Looks Like a Good Week Lies Ahead!

quote:

Originally posted by hsbasballfan:
nice looking weather forecast for the coming week and a ggood slate off baseball in the area....
MON.
Hanover@PH
TUES
manchester at clover hill
monacan at james river
lc bird at midlothian
mills godwin at dsf
deep run at hermitage
jr tucker at patrick henry
tyhomas dale at colonial heights
WED
james river at cosby
THURSDAY
cosby at midlothian
clover hill at lc bird
mills godwin at lee davis

the upstart midlothian team faces a week where we wil learn more about how much they have improved. manchester had to use its last at bats to beat them last week and they will fface Cosby for a second time this season afyterr takingg them tyo the wire in their first meeting.
Monacan played cosby tough last wee thouggh 5 inninggs and now face james river.
Clover hill tryingg to avoid beingg the 7th team in a 6 team playofff format and will face manchester then lc bird this week.
Tyhe DSF Godwin match up is always interesting and will happen once aggain monday nigght at freeman.
Godwin will finish the week at Lee Davis which should be a ggreat match up.
the central district colonial heights thomas dale match up will bring two teams that seem to be prety even and fighting for a good seed behind district powerhouse dinwiddie
Cosby- which seems to be every team in the districts rival faces two rivals this week....james river then midlothian on thursday. the cosby/jr match up is probably the game of theweek and could be the first of three times these teams will meet in 2011

Tuesday 430 StC vs STAB (of Charlottesville) at StC

Many have said STAB would be best private in the state, but I believe may have been beaten by ChristChurch Friday (heard an onsite report that they were down 6 or 7 to 0 in the 6th). STAB has Kevin White (headed to Michigan), Sheldon Shiflett (VMI) and David Spinosa-- who supposedly hits low 90's and headed to Columbia (smart kid). If Spinosa pitches, could be a good game and chance to see if StC bats are for real. StC is 9-1, scoring in double figures regularly and has six players who have homered already and three players with 3+ HR's. only loss to Greenbrier Christian in first game. Could be a chance to see two of the best private school teams in the state.

If the weather holds off I might be pulling a double header today!

That being said, with today's forecast for T-storms, could people post updates if they hear about cancelations?

Thanks

Rich
www.playinschool.com

James River had the entire week off last week. With the makeup with Cosby coming tomorrow, they really need to get today's game in so that they are game ready tomorrow. They play Monacan today so you'd expect that to be a good tune-up game for them. (With apologies to Monacan fans.)

If today's a washout, I'd look for Cosby to come out aggressive and try to take that game tomorrow from the outset.

Not that they won't do that in any event, but I'd think James River would be more vulnerable to that after a long layoff.

With 4-5 games in their spring break tourney next week, JR also needs to get their staff some work, so they could really use to get guys like Parnell, Carrico and Caples on the hill today.

I think STAB lost to Christchurch 7-4 that is what Max preps says. Christchurch is not a great team but their ace Michael Taylor is really good. The kid is 6'6 or so and last year as a soph was touching high 80's consistently while throwing three pitches for strikes. I would have to assume he threw Fri for CC to hang with STAB. STAB vs StC should be a heck of a game. I figured StC to take a step back this year with all of the talent they lost (3 or 4 college guys plus a 8th rd draft pick) but their line-up seems to be even better.

quote:

Originally posted by wahoo24:
I think STAB lost to Christchurch 7-4 that is what Max preps says. Christchurch is not a great team but their ace Michael Taylor is really good. The kid is 6'6 or so and last year as a soph was touching high 80's consistently while throwing three pitches for strikes. I would have to assume he threw Fri for CC to hang with STAB. STAB vs StC should be a heck of a game. I figured StC to take a step back this year with all of the talent they lost (3 or 4 college guys plus a 8th rd draft pick) but their line-up seems to be even better.

Final was 7-4 (according to CCS website also). Taylor did throw, had 12 K's.

Couple of other notes. Understand Kevin White is out of the line-up. Have heard broken wrist, but do not know for sure.

Observer who was had game, said STAB pitcher (Spinosa had pitched Tuesday) was not overpowering and thast STAB made several uncharacteristic miscues (got picked off once, another baserunning error and while not errors, did not make some plays one expects of a STAB team).

StC hitting has been unreal, maybe a little surprising, but maybe not. Casey Fox is a four year starter, two sophs (Rhinehart and Yorgen) started last year, another (Jack English) is 6'5,at least 235, showed unbelievable maturity in football and basketball this year, and two other seniors are three year starters.

Finally, a note on Taylor at ChristChurch. Really good high school pitcher. 6'6 , good "stuff" but he is already 18 years old.

I was at both STAB v CCS games last week. STAB is not as good as the CCS Defense made them look on Tuesday, and are better than Taylor made them look on Friday (16 K's was what a CCS Coach said, and memory recalls).

STAB may not be as deep as they have been in recent years, but they are solid 1-6 in the lineup, with some pop. Spinosa can bring it, and can overpower most HS bats, but the more experienced CCS bats did get their shots in.

It did appear that STAB is a little light on Pitching once you get past Spinosa, but they are a solid team, and well coached. The Friday loss was not a matter of STAB miscues. CCS hit STAB pitching hard, and if not for running themselves out of a couple of innings, the game would have likely been 10-0 after 5 innings ... before STAB was able to post a threat against Taylor in the 7th (when it was 7-0).

STAB is not unbeatable, but they are still a very solid HS team, with a potantially potent lineup.

STAB is always solid. I was curious if CCS had any other pitching depth behind Taylor.

Well, southpaw_son pitches there, so dad may have to pass on your question due to being a tad biased.

Midlo is correct ... So as to avoid derailing a thread about Good Games For This Week, might I suggest we direct comments about specific VPL teams to this thread:

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...457054695#3457054695

Midlothian 7, LC Bird 7 after 7 innings, then the Midlo wheels came off in the 8th. Hosting Cosby on Thursday.........

James River did come out flat after having not played in 2 weeks. Monacan had two strong HR's and got ahead, 4-2, and JR was looking very sluggish. Scheetz gave up 4 in 4, first time anyone's gotten to him at all this year.

Kirby threw 2 shutout innings, JR scored 4 in the 5th and 8 in the 6th to win, 14-4. The wind kind of took over, blew some pops away from fielders and carried a few deep flies all the way out. Michael Trentham ended it on a blast that needed no wind assistance, however.

The score looks OK but JR did not. Lucky for them they got this game in. Sleep through 4 innings tomorrow at Cosby and they'll get their heads served on a platter.

Tuesday 430 StC vs STAB (of Charlottesville) at StC

Many have said STAB would be best private in the state, but I believe may have been beaten by ChristChurch Friday (heard an onsite report that they were down 6 or 7 to 0 in the 6th). STAB has Kevin White (headed to Michigan), Sheldon Shiflett (VMI) and David Spinosa-- who supposedly hits low 90's and headed to Columbia (smart kid). If Spinosa pitches, could be a good game and chance to see if StC bats are for real. StC is 9-1, scoring in double figures regularly and has six players who have homered already and three players with 3+ HR's. only loss to Greenbrier Christian in first game. Could be a chance to see two of the best private school teams in the state.[/QUOTE]

STAB 12 StC 0

Spinosa was strong. StC only had 4-5 scattered hits, one walk.
STAB hit Fox hard. StC made several early miscues (3 errors at 1B by a back-up) but overall that had little effect on the outcome.
My guess is Friday game will be high-scoring as STAB appears to not have the kind of depth but StC was shut down by an outstanding performance by Spinosa and timely hitting by middle of lineup.

do youguys thjink thje day will ever come where highj school baseball gets competition from travel/showcase teams in season? will tjere be a day when hjighj school ball is second choice for players?
some highj school programs in the area have ezcellent programs that usually include strong coaching and stability....at otjer schools thje head coaching position has become a revolving door
whjat do you thjink?

I think I need my decoder ring to read that post.

Seriously, though, no. Players need to demonstrate that they'll play where they are expected to play. Besides, there's no reason for travel ball to take over springtime, since that's the toughest time to get college coaches to your games anyway. That's why travel ball sprung up, to get guys out there in summer and fall when it's easier to be scouted.

sorry about the text..kust got a nnew ipad and havent quite mastered the keyboard I guess. Good observation regarding the lack of scouting in the spring.
I keep seeing some programs struggle to offer stable coaching from the schools and sometimes an unwillingness to consider candidates for the jobs who may not be in the system but are dedicated individuals that could be of great help. That can get frustrating for the consumer who could seek out other options if made available...particularly with funding becoming such an issue for school sponsored activities.

I'm surprised (but not shocked) to see Hermitage beat Deep Run last night 3-2. Brandon Taylor struck out 11 in a complete game for Hermitage. The Panthers scored 3 in the bottom of the first inning and made it hold up. Just the night before Hermitage had struggled to knock off Maggie Walker (winning 13-10).

Other scores from last night:

Godwin over Freeman 6-1 (Godfrey didn't pitch for Freeman)

Hanover beat Varina 10-0 in six innings (Varina got only one hit)

Lee-Davis shut out Henrico 6-0

James River over Monacan 14-4 (with Nathan Kirby making what I think was his season debut in relief- MidloDad can verify whether that was Kirby's first appearance)

Bird broke open a 7-7 tie with six in the top of seventh innning to beat Midlothian 13-7.

Manchester 12
Clover Hill 5

Matoaca rolled over Meadowbrook 18-0

Kirby threw one inning 2 weeks ago, JR was off last week, so this was his second appearance. JR has 4 or 5 games at its spring break tourney in SC next week, so I would guess he'll be stretched out to 4 or more innings in one of those games. The alternative would be to use him in relief and try to get two stints out of him. Not sure how the coaches intend to work it.

Correction..Bird broke it open in the top of the 8th, but with help from Midlo

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo2012:
Correction..Bird broke it open in the top of the 8th, but with help from Midlo

Oh man, that's even tougher to take. So they scored three in the bottom of the 7th to force extras. I'm not in to moral victories, but what a difference a year makes.

If the newspaper report is correct, both teams had pitchers leave the mound for relievers, then return to finish the game.

That is a sorry practice that courts injuries. I sure would like to see that banned by NFHS rule change.

Going out this afternoon to see the rain makeup of James River at Cosby, 4:30 start.

JR used Scheetz and Kirby yesterday, so I'm guessing Jack Roberts will start today. JR might also look to get some rust scraped off Parnell, Carrico or Caples with an eye towards their tourney next week.

I heard a rumor that it may be a staff game for Cosby. Partly to get everyone some work before they're off next week, partly maybe to keep James River from getting too good a look at any one guy this early in the season, since they'll meet at least one more time (and likely 1 or 2 more times come playoff time). Cosby has a history of taking that approach.

I guess if that proves true, by game's end I'll be a bit more familiar with Cosby's staff. I know Byrd and Birnbaum well but haven't really seen McQueen or whoever else they have.

I saw the same thing wth LCB starting Conner then returning him to the mound late. ont see that too often but I d not think it is a good practice.

JR/Cosby should be an interesting matchup today...hope I can sneak away and see some or at least get some updates.

Looking at the schdule this week looks like Cosby plays at Midlothian thursday - so I guess they will have to spread their pitching around

Back to the Christ Church discussion:

Having never seen Michael Taylor in action, all I know is that he wowed 'em at East Cobb last summer and hit 90 mph at that time.

So it surprises me that on the Virginia Prep League web site, his ERA is shown at 4.67. See: http://ballcharts.com/teams/cu...plbb&custom_number=2

How do you explain this? It seems like a dominating pitcher should not be giving up 8 earned in 12 innings.

I'd also be interested in feedback on how accurate the info on that web site is. For one thing, it seems that a few teams dominate the top ten stats lists.

Do some teams just not participate in turning in their stats? How else do you explain the complete absence of any Benedictine players from the lists? Benedictine is # 1 in Division 1, but not one of its players is listed for pitching or hitting. That can't be right.

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
If the newspaper report is correct, both teams had pitchers leave the mound for relievers, then return to finish the game.

That is a sorry practice that courts injuries. I sure would like to see that banned by NFHS rule change.

The newspaper was incorrect for Bird returning a pitcher to the mound, Midlo did do it. The reliever who returned had pitched in the 7th, got lifted after 2-3 batters I think, and then returned in the 8th after 4-5 runs had scored and maybe 1 out, so not really that many pitches in total.

quote:

Originally posted by Emanski's Heroes:

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo2012:
Correction..Bird broke it open in the top of the 8th, but with help from Midlo

Oh man, that's even tougher to take. So they scored three in the bottom of the 7th to force extras. I'm not in to moral victories, but what a difference a year makes.

What makes this an even tougher loss is that Bird scored a run in the 6th without a hit or walk. Leadoff hitter strikes out, but ball gets past catcher, so safe at first. Pitcher balks on a pitchout, runner goes to 2nd. Pitcher picks the guy off 2nd, but the throw to the 3rd baseman is in the dirt, and the tag is late, runner now on 3rd. Infield is in, sharp hit to SS, runner goes home, the throw appears to be there, but either is off a little or the catcher is too far in front of the plate, tag misses or is late...run scored...this runner must be a cat because he should have been out 3 times..if this run doesn't score in the 6th, the 3 run HR in the bottom of the 7th would have been a walk-off !!

Thats tough....I know Midlo lost their catcher so maybe that hurt them in that game ithe new catchyer hasnt gotten comfortable yet. Although on alot of "balls that gt by cachers" they could as easily be WPs...saw one last night in the Phillies/Nationals game ....it happens

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
I'd also be interested in feedback on how accurate the info on that web site is. For one thing, it seems that a few teams dominate the top ten stats lists.

Do some teams just not participate in turning in their stats? How else do you explain the complete absence of any Benedictine players from the lists? Benedictine is # 1 in Division 1, but not one of its players is listed for pitching or hitting. That can't be right.

That website is for the Va Prep League only( 8 schools- STAB, StC, Collegiate, Trinity, CCS, Norfolk, Woodberry, FUMA). Benedictine is an independant. As I understand it, coaches are responsible for turning in the info for their teams. Taylor gave up four runs against STAB last week in seven-- don't know about his previous outings.

Like posted on other threads before-- the coach or his designee may not have reported accurately.

Finally, you will see stats level out some as year goes on. STAB, StC, Collegiate always get a few games in before the boarding schools get started (i.e.) Woodberry actually has a two week spring break in March and I do not think they play during that time.Given early season results, Norfolk and Collegiate (just won their first game), not likely to see them in pitching stats top ten this year.

Midlo Dad -- You asked about CCS, Taylor and Stats. Having seen a few CCS games, I can tell you this ... Michael Taylor is the real deal. He has an explosive 90+ FB, 2-3 pitches he throws for strikes, solid mound presence, a very projectable body, and he has an idea of what he is doing out there. ... and he has a new throwing partner down there who is teaching him how to get a little more movement on the ball.

As to CCS Stats, I can't tell you how the games are being scored, and what is getting submitted. With some youth on the field, there is some youth league play coming with it. The routine ground ball that becomes a "hit". The routine fly that becomes a "hit" or maybe extra bases when it is not played properly. The botched assignment that turns what should be a DP into 2 guys safe on a FC.

I would not pay much attention to ERA's on the CCS pitching staff this season.

All that said ... Taylor is for real, and he is going to be a heck of a pick-up for some program at the next level.

quote:

Originally posted by latazaea:

The newspaper was incorrect for Bird returning a pitcher to the mound, Midlo did do it. The reliever who returned had pitched in the 7th, got lifted after 2-3 batters I think, and then returned in the 8th after 4-5 runs had scored and maybe 1 out, so not really that many pitches in total.

Maybe I'm wrong, but my understanding of the re-entry rule was that only the starting pitcher could return to pitch after a reliever had entered the game. Is that not true? My understanding was that once a relief pitcher either was removed from the game completely, or moved to another position, his day on the mound was over.

The RTD was correct. The starting pitcher from Bird re-entered with 1 out in the 7th. A relief pitcher re-entered from Midlo after pitching 1 inning of relief earlier.

quote:

Originally posted by latazaea:

quote:

Originally posted by Emanski's Heroes:

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo2012:
Correction..Bird broke it open in the top of the 8th, but with help from Midlo

Oh man, that's even tougher to take. So they scored three in the bottom of the 7th to force extras. I'm not in to moral victories, but what a difference a year makes.

What makes this an even tougher loss is that Bird scored a run in the 6th without a hit or walk. Leadoff hitter strikes out, but ball gets past catcher, so safe at first. Pitcher balks on a pitchout, runner goes to 2nd. Pitcher picks the guy off 2nd, but the throw to the 3rd baseman is in the dirt, and the tag is late, runner now on 3rd. Infield is in, sharp hit to SS, runner goes home, the throw appears to be there, but either is off a little or the catcher is too far in front of the plate, tag misses or is late...run scored...this runner must be a cat because he should have been out 3 times..if this run doesn't score in the 6th, the 3 run HR in the bottom of the 7th would have been a walk-off !!

IMO that can go both ways cause not all of midlo 7 runs were earned and thats what happans in high baseball and I dont think the wheels fell off in the eight some of the midlo players didnt step up. You cant have 2 errors in extra ininngs but overall it was a good game.

As predicted in this thread last Sunday it was a great week of baseball.

The Cosby/JR match up was indeed the game of the week. Based on all the polls and preseason prognosticating I think most were shocked at the outcome.

It was also a week where it was said we would learn more about this young Midlothian team folks were chatting about.

I just saw tne Midlo/Cosby final score. Their first meeting was a 1 or two run game. Today it looks like Cosby took charge amd issued quite a thrashing to the Trojans.

Will be interesting to see how the local pools look after this week...two out of the top 5 were upset....JR and Deep Run.

I think most of the other games we listed pretty much went as most thought they would.

add Lee Davis to the list of top 5 teams that suffered a loss has they dropped a one run game to Godwin.
Dinwiddie won a 3-2 game over rival Matoaca.

Southpaw Dad-
I assume we will get to see Mr Taylor this afternoon. (I am an asst at Collegiate) We stole one from you guys and I assume your son Tuesday, we desperately needed that win. I will say I was very impressed with your son's make-up on the mound. Tough competitor who threw a lot of strikes and had a purpose with almost every pitch. Defense let you guys down in the end but I look forward to us getting after it today.

quote:

The Cosby/JR match up was indeed the game of the week. Based on all the polls and preseason prognosticating I think most were shocked at the outcome.

I'm not surprised Cosby won at home. Cosby has good players, and a great coach who knows how to motivate. What is surprising for me is the Cosby pitching staff and defense went toe to toe and outplayed James River. I still think JR has an overall edge on pitching. I expect you will see a different pitching match up on the JR side next round, as well as some extra motivation. I'm looking forward to their next regular season game.

I wouldn't say I was shocked by Cosby's beating James River. I would have said JR was the favorite, even playing at Cosby, but no one who knows Cosby would ever be shocked by their beating anyone. The other half of that is that in their past few games, JR had been playing rather lackluster. They beat L.C. Bird largely on drawing walks, didn't hit well at all. They trailed against a Monacan team that has really struggled, then flipped the switch late to run away with it in just the last 2 innings. You just cannot do that when you play a high caliber opponent like Cosby. I said before hand that JR really needed to get that game in against Monacan to get the rust scraped off before they had to face Cosby. It just wasn't enough. They actually played a tight game pitching and defense wise, but the offense continued to be only so-so. Credit Cosby's pitching, esp. Birnbaum's tough start and also the smart strategy of using the lefty at the right time -- plus having faith in a freshman in a crunch situation.

My hope for JR would be that this would wake them up a bit and lead to them doing well down in SC this coming week.

In the end, I cannot recall anyone going undefeated around here, at least not for a very long time, so this year will be no different. The closest anyone came was when JR started 19-0 in 2007, then lost twice in 3 games before righting their ship just in time to go all the way. Sometimes a loss like this is just what the doctor ordered.

I went to the end of the Cosby-Midlo game yesterday. Cosby clearly was still on a high from the JR game and they just flat out rolled over Midlo. For Cosby to be "on" was of course no surprise, but based on their performance to date I was hoping we'd see a stiffer game from Midlothian. Instead this is one they need to just flush from memory and get back to business for the rest of the spring. They play JR the week after break, so this would be no time to go in the tank all of a sudden.

Cosby/Midlo game sounds like a walk over. I looked up the score this morning thinking it would be interesting to see ho it played ot after the way their last meeting went.

Was also wondering - after the first Midlo game some of the fans statea long disussion where the questioned the scoring integrity of that game.

Havent seen anything this time....did the fans that were there feel like the game was scored to their satisfaction this time around?

Cosby's McQueen threw a great game and congrats to him. However, Midlo died by its own grenade....walking in runs, PB runs, HBP runs, WP runs.