I've been reading in this forum for quite some time, but don't really post. However, on the Whitney (Ellis) Montgomery talk, I thought I'd interject another point of view. It seems that there are many who feel Whitney left because her playing time was going to be reduced.
First, Whitney never impressed me as the sort that would just quit, because she might see some reduction in playing time. She always impressed me as a team first young lady. Secondly, I'm not sure that Wodach's offensive growth would have affected Whitney all that much.
Certainly Coach Gasso would have maneuvered the lineup to get Wodach in nearly every game, based on her early season performances. But if you look at the stats, Whitney was batting .364 at the time of her departure. And Whitney was potentially the best defensive catcher ever at OU, and the best in the country the last two years or more. If you look at the steal stats, teams have attempted to steal more than twice as much on OU this year, as last. Last year teams only attempted to steal 9 times on Whitney and she threw out 7. Wodach has substantially improved as the year has gone on, and is now throwing out about 50%, and OU is still 2nd in the country in fewest attempts, and in throwing out runners, but Wodach is not as good as Whitney. Further, Wodach has about 8 times as many passed balls as Whitney every had.
When you take the defensive prowess and the fact she was batting .364 at the time of her departure, I don't think Wodach would have cut into Whitney's playing time all that much. Rather I think had Wodach continued hitting like she did early, it would have affected Aviu most, and Self to a lesser extent. It is likely Wodach would have been DP most days, with Aviu fighting for PT with Self other than days Wodach got a spot start at catcher.
In light of the above, it is my suspicion that Whitney's departure had little to nothing to do with what was going on on the field, but rather something very personal.
Just my humble opionion.
