdell. Just a few pitches later, Hunters pitcher Gigi Schiano tried to select Hondras off third base. The published doesn’t comply with Schiano’s throw, so viewers weren’t in a position to see whether or not she dove again or merely executed a fast pivot on her toes, however both approach, she was compelled to jerk her physique again to the bag. When the Queens took the sector on protection within the high of the fourth, Samaria Benítez had entered the sport at second instead of Hondras. Because the incident performed out, it didn’t seem that any precautions have been in place to guard gamers from their very own want to remain within the recreation or from a supervisor who may not acknowledge the indicators or signs of a doable concussion. Seems, there’s a protocol in impact and the league has been following it.

Following the league’s second hit-by-pitch to the top (Firebells shortstop Joely Leguizamon on Thursday evening), reporters submitted a query to the league in regards to the existence of a concussion protocol. The league mentioned there was a protocol in place and supplied a abstract of it, which includes instant testing (although no specifics on what that testing entails) and guidelines for returning to play. If a participant leaves a recreation after exhibiting or experiencing concussion-like signs, she have to be symptom-free for 2 days earlier than getting again on the sector. Hondras has not suited up for the Queens since leaving Wednesday’s recreation. Leguizamon, although, didn’t depart Thursday’s recreation and was within the lineup for the Firebells all weekend.

In praising the league for merely having and following a concussion protocol, maybe we’re setting the bar so low it’s virtually subterranean. Nonetheless, I nonetheless bear in mind when former Orioles supervisor Buck Showalter left second baseman Alexi Casilla in a recreation to complete the inning after a collision with proper fielder Nick Markakis left him with no reminiscence of both the play itself or how he received to the clubhouse after coming off the sector. Skilled sports activities shouldn’t have a observe file of accountable habits with respect to concussions and solely started taking them severely in recent times. A functioning concussion protocol is the kind of factor that might simply fall by the cracks for a brand new league, so the WPBL does deserve credit score for dealing with this explicit part of participant security.

A Debut With a Capital D

Making her first begin for the Heights on Sunday, Katherine Murphy had herself a time out in left subject. Within the backside of the third, she laid out to snag a fly ball off the bat of Hunters second baseman Edith De Leija.

One batter later, Murphy crashed into the wall whereas reeling in a deep drive from Hunters left fielder Ticara Geldenhuis.

Then within the fourth, the wind received ahold of a fly ball (one other hit by De Leija) and compelled Murphy to twist round on the final second and make a backhanded seize.

Murphy’s day within the subject was marred ever so barely within the sixth inning, one batter after she charged in to seize a shallow fly from Hunters proper fielder Molly Paddison. After settling underneath one other deep fly from Geldenhuis, Murphy closed her glove a break up second too early, sending the ball ricocheting off towards middle subject. Nonetheless, she used her first look as a starter to plant herself firmly within the good graces of New York’s pitching workers.

Defensive Déjà Vu

Final week, I wrote a couple of defensive gem through which Boston third baseman Denver Bryant managed to knock down a groundball on a nasty hop, then get better and hearth a throw to first, the place Sabrina Robinson hit a full break up as she stretched to pluck the ball out of the air. Properly, throughout the Hunters’ 9-6 win over the Heights on Saturday, the duo did it once more!

Over the primary two weeks of the season, it’s turn into clear that Bryant is sweet for one or two snazzy defensive performs per recreation, however her acrobatic strikes at third aren’t restricted to protection.

Bryant ought to have been dominated protected underneath the Rule of Cool… alas.

Precise Beginning Pitching

On condition that the league’s coaching camp was lower than per week lengthy, it’s no shock that the beginning pitchers weren’t precisely stretched out to go deep right into a recreation throughout opening weekend. And it was beginning to appear like the WPBL would function a special rhythm for biking by pitchers, particularly as a result of there are extra two-way gamers within the girls’s recreation than in MLB. However simply when it was wanting like three-inning begins may turn into the norm, the Heights’ Jaida Lee and the Queens’ Michelle Roche and Ayami Sato set a brand new normal for beginning pitching, every throwing 5 sturdy innings and leaving solely the ultimate two frames for the bullpen to cowl. Roche began for the Queens of their 12-4 win over the Hunters on Wednesday, permitting three hits and two runs (one earned), with one strikeout. In New York’s 13-8 win over San Francisco on Thursday, Lee restricted the Firebells to 4 hits and two walks with three strikeouts, whereas permitting three runs (all unearned). Then, in a 12-3 Los Angeles win over San Francisco on Friday, Sato’s 5 innings included simply 4 hits, no walks, one (unearned) run, and 4 strikeouts.

Rakyung Kim continued the development by pitching 5 1/3 innings on Saturday for the Heights, however received into hassle as her outing wore on. She completed with six runs allowed (4 earned) on three hits, a stroll, and two strikeouts.

Although it might take a number of years and expanded rosters for beginning pitching matchups to tackle the narrative prominence they maintain on the lads’s facet, it’s comforting to know that there are starters within the league proper now who’re able to carrying the day for his or her squads.

Speedy Evolution

Any new league is certain to expertise rising pains. Not all the things goes to be good proper from the leap, and the league didn’t precisely set itself up for fulfillment with teaching staffs cobbled collectively on the final minute, a particularly quick coaching camp, a media rights deal that got here collectively on the eleventh hour, and so forth and so forth. However there’s nothing to be performed about any of that now. It’s all within the rearview mirror. The one choice out there to the league at this level is to maneuver swiftly to deal with no matter bumps within the highway come up.

And to the league’s credit score, everybody from the commissioner, to the coaches, to the gamers has acted nimbly in response to the circumstances in entrance of them. Although some managers desire to stay to 1 or two set lineups, WPBL skippers are nonetheless attending to know their gamers’ strengths, weaknesses, and general capability. Thus, the lineups are evolving as they collect extra data. For instance, Caitlin Eynon has step by step labored her approach up the Queens’ batting order, with Younger responding to her efficiency fairly than stubbornly insisting she proceed to hit sixth. In the course of the postgame press convention following New York’s win over the Hunters on Sunday, Heights supervisor Rocky Henley spoke about how studying the suitable utilization patterns to suit the cadence of the WPBL schedule remains to be a puzzle she’s making an attempt to resolve. (She particularly cited her determination to have Lee forgo her scheduled bullpen session and throw an inning in-game as a substitute.) And protection is enhancing as gamers be taught the tendencies of their teammates and how one can talk on the sector.

A willingness to react rapidly when one thing isn’t going to plan is a key survival intuition. And a robust instance of that got here when the league determined to maneuver on from Hunters supervisor Keith Foulke a mere three video games into the season. For these of us calibrated to MLB’s 162-game season, a training change after three video games feels hasty, however within the WPBL, three video games represents 20% of the season. Comparatively, the Pink Sox fired Alex Cora after 27 video games, which represents round 17% of the season. Cora’s early-season firing was definitely shocking, however not indefensible. The reasoning behind Foulke’s dismissal is a bit unclear primarily based on present reporting. The league was initially tight-lipped in regards to the determination, however following Sunday’s recreation, WPBL co-founder and commissioner Justine Siegal informed reporters it was a baseball determination. The league felt Foulke didn’t have the suitable chemistry with the staff, and in the end the Hunters wanted somebody who specialised in connecting with youthful gamers.

Of the 4 managers, Foulke had the least skilled teaching expertise and no managerial expertise in any respect. In accordance with the Boston Globe, Foulke, who interviewed for the place with WPBL CEO Keith Stein, felt that he was employed as a result of he was a recognizable identify with sturdy connections to baseball in Boston. Foulke additionally mentioned that he and Stein had agreed that he wouldn’t should spend your entire season in Springfield. Somewhat, he might proceed residing together with his household in Arizona and commute to Illinois for video games. However Foulke suspects his association with Stein was not communicated to Siegal and the opposite members of Boston’s teaching workers previous to the beginning of the season, catching them off guard and souring these relationships from the beginning.

Foulke did appear invested within the league and its success; nonetheless, that’s not assured to translate to productive contributions as a coach. Hunters staff captain Alli Schroder informed the Globe, “So far as I’m involved, as a participant, it’s necessary that we simply have anyone that works — I imply not actually works for us, however like mentally, emotionally, all the above, helps the gamers, particularly in a startup league,” and Siegal instructed that Foulke’s teaching type had the staff taking part in too tight. “They should really feel that making errors is a part of the sport, and that they’ll develop from them,” Siegal mentioned. Consequently, the league pivoted to Queens assistant coach Jemile Weeks, who runs a youth baseball academy, making him well-positioned to work with the Hunters’ younger roster. Siegal informed reporters the plan is to discover a alternative for Weeks on the Queens’ workers by the beginning of this week’s video games.

The choice to dismiss Foulke was surprising, but when it was already clear that he lacked the mandatory management expertise and was unlikely to develop within the position because of his restricted availability, it is sensible to maneuver on sooner fairly than later.

The Jill Albayati Recreation

In case you’ve seen Albayati on display screen at any level throughout a WPBL broadcast, you then’ve most likely heard that the Firebells’ pitcher and third baseman has a historical past of transitioning easily from one position to a different. In faculty, Albayati grew to become the primary D-II student-athlete to play in each a softball and baseball recreation on the identical day. On Saturday, Albayati confronted the extra typical dual-role activity of handing over a robust efficiency each as a beginning pitcher and because the staff’s three-hole hitter. Within the Firebells’ 10-3 victory over the Queens, Albayati pitched 4 innings, permitting 5 hits, one stroll, and two runs (each unearned), with 4 strike outs. She additionally went 2-for-2 on the plate with a stroll, two RBI, and a run scored. Although she’s not the primary beginning pitcher within the league to bat for herself within the lineup, she is the primary to make such productive contributions on either side of the ball in the identical recreation.

Inclusivity That Doesn’t Cease at Gender

Clearly, the WPBL’s primary raison d’être is to supply girls with a possibility to play baseball professionally after a long time of exclusion. However a league within the enterprise of making alternatives the place none beforehand existed needn’t restrict itself to easily being gender inclusive. And although I doubt the league explicitly got down to blaze trails for the in another way abled, it has definitely opened the door for Queens middle fielder Brittany Apgar to carve a path for herself in professional ball. Born with a limb distinction, Apgar has a small proper forearm, half of a palm, and no fingers on her proper hand. She hits with a customized prosthetic she crowd-sourced on social media previous to the season’s begin. Like many gamers within the WPBL, Apgar additionally pitches. She rests her glove on the nub of her proper arm whereas she completes her throwing movement together with her left arm, then rapidly slides her glove onto her left hand to subject the ball as wanted. She discovered the approach (which she additionally applies within the outfield) by finding out former main league pitcher Jim Abbott, who was equally born with no proper hand.

Over the weekend, Apgar notched her first hit, showcased the glove swap in middle, and logged her first look on the mound.

The Second Banana

When your teammate is someway already the runaway favourite to win MVP, it’s robust to get people to take discover, however Heights proper fielder Natsuki Yonetani is worthy of your consideration. Over the three video games that the Heights performed throughout Week Two, Yonetani went 9-for-12 with a stroll, two doubles, three RBI, and a stolen base. On the season, she’s slashing .688/.722/.875. She owns the league’s second-highest batting common, second-highest on-base proportion, and second-highest slugging proportion amongst certified hitters. All whereas taking part in stellar protection in proper subject. On every other staff she wouldn’t be taking part in second banana, however as a substitute she shares a roster with…

The First Banana

It’s absurd to think about anybody a heavy MVP favourite only a quarter of the way in which into the season, however given what Heights catcher Denae Benites has completed in her first 4 video games, it’s protected to say the award is hers to lose. Beginning with the plain, Benites has already blasted 5 residence runs. She places a barely completely different twist on her residence run celebration every time she dances by the tunnel of her teammates simply past residence plate, so right here’s hoping the artistic juices maintain flowing or she’s going to have to start out repeating cellies.

(And for these questioning, Max Kelton — the play-by-play man heard within the video — was calling his first recreation that day, so TBD on whether or not he’s planning a Sterling-esque name for each participant.)

Total, Benites has posted a .824/.778/1.706 slash line and leads the league by a large margin in all three classes (with a number of sac flies accounting for why her on-base proportion is decrease than her common). Benites additionally bucks the slow-catcher stereotype by main the league with six stolen bases. Second place on the checklist is Queens third baseman Ashton Lansdell, who has simply three. And talking of catching, Benites is the one backstop to start out all 4 video games behind the dish for her staff, and watching the way in which she receives the ball (together with Queens catcher Maggie Foxx) has me considering whether or not I need to attempt to wrangle the mandatory knowledge to place collectively a framing metric. On the subject of controlling the operating recreation, Benites has already thrown out three baserunners (which I’m pretty sure leads all catchers, however the league doesn’t present aggregated caught stealing knowledge both for catchers or runners).

The published remains to be studying to trace throws to the bases, so clips of Benites nabbing baserunners are a bit robust to return by. (When she caught Hunters pinch-hitter Lexi Hastings in a rundown within the backside of the seventh of the Heights’ 7-6 win on Sunday, the printed was displaying a close-up shot of the following batter virtually your entire time). Even so, Benites was the catcher to throw out Bryant within the clip above, and right here she is throwing out Hunters middle fielder Gabrielle Haas within the backside of the third inning of Sunday’s recreation.

Unforced Errors

Robin Roberts Stadium Doesn’t Have a Warning Observe

You could have seen in a number of the earlier clips that the outfield at Robin Roberts Stadium doesn’t have a warning observe. That’s not unparalleled on the decrease ranges of professional and beginner ball, however it’s definitely not optimum and it does pose a security concern. Within the backside of the sixth inning of San Francisco’s 12-3 loss to Los Angeles, Firebells captain Kelsie Whitmore ran instantly into the wall whereas monitoring a house run off the bat of Queens left fielder Tháima Maximiliana.

Clearly, it could be a bit a lot to ask the proprietors of Robin Roberts Stadium to put in a warning observe when the league solely intends to play 30 video games there earlier than shifting to its groups’ residence markets subsequent season, however with no explicit connection to Springfield, Illinois, nothing was stopping the league from selecting a venue higher designed to guard participant security.

Umpire Security

Participant security was not the one security concern to come up throughout Week Two of the WPBL season. In the course of the matinée recreation of Saturday’s doubleheader, residence plate umpire Steve Berardino fainted on the sector within the backside of the sixth inning on account of warmth exhaustion on a 95-degree day. Author KD Casey, who was on the recreation, mentioned a number of followers (presumably healthcare professionals) have been allowed on the sector to assist revive the umpire, who was later faraway from the sport to obtain medical care. It’s unclear what kind of hydration choices have been supplied to the officers, however Casey indicated the stadium was not offering any misting or cooling stations for followers, and the one water out there needed to be bought.

The opposite member of the officiating crew changed Berardino behind the plate, and Queens assistant coach Emma Charlesworth-Seiler took over within the subject. (The Queens weren’t one of many groups taking part in within the recreation, however Charlesworth-Seiler was on the ballpark as a result of the her staff was taking part in within the evening cap). Charlesworth-Seiler does have expertise umpiring within the minors, however she hasn’t taken the sector in that capability in a number of years, making her a less-than-ideal alternative. Maybe Berardino was extra inclined to push previous his physique’s limits realizing the league didn’t have many backup choices. Granted, even MLB doesn’t present on-site substitute umpires, however having four-man MLB crews makes it simpler to proceed working whereas down one official. WPBL video games are officiated by two-person crews, making the lack of one official an actual downside. Following the incident, Siegal informed The IX Sports activities that they plan to have an alternate crew prepared shifting ahead in case of any additional incidents, however that is the form of simply foreseeable contingency that ought to have been deliberate for prematurely of the season.

Historic Firsts of Lesser Renown

The league introduced its first partnership with a beer firm.
Within the backside of the primary inning of the sport between the Queens and the Firebells on Saturday evening, Whitmore was dominated protected on her try to attain from first on a single by Albayati. Replays strongly instructed that the umpire didn’t see Foxx (catcher for the Queens) apply the tag, marking the primary essential blown name within the WPBL.
The third inning of that very same recreation marked the primary invocation of the infield fly rule.
The Saturday evening recreation ended with Firebells pitcher Niki Eckert notching the league’s first three-inning save.
Sunday featured the WPBL’s first extra-inning recreation, requiring only one extra body for the Heights to lock up a 7-6 victory over the Hunters. The sport additionally revealed that the league might be using the identical zombie-runner rule employed by MLB.