mitch r

St X should be favored to win the region, with a lot of talent returning from the state championship team. X's pitching staff will run 8-9 deep, and all of the pitchers are good. They also have some good offense. CAL and Ballard will both be tough. CAL is a tough out for anyone when Thompson is on the mound, but they aren't very deep after him. Ballard has a great pitcher in Adell, and a couple of good power hitters. Eastern has some good young talent. Male and Trinity are rebuilding.

Whitaker is a great coach and harrison Co had a great run in the 90s. But they a not a current powerhouse.

Great coach and great run in the 90s. Not a current powerhouse.

Not implying anything about Whitaker. Hicks was referring to the #1 team in each sport having a target on its back. Hicks seems to think Harrison County is a baseball powerhouse --like Trinity in football--and they are not.

Harrison county - baseball? Sorry coach St X tigers are baseball champs, and not a single transfer on the team.

TC- not flaming here, but the T-H fields are not very nice. The infield has clumps of grass everywhere and the dirt is very uneven. But, my point is, the sports turf allows year-around play, the grass field at Thurman is unplayable much of the time because it is too wet.

I agree with Bert, but there is not any cheap land in St Matthews area. Trinity should have acquired Voll Field (St Matt Park behind Best Buy) when it had the chance several years ago. However, the primary reason X has such an advantage is the sports turf, which enables the players to work on fundamentals all winter, and it prepares them for 7th region tournament, which is on U of L's turf field. The X field is nicer than many D2-3 college fields.

This seems like a really good hire, but Trinity's problem is with their facilities. They will be playing second fiddle to St X until they upgrade their facilities.

These are really subjective and biased against certain schools. State Champion St Xavier had one player on the A-S team (Austin Clemons) who was injured and did not play most of the year. Clemons is deserving of the honor, but its hard to believe that no player who actually played on the state champion team was included in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or honorable mention. There are at least 4 St X kids in addition to Clemons who should be recognized, but who is counting, since X won it all!

Trinity's challenge is not coaching; it is the facilities. They play at a public park on the Ohio River, and the field is awful. By comparison, St X has a year-around turf field with MLB dimensions and a large seating capacity. The good baseball players coming out of middle school will choose St X a majority of the time (unless they have previous ties to Trinity). Tompkins is a nice guy and a good coach, and his successor is facing an uphill battle. X is coming off a state championship and is loaded with underclass talent.

The primary advantage of turf is the extra practice. Teams with grass fields cant practice as much, especially early in the season, when the weather is bad. X practices 3 hours a day, and early in the season it was often on days when other fields were too wet to play on.

Rocks are playing good ball. The record is deceiving, they are a very good team. The difference will come down to pitching & errors. X is very deep at pitching and they have played against a brutally difficult schecule. The team with the most composed pitchers / team will probably win, as it will be an intense environment.

#3 St X at #4 Eastern was a tough opener for both teams. X pulled out a tough win in a very intense environment. The C-J said it was the largest crowd for any game not played at U of L Also a big win by Trinity over Ballard & a tough semi-final game against Male. Male saved their pitchers against Central. Who is next in rotation for Trinity?

He is a great kid kid who will be a star at the next level. A kid his age and in his condition should recover quickly from the ACL. A big loss for St X, but they still have enough talent and experience to win the region. They have lost a couple of games to lesser opponents, as their coaches seem to be mixing up the line-ups. I heard they sat a bunch of starters and pitched a JV player last night against DeSales. X plays a brutal schedule, so I guess their coaches are trying not to overuse the arms.

The coaches polls are political and biased, and coaches don't have the ability to scout all other teams. The PBR rankings come out Wednesday and will be a better assessment, since PBR and Chris Fuller actually scout the teams they are ranking. A few things stand out: - Henderson County deserves #1 ranking. Well coached, good talent, and solid pitching - Trinity HS should definitely be in the top 25. They return good pitchers, and are really strong 1-6 in the batting order - St X (#7) was leading Apollo (#8) by 12-1 on Sat (during their scrimmage) when they stopped keeping score. Actual score was probably 16-1 or more, & X only pitched half of their good pitchers. It looked like men against boys. no way those two are separated by only 1 spot - Lex Cath should be ranked higher. Great hitting and lots of team speed - PRP lost a ton of talent from last year's team. #2 seems overrated - Nelson Co has strong pitching and should be in top 25.

Thanks Hoops. On paper, Moeller has the better team, although I hear St X has a really potent offense. I really enjoy the BGP site... some very knowledgeable writers. It seems like most of the followers are from Northen KY area, it would be great if folks from other parts of the state would visit the site more often.

Moeller and X play each other in Cincy over spring break. Should be a great game! Both teams are loaded. Link: Boys Varsity Baseball

St X is ranked #31 nationally in USA Today pre-season poll. Cincy Moeller is #17. They play each other in Cincy over spring break Boys Varsity Baseball

Not sure if this works, but here it is. High School Preview: Preseason Top 50 - BaseballAmerica.com

Henderson County (44) and St. X (50) are both ranked in Baseball America's preseason national top 50 high school poll. Nice recognition for two quality programs. They play each other in Henderson this season.

St X and Male should contend as well. X has won the 7th region three straight years, and they may have the most potent offense in the state. If their two best pitchers mend from injury, they will be very tough to beat. Male also has a solid lineup, a deep pitching staff, and good team speed. CAL will play a great spoiler for any of the favorites in Round 1 with Thompson on the mound.

PRP is always tough, but I believe they lost a lot of talent from last years team. And, Coach Miller has been in the news about the side business he was running on PRP's property. Not sure if that will impact his status or not.

The rankings come out later this month. Who do you think is going to be in the Top 5?

1) play for a good travel team for summer baseball. He needs to tryout and make the team. Midland (Cincy), KBC (Lexington) and Ironmen (Louisville) are three of the better ones. The coaches in these programs are well-connected to college coaches. 2) Attend showcases. I would attend a couple of PBR and Perfect Game showcases after freshman year. Be careful, some of the showcases are rip-offs, but PBR and PG are good. 3) Attend camp at the colleges. If he doesn't know where he wants to go, then start with camps in the region (UK, UL, WKU, etc). My son attended a Vandy camp after soph year and made great connections. It's a lot like an aspiring country singer getting discovered by an agent. It takes talent, hard work, connections and good luck to get a D1 scholarship.

You are correct Dingerbird. Schools are always looking for a good arm. The 2014 kids I mentioned (Lee, Dageforde, Hisel) are D1 level pitchers when healthy and would have signed somewhere had they pitched the spring and summer of Jr season. I'm sure there are others. But no doubt, the Junior year is the key year, and it seems like the trend is moving earlier.