District 5-5A Predictions/Players to watch

Welcome aboard Expo..........If you are married, I hope your relationship with your spouse is a strong one. If you don't know what I mean, you should in the very near future.

Do you have a son playing ball around the area.....I'm assuming you do!

Welcome, Expo...we need more 5-5A parents on this site!

I don't know if I would agree that SL Carroll is an overwelming favorite...Keller, Colleyville Heritage, Richland, Grapevine and Northwest might have something to say about that, Carroll may get the nod because of experience on the mound with Reid and Cunningham, but this district is really a tossup and balanced top to bottom.

Since you seem to have some CHHS knowledge, T-Bird Son has played with several kids from CHHS that will impact the varsity team now and in the near future (Maitland, Hill, Gilbreath, Greco, Coplon, Schneider and Gilpin to name a few). No doubt CHHS will be in the playoff mix.

You have a PM.

Just knowing the talent in NE Tarrant County, I would think there will be more parity but I am not familiar with the specific teams, only several players. Only SL Carroll is listed in the state rankings with Reid leading the way for them but Grapevine should also have a strong team depending on their pitching (which I guess could be said for all teams with newcomers). I still think the young T-Bird should also help the Northwest pitching.

Old Pitcher, are you available for counseling? However, I do have a "baseball" wife and son playing.

Expo,

If T-Bird son is pitching, Northwest has bagged the season . Very balanced district for sure. Northwest is young, so we'll see.

I think Expo son can certainly help CHHS pitching rotation, especially if CHHS doesn't have LHP's. He is way more advanced in his mechanics than T-Bird Son's slinging.

Watch for newcomer Drew Boehmer at Grapevine. He will be the starting SS. Oh by the way, he's a FRESHMAN.

Kaleb Merck, Kendall Boone and Jerod Stafford will be the players to watch at Keller.

So, it appears Grapevine could have a very solid lineup with Evatt and Bradley Padia in the middle. Anyone know how their pitching is shaping up?

Don't they have a CF'er that's pretty good over there, Doug? Hits for average, high OBA, SB's, and catches everything in the pasture. I think I've seen him play.

JABO

Well, from afar the pitching at GV looks to be a bit unproven. They likely will also be very young up the middle (maybe a frosh starter at SS and a soph starter at 2nd.)

Strong at the corners (Evatt, a Baylor commit at 1st, and smooth swinging left-handed hitter at 3B.)

The CF'er may be a Sr. who was transplanted from 2nd. RF'er (Martin, Lamar University commit with a big stick)and a strong arm.

Evatt is the only proven player at Grapevine. The rest are question marks.
I will say, however, that the Turner kid at Richland will keep them in the game every time he is on the mound.
My pick for top three in no particular order would be CHHS Keller and SLC. Since 4 teams make it this year, I can see Richland/Central sneaking in to grab that last playoff slot. More than likely, it will be a two tiered district.

My 2 cents.

Gunreader,

Agree with most of what you say there, except that final spot.

I haven't seen anything out of Central that would make me think they can finish in the top half. I would think Grapevine and Richland would battle for that last spot.

Northwest is replacing most of its lineup, so questions abound. There will be more arms available this year, but none like Varner was last year. If the pitching is there, they could surprise.

If there is a two tiered district, it will be the top two teams and everybody else.

SLC will be very tough to beat this year as will Colleyville.

You may have them at the top, and then everybody else fighting it out.

Central will suprise me if the finish in the top half....really suprise me.

Reid from SLC is good. But who is SLC's number 2?
Stafford is very comparable to Reid, and if I'm not mistaken, has only lost 2 games in his high school career?
And Colleyville... they lost their entire offense last year and top 2 arms. I just don't see how they could be an early favorite. We'll see when the lights come on.

Gunreader, Not sure I agree with your assessment that Evatt is the only "proven" player at GV. Martin is a D-I verbal commit (Lamar University.) He obviously proved something to someone.

As for CHHS you may be right to some degree, as it looks like they lost another starter from last season this week. Casey Russell (Sr. QB & District Co-Offensive MVP.) He (big 1B, middle of the order guy) has opted out of baseball.

They do seem to have alot of young talent though Kubita (Jr) has a good shot to replace Russell and Hill (Soph) who was the freshman starting C from that playoff team, will likely move to the other corner and will pitch.

quote:

Originally posted by Gunreader:
Reid from SLC is good. But who is SLC's number 2?
Stafford is very comparable to Reid, and if I'm not mistaken, has only lost 2 games in his high school career?
And Colleyville... they lost their entire offense last year and top 2 arms. I just don't see how they could be an early favorite. We'll see when the lights come on.

Stafford is the real deal for sure. Don't know who SLC's number 2 is, just know they are known for pulling an ace out of the hat. I do know they have a big lefty that was a stud on JV last year.

My Colleyville prediction is based upon their JV team the last couple of years, lots of good players and I must say I think a lot of thier head coach. Them losing Russell will hurt, as he was a hitting machine.

Losing Russell will hurt the lineup (including one less returing senior leadership); however, he was 6/7 in the lineup last year and not counted on to produce in that lineup.

Today's Colleyville intrasquad scrimmages highlighted showed potential for solid lineup but will be either verified once real scrimmages/games start. The key word here is potential. It appears to me that several lineup possibilities could unfold. The next 2-3 weeks should be interesting. Nonetheless, it was nice to see some live action.

Cobra, is the GV soph 2nd bagger Dane Wettig?

Expo37,

younger cougarson played with Dane, nice stroke from the left side.

Expo, DW did play Fall ball with the V team. However, it looks like to me that there are two sophs, DW and Tommy Deleo (Deleo is the brother of LHP/OF Deleo from Colleyville Heritage last year) who are battling a Sr for that spot. Both the sophs seem to have solid swings, though the Sr. may have the more solid glove.

Seems like one of them would stay up (whether they won the job or not) and the other would be the JV starter.



"Please note that the above are simply the ramblings and speculations of an interested observor with no inside knowledge or expertise whatsoever!"

HALTOM is going to be the sleeper that every team in the district will "chalk up" as a win ... The coach will have a Varsity that he has molded for (3) yrs ... They should make a run at the 3rd or 4th spot in the playoffs - at least ..

I think I'm going with Grapevine as the sleeper. We'll know by the end of May.

After at least 2 days of scrimmages, have you seen any surprises or provide observations.

I have seen strong pitching from the Colleyville Heritage staff (which, of course, should be expected since its early) and some spurts of hitting but mainly inconsistency. They should play solid fundamental games. CHHS played Richardson (6-3 W) and Grand Prairie (4-2 W) today, which I'd give that competition about a C-. Grand Prairie had 1 solid pitcher, #21, but did not get the name.

Other games summaries?

Keller looked good against FM yesterday except for one bad inning. Ended up losing 7-3, but the one inning FM Scored all thier runs off a pitcher that will see no innings this spring.

Justin Tramp hit another long ball as did JR Jordon Easom.

FM looked good as well, but boy can those boys chatter from a dugout in a meaningless scrimmage. Expect a lot better from them.

Didn't stay for the second game against Boswell as I had a prior engagement with my 7 year old.

Saturday @ Grapevine HS

GV Tied Plano East 2-2. GV had the leadoff man on in the bottom of the 7th, but PE shut 'em down. Pretty well-played by both sides.

PE beat Burleson 6-4.

GV beat Burleson alot to a little.

Did Cameron White pitch? If so, how is he looking? I like his chances to be one of the top starters. Is Padia catching or Slusher #1? How is Padia hitting? I always liked his stroke.

I'd like to hear how Southlake Carroll is shaping up.

quote:

Originally posted by Cobra21:
Saturday @ Grapevine HS

GV Tied Plano East 2-2. GV had the leadoff man on in the bottom of the 7th, but PE shut 'em down. Pretty well-played by both sides.

PE beat Burleson 6-4.

GV beat Burleson alot to a little.

Preface by saying it was a turnstile in and out of the lineup for Northwest...coach looks to be giving many pitchers work and trying a number of position players.

Northwest - 4
Mansfield - 2

Fossil Ridge - 5
Northwest - 4

quote:

Preface by saying it was a turnstile in and out of the lineup for Northwest...coach looks to be giving many pitchers work and trying a number of position players.

That's what scrimmages are all about. 1 more week before the games count. Hopefully, the weather will be kind this week.

I think it is interesting how different areas treat the "pre-district" games. On my son's old Varsity team in Ga., the games were play just as though they counted and to most people they did. They didn't have any impact on seeding in the tournament, but everyone reported them in their win/loss record and the atmosphere was game like.

Expo, CW has pitched in every scrimmage game and has looked pretty good. He should definately be in the mix, because GV is very young (3 sophs and 2 frosh.) BP has only played a few innings (3B.) In his only stint behind the plate he was injured on a ball in the dirt. Has not seen action since last Tuesday. SS seems to be the starter at C, but he also pitches (yikes!)



"Please note that the above are simply the ramblings and speculations of an interested observor with no inside knowledge or expertise whatsoever!"

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Expo37:

I'd like to hear how Southlake Carroll is shaping up.


Expo,
Is your lefty in the mix this spring? That boy can flat-out pitch. Hebron played Southlake Carroll in a scrimmage last Tuesday and - officially/unofficially - the score was 8-6 in favor of Carroll. They scored two in the 11th inning to break the tie. CR pitched two and looked good - he allowed a hit to our leadoff batter. Not sure who the others were, but a couple were solid while a couple were hit around a bit. Of course, it was a scrimmage meaning some pitchers were allowed to work through any trouble - and that went for both teams.

quote:

Preface by saying it was a turnstile in and out of the lineup for Northwest...coach looks to be giving many pitchers work and trying a number of position players.

Yep... we're seeing a LOT of pitchers and position players thus far. I agree, Longtoss, that's what the scrimmages are all about!

Haltom scrimmaged Newman Smith and Denton Guyer Sat.
7 innings - Newman Smith (1) - HHS (6)
5 innings - Denton G (1) - HHS (8)

quote:

Originally posted by obrady:
I think it is interesting how different areas treat the "pre-district" games. On my son's old Varsity team in Ga., the games were play just as though they counted and to most people they did. They didn't have any impact on seeding in the tournament, but everyone reported them in their win/loss record and the atmosphere was game like.

o'brady,

There are really three tiers of games in Texas. You have scrimmages, which are open lineup type deals. Some coaches bat the lineup, some don't, etc. These games do not count towards the record.

You have pre-district tournaments and single games. These are official games and the team bats nine. Many coaches still tinker with lineups a little bit (a position or two at most usually) and they may narrow the pitching rotation some, but will still throw a few pitchers to insure they are prepared for district play.

District play, coaches play their best nine and typically have two district starting pitchers, with a couple of other arms ready if a starter is off, gets hurt, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Hawkman:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Expo37:

I'd like to hear how Southlake Carroll is shaping up.


Expo,
Is your lefty in the mix this spring? That boy can flat-out pitch. Hebron played Southlake Carroll in a scrimmage last Tuesday and - officially/unofficially - the score was 8-6 in favor of Carroll. They scored two in the 11th inning to break the tie. CR pitched two and looked good - he allowed a hit to our leadoff batter. Not sure who the others were, but a couple were solid while a couple were hit around a bit. Of course, it was a scrimmage meaning some pitchers were allowed to work through any trouble - and that went for both teams.

Come on, Hawk, let's hear about those Hebron Hawks...some details, man!

[/QUOTE]

Come on, Hawk, let's hear about those Hebron Hawks...some details, man! [/QUOTE]

quote:

Originally posted by Hawkman:

Come on, Hawk, let's hear about those Hebron Hawks...some details, man! [/QUOTE][/QUOTE]


TBD,
See you March 6th at Ameriquest. . .

[/QUOTE]
TBD,
See you March 6th at Ameriquest. . .[/QUOTE]

Okay, if you aren't gonna share, but, remember, our boys are young so play nice. As Spike Dykes used to say, they still ain't got no hair on their bellies.

Don't you just love all the chest pounding over scrimmage games...Haltom must have the best pitching staff in the region...Scott, you forgot to mention that basketball season isn't over until Tuesday (playoffs begin this weekend)and most schools wont allow basketball players to play baseball until season is over. I know our coach had 3 freshmen and 5 sophmores start saturday in our scrimmage, several sophmores look like they can play...

quote:

Originally posted by John G.:
Don't you just love all the chest pounding over scrimmage games...Haltom must have the best pitching staff in the region...Scott, you forgot to mention that basketball season isn't over until Tuesday (playoffs begin this weekend)and most schools wont allow basketball players to play baseball until season is over. I know our coach had 3 freshmen and 5 sophmores start saturday in our scrimmage, several sophmores look like they can play...

Good point...Northwest has two senior pitchers that play basketball and a probable starting OF'er that is a wrestler that won district and had regionals over the weekend.

I didnt know putting the score of a "scrimmage" was "pounding my chest" ...