Tough Situation

Brandon has found himself in a tough situation. New Mexico State was supposed to be pretty good this year. In fact, there was talk of this team being the best in NMSU history. No one will ever know how good they could have been because there are five players (four of them pitchers) that are scheduled for Tommy John surgery in the next month. NMSU is not known for pitching, but they had a decent staff at the beginning of the year. Take away four arms and no pitching staff in the country would be very good. That makes it tough when you are looking at a four run deficit before you even hit in every game (which happened this weekend). It's hard to keep your focus when the other team scores often and the game seems out of hand early. Brandon has done just that, though.

We were excited for him when a MLB team showed interest in him early in the year. After the second team not only had him fill out their questionaire (two weeks ago), but called him and talked with him about his situation, the excitement went to a new level. Riding that high, going into this weekend, my thought for Brandon was to just maintain his hitting and good things would happen... You see, his defense behind the plate is not in question, in fact, the cross-checker that called him told him that he could catch at the major-league level right now. The only thing in question was his hitting. Brandon is hitting .333 with 6 doubles and 15 RBI. He is not just having an "okay" year hitting, he is proving that he can really hit, and hit consistently.

The hardest part about it is that Brandon is having to do this while the team is losing. They may not lose every game, but the team is going through a time right now where it is hard to keep positive while their best arms are failing them. Well, this weeekend in every game - all the way to the end - Brandon was constantly "talking" to the other players, keeping their minds positive, continuing to do the little things right, even though the game was out of hand.

The scouts noticed. He got three more questionaires after Sunday's games. For people that may not know what it means to get a questionaire, it is like getting a "letter of intent" from a college. It means that they (that MLB team) are going to draft you , if only another team hasn't taken you first in the draft. Brandon's stock went up this weekend. Was it the fact that he had three "pop times" at 1.84, 1.85 and 1.84 between innings? Maybe (those are Pudge Rodriguez numbers, if you didn't know). Was it the fact that he had two of the teams six hits Friday night? Maybe. But most likely it was the fact that Brandon just loves to play - and that he is FINALLY getting noticed as the VERY good baseball "player" that he is.

Yes, it's a tough situation, but none of this would mean as much if it were easy. And it's only going to get better.

BB