PGcrosschecker rankings

Torrey Pines from San diego. They have a core group of kids that returned from last year when they were upset in the Championship Finals.But MiraMesa looks good as well as they defeated torrey Pines behind Derek Hookers Pitching performance.

Hooker has singed a letter of intent to SDSU.

El Camino lost their opener to Quartz Hill. A lot of the teams from the Valencia area are pretty strong.

El Camino lost their second game of the tournament to a relatively weak team. It looks like 3 teams from the Marmonte league will be in the championship bracket as will Chatsworth who has looked very good so far. Simi Valley won both their games but will probably not make the top bracket. I think Calabasas, Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks made the top bracket along with Valencia, Chatsworth, Quartz Hill, Hart and Chaminade. Hard to figure as I don't know what the tiebreakers are though so I could be way off. Should be interesting.

Got 'em right. Chatsworth plays Calabasas, Hart plays Thousand Oaks, Quartz Hill plays Valencia and Chaminade plays Newbury Park.

I'd have to give Chatsworth the edge v Calabasas (looks like Saberhagen has a legit team this year though), Hart v TO is a tossup as is Quartz Hill v Valencia. If Lambo is available to pitch and Chaminade doesn't walk him every time then I'd give the edge to Newbury Park although I really don't know much about Chaminade at all.

Simi Valley is the only undefeated team not in the first bracket and they should go through the second bracket pretty easily. Funny thing is that they'll probably start 5-0 while the Marmonte league teams in the top bracket will have to get past each other, Chatsworth, who has looked very strong so far, and some more strong teams meaning that at least two of them will have a loss and possibly all three.

Should be interesting to see how it plays out. In any case whoever wins this one belongs in the top 10 nationally in the early rankings.

Well I missed on the Calabasas vs. Chatsworth game. Calabasas won fairly easily. That certainly gives the Marmonte league an edge when it comes to winning the tournament although Hart, Quartz Hill, Valencia and possibly Chaminade are strong teams certainly capable of beating the Marmonte league teams. Rumor has it that TO lost one of their front line pitchers. If that is true then they are down to 2 top starters which should be plenty for the regular season but could impact their ability to win the tournament.

When you look at how strong the Marmonte and Foothill (Valencia, Hart) leagues are it isn't a surprise that the CIF SS had the Marmonte league matched up against the Foothill league pretty much across the board in the first round of the playoffs last season. I think the coaches realize how strong the two leagues are.

We should get another good one today as Canyon from the Foothill league takes on Royal from the Marmonte league in another tournament.

Clean sweep for the Marmonte league today. Hmmm...maybe it is the strongest league. Maybe the teams should be ranked. C'mon the league is 21-3 overall.

All Marmonte league finals as Newbury Park handled Valencia pretty easily behind Lambo and Thousand Oaks managed to beat Calabasas, who was coming off a win over Chatsworth. My guess is that both those teams should be in the top 10 nationally. I give TO a slight edge in this one since Lambo won't be able to pitch and TO should know to pitch around Lambo.

TO won. 5-1.

Valencia looked like they had no problem beating Quartz Hill 13-1. Brandon VanDam and Mike Massari both threw for Quartz Hill, they're both juniors that are very good pitchers, Massari only threw a little over an inning and didnt give up any hits if maxpreps is correct. Vandam gave up 9 runs.

I have no idea how the other two games went. Does anyone know?

Interesting that PGCrosschecker now has their top 50 HS team rankings as something you have to pay to see. I can't think of anyone else who charges for that.

I noticed that Collegiate Baseball simply moved Chatsworth down in the rankings and blew off the CA teams who won the tournaments leaving them out of the top 30. I guess that way they don't have to admit they didn't do their homework during the preseason.

crosschecker

Not sure what you mean?

Cool ... son's alma mater is in the top 50 as well ... whoopeee !!!! (Just a little hometown pride ... sorry ! ! !)

crosschecker

PG,
Try this one. It came up with the yellow tag and I couldn't access it before. That's the one from the front page. Probably just a mistake that will get fixed.

OK, so Esperanza is listed and deserves to be. Where is Thousand Oaks? Three teams from the Marmonte league are 5-0. Two are 4-1 including one with a win over Chatsworth. TO beat them both. People around here know that the Southern Section is stronger than the City Section yet teams from the league that makes the finals in the southern section year in year out are under represented again.

Is it prospects? Chad Smith from TO is one of the best juniors around and they've got two other pitchers who have already signed with a top 15 D-1. I think they've also got a catcher who is a prospect. Newbury Park has Lambo who you know about by now and Simi Valley who would dominate most other leagues has Barnese who has scouts at every game he pitches. Last Simi Valley game I saw they had a sophmore throwing 85-86 with good breaking stuff and adequate command. He's their number 4 pitcher and most people don't expect them to do all that well in the league. Westlake has Cutter Dykstra among others. I don't know who Calabasas has but they can't be too shabby having beaten Chatsworth in a game that had meaning. Chatsworth's second loss was in one of those consolation type games where you get kids playing time.

The Marmonte League entered teams in two tournaments and won both of them. How many teams from the Marmonte league in the top 50? 0. The top 6 teams in the league have only one loss outside the league.

CADad,

I see what you mean, it shows a free card on new content and on the HS link, but a yellow card in the other place. Yes, that is a mistake, it is free viewing. I'll have someone fix that in the morning.

I can't answer your other questions regarding the teams. Personally I'm only interested in individual players and have nothing to do with the team rankings. I do know about some of those players you've mentioned. It sure sounds like a lot of talent around there.

Thanks for the heads up on that mistake.

Barnese threw yesterday and this is hearsay but supposedly the scouts had him working 91-92. One of the freshmen on the other team, Saberhagen's nephew, got two of the 5 hits off him.

Very exciting to see some Norcal teams in the top 50, knowing how great the Socal teams are it's a big compliment to be included in such great company.

Given some of the leagues up there it is a big compliment for some of the SoCal teams to be included.

Well nobody from the Marmonte league ranked again. Now they'll be beating each other up during league and won't be ranked. Then a Marmonte league team will end up in the SS finals and maybe get ranked. Chatsworth will crush weak competition during league and stay in the rankings. I think the league is something like 34-6 against teams from outside the league. I don't think any other league in the Southern Section is even close to that kind of record. You would think that somebody would figure out that they are the strongest league in Southern California and that the best team(s)from the best league in Southern California should be ranked.

CADad -

Pretty frustrating, isn't it? I've now seen half of the Marmonte teams play and there is so much baseball talent in the league. Next week's rematch between TO and Newbury should be a battle. I believe TO has a deeper squad than NP, but Newbury will be looking for revenge and I'll bet they will start Lambo on the mound, knowing he wasn't available for the Easton championship game they lost to TO.

I plan to show up early to watch this battle of Marmonte 2007 titans....Should be very exciting baseball!!

PG had better dish out some respect to the winner...

ProudSoCalDad

We will be covering the San Diego Lions Tournament. I really don't have anything to do with teams or rankings, but if someone wants to email me opinions and comments, I will forward them to the people who actually do the rankings.

Just curious, if these teams just beat up on each other, does that mean they are all among the top teams in the entire country? Does that 34-6 record non-conference record include games with other nationally ranked teams?

Really, it does sound like that is a great league, with a lot of outstanding players. I for one, would enjoy knowing as much as possible about the best players and even the top teams.

email - jerry@perfectgame.org

PG,
It is in the top division in Southern California's Southern Section. Victims include Chatsworth, El Camino, Valencia, Hart, etc., etc., etc.

Some but by no means all of the top players include Nick Barnese (CS Fullerton) at Simi Valley, Andrew Lambo (Arizona State, 1st round?) of Newbury Park, Chris Hannick (CSUN), Chad Smith (junior), Matt Bywater (Pepperdine), Kevin Gelinas (Pepperdine), Byron Minnich and Tyler Peddicord of Thousand Oaks (Thousand Oaks also has freshman Cody Thompson who pitched Conejo to the LL US championship in 2004 and Simi to the Pony WS championship game in 2006 on it's JV team), Alex Gillingham, Cutter Dykstra and Christian Yelich (a freshman who is one of the better hitters in the league) at Westlake, Richard Stock at Agoura, Alex Kurland (USC) at Calabasas and others who are college bound at Royal and at some of the weaker schools in the league. Calabasas, who beat Chatsworth looks bound for 5th or 6th place in league. I believe the backup catcher at Moorpark one of the two relatively weak schools in the league is headed to Tufts.

I would say that Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park are the class of the league with Royal being a close third. Thousand Oaks is probably the strongest team but Newbury Park can beat anyone when Lambo is pitching. I think you saw what he can do to top hitters when he pitched for the Midland Reds. Simi isn't quite up with those three but has a shot against anyone given Barnese or Sandler (works mid 80s sophmore who is primarily a strong hitting catcher) on the mound. Westlake and Calabasas are then a bit of a drop. Agoura and Moorpark are relatively weak and will most likely finish 7th and 8th but still have the ability to beat other teams and are capable of finishing over .500 outside the league. Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park deserve to be ranked. As solid as Royal is with their only loss coming to Thousand Oaks they probably aren't quite up to a national ranking.

I believe TO plays Cypress in the 2nd round of the Lions tournament so that ought to be interesting.

I see that Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park have made it into the top 50 in the PGcrosschecker rankings. They've earned it, but they'll have a tough time staying there. They'll both have to do well in the Spring Break tournaments and not slip up too much in league.

quote:

Among the nation’s three big baseball states, California seems to have a clearer-cut top team than any other state.


No. 2 Woodrow Wilson High of Long Beach ran its record to 16-1 and appears to be a step ahead of its competition in terms of quality and depth, particularly with a lineup that features shortstop Ryan Dent, who began the year as the top-ranked high school senior in the state. Junior outfielder/righthander Aaron Hicks ranks as the top player in the state in the Class of 2008, while junior righthander ranks as the state’s No. 1 pitcher in the same class.


The second-ranked team in California, No. 14 Cypress High of Anaheim, handed Wilson its only loss of the year but lost two other games itself to drop to No. 14. Led by third baseman Josh Vitters, the top-ranked prep position player for this year’s draft, Cypress has the offense to compete with Wilson but might not have the depth on the mound over the course of the year.

That's from PGcrosschecker. Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park were dropped from the rankings because as happens every year the teams beat up on each other during league.

Newbury Park has not done well in the Phil Nevin tournament but Thousand Oaks after losing a close one in the first round to El Toro beat both Cypress and Long Beach Wilson on the same day.

I don't know who plays who today but it seems pretty obvious that the above statement didn't take Thousand Oaks into account or for that matter El Toro who also beat Cypress or Esperanza who has done well in the Phil Nevin tournament so far.

CADad- your southern CA perspective is needed on www.norcalpreps.com. Raging debate about public vs. private schools. Of course private schools have better baseball teams and the West Catholic Athletic League is the strongest in the nation(that was sarcasm). Seems like you have really strong teams in public schools in S. CA. Maybe you could chime in and give the southern perspective.

CaBB,
The WCAL is pretty darn strong.