cooperstown

Any predictions on the upcoming JV tourney next week? I'd have to say that Ryle is the team to beat, as they currently sit on a 22-3 record and have won something like 18 of their last 19 games. They had some rather easy games (and a tournament) cancelled due to weather this season or they would probably be close to 30 wins. This is being done with only freshman (3) and sophomores on their team, no juniors. While the Ryle varsity team loses quite a few quality senior players after this season, there is definitely some talent in the well for Ryle that should keep them very competitive for the next several years.

Other solid JV teams that we've seen include Cov Cath (whom Ryle has beaten 4 times this year), New Cath, Campbell County, Dixie, and Conner - though I'm certain there are others out there. Should make for a competitive tournament, though for the life of me I can't figure out how they drew up the brackets. Ryle vs. New Cath in early game doesn't seem to make much sense.

If I were to vote today, I would pick Maile. My reasons are simple.

 

One, CovCath has played a much tougher schedule at this point in the season, and thus Maile has faced much tougher pitchers, or a lack of easy teams that Boone County faced early in the season. His BA, RBI's, HR's etc. have been earned against some of the toughest teams not only in NKy, but against some outstanding Ohio teams as well as some quality ranked team from around the rest of the Commonwealth

 

Two, Maile is a much better catcher as he blocks balls in the dirt much better than Corry does, and IMO has a stronger arm. While Corrys arm is outstanding, Maile's is a cannon.

 

Maile is playing his natural position, but I really think Corry is not a catcher but rather a outfielder where he could use he speed to his advantage......

 

Again this is my vote at this point of the season.... It may well change as the season draws to an end.....

Maile or Farris? Would you rather have $50,000 cash or a free Cadallic? Hard to go wrong either way.

Not sure CC has played all that much tougher of a schedule, have they? BC did have some lighter competition early on, but has since played several ranked teams, including LCA, Eastern, Boyd, and CC. CC has played a number of ranked teams also - Owensboro Cathloic, Danville, Ballard, Boyle. Overall it would appear CC has played a tougher schedule, but only slightly.

It might also be a leap to assume that Maile has automatically faced tougher pitching simply because their schedule is a bit harder. Even weaker/smaller schools can have one ace pitcher on their staff and frequently throw that pitcher when they face a larger school. So unless someone actually knows the specific pitchers they've faced, it would probably be unfair to assume that Farris has built his stats against weaker pitching.

If the decision ends up coming down to these two players, it will not be decided on their defensive abilities, as this is a very subjective determination. They are both great catchers. Farris did start out the season at DH and OF for a few games because of an injury that prevented him from catching, but has pretty much been the full-time catcher since. Of course, this is not to say that the POY has to come from the catching position anyways.

It is interesting that Maile has so many more at-bats than Farris when their teams have played about the same number of games. I know Farris was injured early on and did not even practice until a few days before the season started, so perhaps they limited his AB's the first few games. Just guessing though.

Congrats to Adam (Warning)! Adam played ball for me the past two summers and pitched very well. Occasional bouts of wildness, but he has a lively fastball and good curve and will be even more effective as he improves his changeup. He will be extremely tough as he gets older and stronger. I would think freshman Chris Gerwe would also be on CC's pitching radar screen, as he is apparently dominating teams at the freshman level.

If you can throw strikes & field the ball you won't lose this badly. It was mentioned that WA had 8 or 9 errors. If I had to bet, I'd say that's with a generous score keeper. I wonder how many walks they had?

 

I know that everybody wants to be one of the "big boys", but you have to know your limits. If WA can't compete on an elite level, then it's their own fault for scheduling Eastern.

Yes, you're right. Whitefield has clearly scheduled some opponents that are out of their league. To be more specific, either Whitefield's COACH or AD made some questionable scheduling decisions. However, I would suggest that some of these "big boys" have made equally poor scheduling choices by lining up games against an opponent they know (or strongly suspect) they will crush.

What it truly important here, however, is that the Whitefield PLAYERS did not deserve this. They did not schedule the game. They were handed their schedule, told when and where to show up, and do the best they could. I'm sure they did and clearly their best fell far short of meaningfully competing in this game (and several others). Blame whomever you want for scheduling this game, but the Whitefield PLAYERS did not deserve to be humiliated in this fashion. Period. At the end of the day, baseball is a GAME and these are just young men trying to have some fun, and did not need to be embarrassed and brutally reminded that they are nowhere near the talent level of the "big boys."

They are 1-8 and have scored 30 runs, while allowing 139. This makes the 3rd time, they have allowed 20± runs.

 

Eastern is a very good team and while I wasn't there, perhaps not being able to get anyone out, was also a factor.

Excluding the Eastern game, they had given up 96 totals run - an average of 12 runs per game. The Eastern score skews the statistics somewhat.

It is also interesting that Jeffersontown beat Eastern (7-2), yet when Jeffersontown played Whitefield, they held the score to a reasonable 21-0.

It is clear that Whitefield should not be scheduling opponents of this level. There is a huge difference between "challenging" your players and "overwhelming" them. However, it is also the responsibility of the stronger teams not to schedule opponents they know they will maul.

There are ways to keep a blowout score "reasonable" even if the other team is hurting their cause with walks and errors. I would suggest that Jeffersontown (21-0) and Dupont Manual (24-0) did just that when they played Whitefield. 43-0 is not reasonable. What was the message that was taught to the Eastern players? That humiliating your opponent for the sake of padding your statistics outweighs the responsibility to show some compassion, respect, and humility to a team and players that obviously aren't at your talent level?

Perhaps there is an unknown side to this story, but if not, the embarrassment in this score is not owned by the team that was shut out.

Roenker, freshman from Holy Cross, has been pitching pretty well at the varsity level thus far

17 innings/2.43 ERA so far. Could be better but don't have stats from this week included in those totals.

You will hear big things from young Mr. Roenker in future years. He has a good lively fastball, hard sharpbreaking curve, and decent changeup (some improvement needed there) to go along with very consistent control. Plus he posesses the other important entangibles - very smart, willing to listen and learn, bulldog competitiveness, but still humble, polite, and respectful towards his opponents.

I going to have to remember to keep all the forms he's signed for my team the past few years so that I can sell them on eBay one day when he reaches the big show. :ylsuper:

Surely at this point in the season there have been some pretty amazing, last (or late)-inning, heroic comebacks. The kind that can turn a season around for some struggling team or throw an already good team over the top.

Any nominees for the best comeback of 2007 to date?

Played for Midland as a kid?... since when did Midland start merging NKY teams into "the" program? Years (and years) ago they just cherry-picked NKY kids. Does this mean NKY b-ball is getting noticed? If so, this is good for NKY HS b-ball. What's the story?

Midland doesn't become "super-elite" until 16U (Braves), 17U (Indians), and 18U (Redskins - the "bigtime" Midland team). They have paid coaches at those levels and no more dads involved. They hold tryouts and naturally attract much of the top talent at those ages, including NKY talent. They also recruit. For instance, the 18U team recruited Corey Farris (Boone Cty.) for this year's team. A good number of the 18U roster consists of players from outside the Cincinnati area. The 16u and 17U teams are primarily Cincinnati area (including NKY) players from former SWOL teams.

Midland sponsors one or two teams at each age level under 16U, such as my team at 15U. These teams are usually good and some are very good. But they are not true "elite" teams as one thinks of when you hear the Midland name. I had a select team called Kentucky Fury for the past 4 years and had players from all over NKY. We were a NL SWOL team and had a good deal of success. At the end of last season, I decided to merge with my younger brother, who had an existing 14U Midland team. They were in SWOL also, but at the AL level. A good team, but just didn't have quite the depth we did. So we combined our teams, added two new players, and called ourselves Midland Fury. We kept the "Midland" name due to the obvious advantages attached with it - access to their indoor facility and the Midland fields, a free set of uniforms, and some sponsorship money from Midland- and will play at the NL level again in 2007, where I anticipate we will do very well.

None of the boys on this team are guaranteed spots on the 2008 16U Midland team. They have to try out (or be invited by the head coach) just like everyone else. However, they do have the advantage that they will be seen by the 16U coach more so than other "non-Midland" 15U players. In fact, we have a game scheduled against the 16U team this summer. I would guess that 4 or 5 of my players will make the 2008 Midland 16U team, maybe even one or two more. Therein lies my dilemma for next year - my son, while a very solid player, probably won't make the 16U team. If I keep a team next year (returning to the 'Kentucky Fury" name, since the only 16U Midland team is the Braves), then I would be forced to replace my best players, something that would be very tough, if not impossible, to do. And it would be kind of tough for me and the remaining boys if we did not (and we likely would not) have the same level of success as we've had in the past, though admittedly that is a pretty shallow attitude and something I need to get over before making my decision whether to forge on at the 16U level.

That's probably more information that you were looking for about Midland and my team!

The Florence Freedom facility is pretty sweet for high school games. Hope they can squeeze even more games in there in the future.

I was talking to Chris Hook tonight and he said that the Freedom doesn't charge the high schools to use their facility. Freedom keeps the gate and concessions in order to make it free to the schools. Obviously when they draw 1200 people, such as they did for the Boone-Ryle game, they do quite well, but as long as they feel the game will draw a few hundred people and enough to offset their operating costs they are willing to work with the schools. I can't imagine any reason why a high school would not want to give their players a chance to play in such a venue. Champion Window Field is a first-rate facility. BTW, the Freedom also has a program worked out to make the field available to summer teams to play.

Kentucky Fury, although we will be called Midland Fury (15U) this year because we merged with an existing Midland team.

There are several current Ryle JV players that also played JV last year, but just weren't able to go up to varsity this year because that team is so deep with seniors. That's part of the reason their JV squad is so strong this year (current record is 13-3). Several boys moved up from last year's freshman team and there are also several solid 9th graders that didn't play for the high school freshman team last year and elected to play SWOL instead (like Jody, Austin P., on Conner's team). I am very impressed with the depth of Ryle's pitching staff. No flame-throwing studs, but a bunch of very solid pitchers.

I'll be out of town for the game, but my best guess is that I'll miss a 6-3 Ryle victory. At least I hope.

Gallatin County is indeed a nice field, though not in St. Henry's league. I didn't want to rag on any one field specifically (which, of course, now I am going to do), but Beechwood's field is absolutely terrible and the single worst place I can think of from which to watch a game. It is hard to believe that a program of that quality plays on a field like that. I think Conner's field has improved much, though there's little they can do about the visitor's dugout being halfway down the right field line. Villa has the makings to be a nice place, but they need to do away with the mulch covering some of foul territory and replace it with crushed brick. Not sure who (if anyone) uses the large field at Covington FOP, but it's a pretty decent field (or at least it was last year).

Schools generally don't have the staff (or money) to upkeep the fields to the level they should be. It is important for the coaches/AD's to get the parents involved - something that I don't believe happens at most schools.

Is anyone else surprised/disappointed in the overall quality of high school fields in NKY? Obviously, St. Henry has the premier field, but who has the next best venue? Personally, I like Meiken Field, though I haven't seen it this season. Some of the fields are just downright terrible and are very poorly maintained. Sure makes you wish there was a centrally-located tournament baseball park complex that had a few 60'-90' fields that several teams could make use of. Field quality probably not the most important issue in the world - baseball is baseball whether it's played at GABP or in a parking lot - but I just find it interesting that the overall quality of the NKY high school fields (my opinion here) is so poor.

My bad. Didn't read subject line too closely I guess. I know Jody primarily plays JV.

I would be willing to bet a small fortune that the Ryle JV will not be no-hit next week. Not that I wouldn't want to see Jody do well, but Ryle JV is a very solid ballclub, both offensively and defensively. I'm sure it'll be a good, well-played game on both sides.

(But I'm going to predict Ryle comes out on top ).

I would assume that young Mr. Hubbard had that nasty curveball working for him! Feel free to keep that hook in check when you face Ryle next week. You can bring it back out for our summer season! :thumb: Congrats, Jody and Conner.

I've coached a select summer team in SWOL for several years. It is indeed a very competitive league, especially at the NL level.

One of the things that I've noticed over this time is that it sometimes a challenge to convince kids the importance of learning to play the outfield position. Everyone wants to be a SS or 3Bman. So many kids view the OF as a "lesser" position or even punishment for not having a glove like Ozzie Smith. Not until they reach high school do they finally start to realize the true value of a quality OF. It's also important they understand there are THREE spots available at that position on their high school team - and only ONE spot at SS or the other infield positions. IMHO, all kids (except those too obviously slow) should be forced to play some OF at the pre-high school levels and be exposed to the fundamentals of that position. How fortunate it must be for a high school coach to have a number of players experienced and comfortable playing the OF.

canthitme - that is a shame if someone let you throw 157 pitches in a game. When is the last time you saw a major league pitcher throw that many pitches ? (Answer: rarely, if ever). Part of the reason that you shouldn't throw that many pitches is because adrenelin can sometimes compensate for a tired arm (thus your statement "I was still throwing as hard if not harder in the 9th inning . .") and you don't even realize at the time the stress you are putting on your arm and shoulder. In addition - while I'm sure you are a strong, tough kid - that many pitches would greatly tire/weaken anyone's arm and certainly make you more susceptible to injury the next time you throw. You will not find a legitimate medical doctor/specialist anywhere that would tell you it's a good idea for a pitcher - especially a high school age pitcher - to throw 157 pitches. Again, I'll bet you are indeed a very good pitcher and have a strong, lively arm, but if you want it to stay that way, you had better think long and hard about approaching pitch counts anywhere near that level. And quite honestly, I really have to question the motives of any coach that would knowingly allow a pitcher to throw that many pitches in a game. I could care less if you were throwing 10 mph faster on your 157th pitch as opposed to your first pitch - it is unsafe and a surefire way to invite some serious and permanent arm problems.