dirtycleats

Woodford made a game of it in the 6th inning after scoring 3 runs and bases loaded with one out but gets shut down. Western Hills will face Franklin County tommorrow night which shapes up to be a nice game between crosstown rivals.

#23 Franklin 6 #12 Danville 2 #23 Franklin 10 #13 Trinity 9 Just because Franklin won these two individual games doesnt neccessarily mean a thing. So what is your point Thorobred?

Russellville loses...Coaches had them ranked 22nd,,,Cleats44th...

In my ratings I have Beechwood rated higher(based on strength of schedule) than Highlands. You have seen them both play, who do you rate higher?

Exceptionally well??? Wow which team are you talking about. Oh it must be the one with more out of district transfer kids than Scott County and Lexington combined. And even with that I say competing exceptionally well has to be targeted either to one sport, and those teams were composed of 75% non Frankfort kids. So tell me this, how can you preach to someone else when you obviously are miss stating the facts.

Just to let you know, Two schools in this district are or have been ranked and a third one is vastly improved as the year has gone on. Woodford county is ranked 47 in coaches poll. Franklin County has played 18 games against ranked opponents and have gone 9-9 against some of the top teams in the state, and Western Hills have ended the year winning many games that they would have lost earlier in the year. Frankfort High is not the status quo for baseball in the 41st district.

With the exception of the 43rd district, and some of the others that have a blind draw. The favorites should win and advance. If a team in general has to save pitching at the district level to advance, they most likely would not advance in regionals. The team that gets the lucky draw in the region(against a subpar 2nd seed from one of the other districts gets an immediate advantage).

Heath was very close (#52), St.Mary was also in top 60. Many other good teams were also left out of top 50 that could very well deserve to be in there, but emphasis was put on record against quality opponents,strength of schedule, and then overall record against teams that did not make top 50 in either the coaches poll or cleats poll. My guess is that either of these two teams have a very good chance of coming out of their region, and depending on what region they get could even make it to the elite 8.

1. Calloway County 2. Christian County 3. Owensboro Catholic 4. Russellville 5. Central Hardin 6. Pleasure Ridge Park 7. St. Xavier 8. Oldham County 9. Covington Catholic 10. George Rogers Clark 11. Lexington Catholic 12. Somerset 13. Corbin 14. Perry County Central 15. Paintsville 16. Boyd County

Here is a look at the final top 50. There was a little bit of a switch at the end with several teams either getting hot or cold. Interesting game will be #2Dunbar vs #3 Tates Creek in first round of district. Coaches. Cleats....TEAMS.......................RECORD...SCHEDULE RANK 1------- 1------- Lexington Catholic.......29-3...........2 2------- 2------- Paul Dunbar................28-5...........1 9------- 3------- Tates Creek...............23-8............3 4------- 4------- Louisville Eastern.........29-6...........22 11------ 5------- Louisville St X............22-9............20 7--------6------- Henry Clay................19-10..........10 3------- 7------- Pleasure Ridge Park.....25-9...........19 20------ 8------- Henderson County......24-9...........4 14------ 9------- Paintsville.................27-5...........39 15------ 10------ Madisonville N. Hopkins.24-6.........27 26------ 11------ Louisville Male...........21-13.........9 12------ 12------ Danville...................24-9...........8 24------ 13------ Boyd County............23-9...........6 6------- 14------ Louisville Ballard.......20-10..........14 46------ 15------ Warren Central........21-8............51 18------ 16------ Covington Catholic...23-9............16 5------- 17------ Owensboro Catholic..23-9............17 10------ 18------ George Rogers Clark.27-4.............43 40------ 19------ Mercer County........18-9.............13 13------ 20------ Louisville Trinity......22-9.............5 27------ 21------ Ryle.....................27-6..............35 8------- 22------ Owensboro Apollo...22-10............15 nr------ 23------ Franklin County......19-11............7 19------ 24------ Oldham County.......20-5.............48 31------ 25------ Somerset...............19-8............18 25------ 26------ Lawrence County.....24-10..........32 22------ 27------ Boyle County..........23-6............26 17------ 28------ Lexington Christian..19-13...........11 38------ 29------ Harrison County......22-7............29 33------ 30------ Louisville Manual.....23-11..........28 39------ 31------ West Jessamine......17-11..........12 35------ 32------ Central Hardin.........19-11..........45 nr------- 33------ Greenup County.......21-11.........40 44------ 34------ Johnson Central.......21-11.........33 16------ 35------ Christian County......19-12.........23 29------ 36------ Larue County..........20-9...........24 nr------- 37------ Rowan County.........26-8..........41 nr------- 38------ Rockcastle County...20-9..........36 nr------- 39------ Bishop Broissart.......21-12........37 nr------- 40------ Covington Holy Cross.21-10.......44 41------ 41------ Taylor County.........21-9.........52 37------ 42------ Elizabethown..........22-11........42 34------ 43------ Louisville Butler.......23-11........25 23------ 44------ Russellville.............23-7..........56 nr------- 45------ Scott County.........18-13........34 45------ 46------ Madison Central......20-11.......31 36------ 47------ Hopkinsville............18-9.........50 nr------- 48------ Beechwood............21-15.......47 nr------- 49------ Fern Creek.............21-12.......38 43------ 50------ Campbell County.....18-12.......54

Actually I do input the data into a computer. The formula ranks each regions power ranking, each districts power ranking, and each teams ranking. I do have a few holes in the system, and the few holes are probably apparent as to which teams may be a bit over rated or under rated. The trick is where to put the weight of the scale,,team,district, or regional record. There is a few teams that have a powerful schedule like Lexington Christian Academy, but have lost to many of those powerful teams and have also lost to teams they should have beaten. So the system ranks them much lower than the coaches poll. I would tend to go with this poll over the coaches poll having them ranked in the top 10 all year long.

Dirty Cleats Top 50 Teams Record Teams Record 1.Lexington Catholic (26-2)...............26.Owensboro Apollo(19-9) 2.Paul Dunbar(26-5)........................ 27.Paintsville(24-3) 3.Louisville Eastern (26-5)................ 28.Louisville Male(19-13) 4.Boyd County(21-8)...................... 29.Taylor County(20-7) 5.Pleasure Ridge Park(22-9)............. 30.Louisville Manual(19-11) 6.Henry Clay(19-9)........................ 31.Desales(18-10) 7.Louisville St X(19-8).................... 32.Franklin County(18-9) 8.Owensboro Cath. (23-9)................ 33.Larue County(18-9) 9.Russellville(23-4)......................... 34.Henderson County(20-9) 10.Fern Creek(21-9)....................... 35.Lafayette(18-12) 11.Madisonville N.Hop.(22-5)............ 36.Bishop Broissart (19-12) 12.George Rogers Cl.(24-3).............. 37.Scott County(16-11) 13.Tates Creek(20-8)..................... 38.Calloway County(19-8) 14.Danville(22-8)........................... 39.Lexington Christian(15-13) 15.Louisville Butler(21-9)................. 40.Madison Central (19-8) 16.Oldham County(19-5)................. 41.Rockcastle County(19-7) 17.Mercer County(18-8).................. 42.West Jessamine (16-9) 18.Covington Catholic(19-8)............. 43.Central Hardin(18-8) 19.Somerset(16-7)............. .............44.Larue County(18-9) 20.Louisville Trinity (18-9)................ 45.Johnson Central (17-11) 21.Louisville Ballard (17-9)................ 46.Lawrence County(21-9) 22.Boyle County(21-6).................... 47.Perry County Cent.(21-8) 23.Harrison County(20-6)................ 48.Covington Holy Cr.(18-9) 24.Ryle(24-5)................................ 49.Butler County(20-3) 25.Christian County(18-12)............. 50.Greenup County (20-10)

I look to fine tune this thing with the next rankings. It is a little harder to evaluate teams that played many out of state teams like Lawrence County has done. One of my calculations took in out of region losses and Lawrence county had 7 of them (4 of them to out of state competition), so look for that change in the next rankings because I will probably take out all out of state wins or losses in the calculation.

DIRTYCLEATS TOP 50 This top 50 is based on: strength of schedule,record in region, record outside of region, and without bias of previous years success. 1. Lexington Catholic (24-2)...............26. Louisville Manual (18-9) 2. Paul Dunbar (23-4)........................27. Christian County (16-12) 3. Louisville Eastern (23-5).................28. Owensboro Apollo(16-9) 4. Owensboro Catholic (21-6).............29. Louisville St. X. (15-8) 5. Boyd County (20-8).......................30. Shelby County (11-6) 6. Tates Creek (18-6).......................31. Lafayette (17-11) 7. Beechwood (20-10)......................32. Louisville Male (17-12) 8. Danville (22-7).............................33. Larue County (16-7) 9. Pleasure Ridge Park (19-9).............34. Boyle County (17-6) 10. Russellville (21-4).......................35. Paintsville (21-3) 11. Fern Creek (19-9).......................36. Johnson Central (15-9) 12. Madisonville N. Hopkins (20-5).......37. Lexington Christian (13-11) 13. George Rogers Clark (22-2)...........38. Calloway County (19-6) 14. Henry Clay (14-9).......................39. Madison Central (17-6) 15. Louisville Trinity (17-7)................40. West Jessamine (15-8) 16. Oldham County (18-4).................41. Central Hardin (16-6) 17. Louisville Butler (18-8).................42. Rockcastle County (17-6) 18. Covington Catholic (19-8)............43. Bishop Broissart (16-11) 19. Mercer County (16-7)..................44. Corbin (17-8) 20. Henderson County (18-6).............45. Perry County Central (19-6) 21. Louisville Ballard (15-8)................46. Covington Holy Cross (17-8) 22. Franklin County (16-7).................47. Jeffersontown (16-9) 23. Harrison County (17-5)................48. Seneca (16-9) 24. Ryle (22-5)................................49. Russell County (14-8) 25. Somerset (15-6).........................50.Greenup (19-10)

I can tell you of many schools in Ohio that have a graduating class of 26-50 students who field a team every year. Classify baseball like you do football and everyone will be on the same playing field... Its as easy as that.

... Kentucky should adopt a 4 year rule just like every other state. Why have a high school team at all if you pull up 7th and 8th graders for varsity. I know many coaches have done it, but it does not make it right. Tell me the purpose of high school or for that matter college sports!!! Then tell me where 7th and 8th graders fit in that description. I wonder why colleges cannot bring up junior and senior high school players to play for them? Answer I know is obvious, but the same basic answer to that question should be the same answer as for the 7th and 8th graders.

Western Hills had more seniors last year than county has this year...

Does it really matter if they are in 10th grade or a senior?? Franklin county was able to win even on an off night. The pitches were effective in keeping county off balance though I agree, its sometimes hard to adjust from game to game seeing 80's one night then 60's the next.

I have seen Hills play a few times and they are much improved. You are right take away the errors from short stop and it is a one run game. But the short stop also made a real nice play earlier in the game. I thought as you did Hills pitcher performed well as did Cushingberry for County.

I feel for Eastern... I am sure they did things honorable... and I would bet that they tried there best to sit all players that could not have gotten anything out of this game...It would hurt any good team to be a part of a game like this...The only question is Why did they schedule them?...Ive seen bad teams play a bad game and its not fun for anyone,,,especially the winning team because no matter what they do it is always with an asterisk...WA should try to schedule teams that are more like them...There are about a half dozen or so not too far away from them.

franklin county came back from a 10-3 deficit against louisville trinity and fc won 11-10. it was a great game.

The correct call would be dead ball with no interferrance. The umpire made the correct decision if there was no intent by the batter. It is the catchers responsibility to clear the batter if he stayed in the batters box. Any other ruling would be absolutely rediculous seeing how the catcher could hit the batter every time throwing to third base if he wanted.

That is not true.

but FC also beat Taylor County 14-2, and Taylor County beat a then undefeated Danville team.

Not so sure about it being a down day for Danville, Marion County handled them pretty well. Danville is a good team but maybe the 3rd or 4th best team in the Classic. With Witten pitching however they can beat anyone on any given day, but I still wouldnt say they would beat everyone in the classic even with him pitching.