2011 Stats       2011 Review      2012 Outlook      2012 Championship

                                                   Pleasant Valley Boys (PVB)

                                                                 2012 COWL Preview

                               Trevor Thomas, ?, Brent Fisher, Brett Fisher, Gabe Fisher, Dave Fisher

                                                               Inside the Numbers

  2011 Season:

  League and Place:                              National - 3rd Place

  Post Season Record:                          Defeated by Legends 3-1 in Divisional Championship

  Win/Loss Record:                              17-15 (15-10 Regular season) (3rd Best overall)

  Win/Loss vs. teams above .500:         3-13  (7th)

  Win/Loss vs. teams below .500:        14-2   (Including 4-0 in fast pitch) (tied for 1st)

  Avg. Runs scored in games won:      16.1  

  Avg. Runs scored in games lost:        6.7

  Avg. Runs scored in all games:        10.0    (4th)

  Avg. Runs allowed in all games:       12.5   (5th)

  Homerun Total:                                  129    (4th)

  Avg. Homeruns per game:                  4.2    (4th)

  Runs For/Against:                              310/388

  Homerun Leader:                               Gabe Fisher - 48  (6th)

  RBI Leader:                                       Gabe Fisher - 77  (12th)

  Wins Leader:                                      Brett Fisher -   8  (3rd)

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                                                             2011 Season Recap

              In 2011, the Pleasant Valley Boys (PVB) looked poised for a deep tournament run led by league MVP

  candidate Dave Fisher.   Unfortunately, in the early season PVB was unable to put together a stable lineup of

  their regular players. This led to an abysmal 1-8 start. However, as the weeks went on and PVB’s regulars

  began filing in, the wins began to pile up. From that point on PVB caught fire and ripped off 12 of their next 13

  games (including a 4-0 fast-pitch record, and a 5-1 week six performance).

              When the dust settled at the end of the regular season the Pleasant Valley Boys sat squarely in third

  place in the National League with a record of 15-10.  Maybe more surprisingly was the fact that Gabe Fisher,

  not Dave, led the team in all offensive statistics.  This was directly attributable to Dave’s snowboarding accident

  and the resulting grossly broken collar bone.  Dave will have a hard time regaining his team HR title from

  Gabe as Gabe has 1 final year to hit the solid balls.

              As the playoffs began, PVB drew the number two-seeded Gookie Dawkins Experience (GDE), who

  were the league runner-up a year ago.  Despite taking game-one of the series, PVB eventually fell in the

  best-of-three format. However, due to a scheduling conflict with GDE, the Pleasant Valley Boys were

  advanced to the National League Divisional Championship.   This meant they would face the Legends,

  the league’s reigning champions. For those keeping count; in the first two playoff rounds PVB got the task

  of taking down the teams (GDE, Legends) with the two best records in the entire league combined at 52-12. 

  Again, PVB took game one, but failed to win another game in the series losing 3 games to 1. This closed their

  season at a very respectable 17-15, considering the horrendous start.

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                                                         2012 Season Preview

              Within this preview I will establish what I believe to be the strengths and keys to a Pleasant Valley Boys

  Championship in 2012.

Strengths:

• It’s all in the seasoning- Take a look at PVB’s lineup and you will likely see the oldest average age

          of any team in the league (with the exception of Gabe).  I’m not meaning this as a jab at them, either. 

          This might be the most-seasoned team in terms of baseball/wiffleball/softball lifetime experience.   Trevor,

          Dave, Brett, and Brent all garner a high baseball IQ, which plays a huge role in situational Wiffle ball

          (though what they gain with age they lack in beauty.)

• Power, Power, Power - This team flat-out has long-ball power.  I’ve watched these guys for two seasons

           now and when they are on, they can score with anyone.  There is not a spot in the lineup that can’t take you

           deep during on any given at bat.  Dave Fisher has accumulated 103 HRs in the last two years which puts

           him squarely in 3rd place on the all-time COWL HR chart.    On top of that, you have Dave’s son, Gabe,

           who belted 48 of his own last year, and Brent Fisher, who has quietly hit over 50 combined HRs in the last

           two years and can lead the team on any given night.  

           If Dave recovers from his injury and returns to previous season form, and Gabe wreaks havoc on his last

           of year hitting solid balls, PVB could be the most dangerous power team in the league.

• Getting Offensive- Now, it may seem redundant to talk about PVB’s offense after we just went over their

           power, but I don’t believe this tells the entire story.  Few lineups can say they sport multiple left-handers,

           but that’s just what PVB has.  You don’t realize the true value of lefties until they lay a groundball down

           and a routine play becomes a scramble to beat them to the bag. Enter Brett Fisher and Trevor Thomas

           (though both have switch-hit before). 

           Usually, if you don’t hit tons of homeruns in Wiffle ball, you are overlooked.   Often, it is forgotten that

           guys like Trevor and Brett are on-base when the longball flies, turning solo shots into two and three-run

           homers.  It’s not the job that comes with any glory, but it is the difference between winning and losing lots

           of times.  Left hand hitters also have the advantage of all 3 fields being set up for right handed batters,

           with significantly shorter average right field depths (80 vs 95 feet). 

           Speaking as a lead-off guy, I vote we adopt an on-base percentage, or a “runs” stat for us

           power-starved individuals.

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                                             Essentials for a PVB Championship

• Start Early- If the Pleasant Valley Boys want to win a championship this year, they are going to have

           to start the season better than they did in 2011.   With this years ‘Texas Shootout’ playoff system, a 1-8

           start won’t get the job done.  Teams go through hot and cold nights during a season, but they will need to

           find more consistency if they don’t want to play a league power in the first round of the playoffs.   A big

           part of this plays on whether PVB will be able to get their strongest lineup on the field each week.

• The High Road- Plain and simple, PVB has to find a way to win some more games against teams

           over .500.   Their record vs. teams below .500 shows that this team has full capability of being dominant.

           But a record of 3-13 against better teams simply won’t be good enough this year.   If they can move that

           number closer to .500 this year, they could be a 14-16 win team in the regular season (keeping in mind

           that the regular season is 20 games this year).

• Con-sist-ency- Maybe the most telling stat was this teams runs scored in wins vs. losses.  In games

           that PVB won, they averaged 16.1 runs p/g.   In PVB losses, they averaged a meager 6.7 runs p/g.    That’s

           nearly a 10-run differential.   When this team is on, they are on. But they also have a tendency to fall flat

           on their face offensively in some games.    After watching hundreds of games in the last few years, it’s

           become pretty clear that 6-7 runs don’t win a lot of games.   Consistency will be huge.

• Deeeeee-fence- Now, don’t get me wrong, this team isn’t that bad on defense.   When it comes to fly

           balls, this team in one of the best at fielding them, anchored by Dave Fisher in left (who is good for at

           least one ‘wow’ catch each night).    From top to bottom, every guy on this team can pull fly balls out of

           the air pretty easily.   However, the defensive issue arises with groundballs for this team.   They have to

           tighten up on groundballs.   If they can manage to eliminate some of those errors, then leading pitchers

           Brett Fisher (8 wins) and Trevor Thomas (4 wins) will only benefit.

       Overall, I would not be surprised to see the Pleasant Valley Boys turn some heads and make

  a serious run at a COWL title.   Especially if they are able to do the things mentioned above.

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