The Great Game

Cotton is a real nice player... super fielder, but will have to hit more consistently to make this 9th dream team. He does have the talent to hit well thats for sure. I will agree that Lokesak is a better hitter than Nutini, but not so sure on the fielding part.

Please see post #15... yes, you would no doubt be hearing from him on this thread if he could post.

Oh, I believe frequently that is the case also... but overall you cant say that this doesnt go on at some schools.

Not speaking towards Boone or any one school on the following comments... I agree that is is hard to feel sorry for them, but you also have to have the coaching staff in place to take advantage of those numbers and identify talent to make it a winning program. One of my contentions is that some of these large schools aren't better is that some talented players coming into these programs dont even go out because they hear and know of the politics and believe they wont get a fair shot. Sometimes they do go out... but dont end up getting a fair shot because the teams are already set. Sometimes they make the teams, see and feel the politics, and end up quitting at some point in the 4 years.

Interesting, I didnt know Hempel was a first baseman.

I believe he suspended at this time...bummer because he always gets some action going on here.:thumb:

I believe it will all depend on how things shake out at tryouts. Lots of capable talent that can play infield at Ryle so it will depend on who hits. Make sense though to put him at first, even though he is a solid 3rd baseman, to save the wear and tear on his arm.

If you check the threads I am not so sure...once again just my opinion.

I think Carney should get an opportunity to play 2nd... whether he does may be a different story. Although I believe if its infield or outfield for him, he will have an impact season for the Raiders.

Right or wrong IMO Darner probably does get overlooked when most mention Maile, Isler, and Nuttini before they mention him... just a thought?

Impressive stats...I agree he is a solid ballplayer who maybe has been overlooked a bit because of his surrounding cast. If he posts those kinds of numbers in 09 he wont be overlooked anymore.:thumb:

Will agree with your statement above...just thought you might have a feel for who you would think will make an impact.

Here are 5 or so that will make a big impact this spring... 1) Maile 2) Brake 3) Isler 4) Etscheid 5) Jones 5) Conner

So Skunk, do you have any idea of what the line-up might look like? Do they go young or will there be a mix?

Good stuff, that makes it formal... he should have a great college experience and could one day have the opportunity to play in the bigs!

I believe this year could go either way. I know that statement sounds funny but here are some points...They are coming off a difficult year last year, but they do have some talent returning and coming up. They will field the ball very well, hitting should be solid but probably without the long ball, speed will be excellent, pitching is a real question mark- although they have one of the top starters in NKY in Etscheid and have some other seniors that are more than capable but will have to be more consistent. They do have some younger pitchers who could also make an impact. What will be interesting is this will be the meshing of back to back JV Regional Championship teams in 2007 & 2008. Thus my point that there is some talent.

Please see post #10 in this thread and my comments about the CCH team. Plus, I don't believe I have ever stated the total success of the team is going to be based on where he hits in the line-up. I am once again merely stating that by usual baseball standards (of course these can be debated) that you put your best hitter in the 3 or 4 hole for obvious reasons. If you take the CCH lineup this year and throw it in a hat and start to draw names for your order, you will still win a ton of games, just maybe not the key ones;)

I may be mistaken, but I believe he was talking about the KY Colonels summer season with those stats... No matter either way, my point in this thread all along was not so much about Luke Maile (it just happens he is the best hitter in NKY and was the topic of the thread), what Coach Krumps intends to do, but the baseball standards of where you normally bat your best hitter. You can say it is talked to death, that is your prerogative. However, if your going to participate in a forum such as this you have to be prepared to be offered different opinions other than yours.

Ok, that's why major league teams have Ramirez, Howard, A-rod, and Pujois batting in the 3 or 4 spots in their line-ups...because it doesn't matter where they bat.

Well I am don't happen to be a Cov Cath fan, and it doesn't really matter to me, plus I agree talking about individual kids on here for the most part can become redundant, but this is the POY and he can change any game with one swing, so IMO that is why he gets talked about on here. But, in a baseball sense where he bats could be the difference of whether he is up in a big game with guys on base. Yes, he gets up more at the leadoff position and more than likely he is going to get pitched to in his first at bat, but from there the problems of him getting pitched around or walked still exist. I have stated on here multiple times, I would always pitch to him in any situation, but carefully. I saw teams go right after him last year, spotting the ball, with some sucess. Even though I am not a fan of Cov Cath i am a big fan of baseball and this topic is more about whether you hit one the better power hitters in Kentucky in the lead off position or 3rd or 4th. I surely didn't see the Phillies batting Howard in the lead-off position. I see your point that Krumps does what he wants, but does it make sense?

Cov Cath probably does in trying to win the 9th region...

Correction: maybe a bit over half the time, but not every time. It has no bearing on how many homeruns he hits but it surely does RBI's, because if he hits homeruns in the 3 or 4 spot he will have a bunch more RBI's. That was proven out by the year he had in 2007.

I agree with your comments here and that is surely a tough line-up to face...One thing I will say is that it doesn't matter where you put Maile in the line-up he will hit, but I never can agree with him hitting lead-off. He had another great year last year for batting average, but if I am not mistaken his homerun total and rbi's were down, so how did that help the team? Am I correct on those numbers Old Guy?

I was just making a point that with Cov Cath having alot of the top players in NKY, in this thread the top 3 out of 4, that they should win hands down. As we saw last year it doesn't always work out that way.

Just by the way this thread is reading it looks like Cov Cath should be a shoe-in to win the 9th region...