Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 260 - Top 50 Baseball 30-11

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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 260 - Top 50 Baseball 30-11 · Whatcom Preps Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey, this is Blaine Pitcher Kieran Marcuson and you're listening to the Top fifty
• 0:03
  Baseball Countdown with Tyland and Ryland go Border Rights. Greetings, and welcome into
• 0:25
  the watcom Preps podcast. This is episode A two hundred and sixty, the
• 0:28
  second of three podcasts we unveil the Baseball Top fifty Countdown. I'm Ryland Spencer
• 0:33
  along with me as always is Tyler Anderson of What Come Preps. Tyler,
• 0:37
  how we doing doing? Gray? You're going to continue the countdown and you
• 0:41
  start getting into some really big time players here that did it at the play
• 0:46
  on the mound, defensively, everything, So it'll be a lot of fun
• 0:50
  starting to get into the names where I recognize pretty much everybody at this point.
• 0:53
  Tyler, if you have not already heard, on Monday we did drop
• 0:59
  the fear fifty down to thirty one from the Top fifty Countdown. Today we're
• 1:04
  doing thirty down to eleven. A couple of days ago, we also released
• 1:08
  the fifty down to thirty one for the Fast Pitch Top fifty Countdown, so
• 1:12
  be sure to go back and listen to both of those today we are releasing
• 1:17
  this right Tyler on Friday. That's what we decided, yes, which means
• 1:21
  on Sunday you will be getting the fast pitch thirty down to eleven, and
• 1:26
  then just after that it'll be ten down to one and then ten down to
• 1:30
  one, and then we're pretty much done with spring sports at that point,
• 1:36
  which means take a little time off, breathe, eat some food, sleep
• 1:41
  a little bit, and then get right into football. Absolutely. And then
• 1:45
  once football gets going, we get right into all the other sports because football
• 1:48
  starts a week before everybody else. So, Tyler, we need to give
• 1:53
  a thank you to Kurt Mayberry Farm. Kurtaberry Farm dot com is the website.
• 1:57
  You can find them online Kurt with a CMA, B E r r
• 2:00
  y farm dot com and they are a fourth generation, family owned and operated
• 2:05
  berry farm committed to growing the highest quality berries strawberries, blueberries, raspberries.
• 2:09
  And as I always say, I'm hungry and it's nine thirty eight am and
• 2:15
  I'm already thinking about dessert, Tyler, So this is a brutal day already.
• 2:21
  We also want to give a quick shout out to j e KK Sports
• 2:23
  Cards, Bedlington Farms and SIG's at Funeral and Cremation Services. They were the
• 2:29
  three big main sponsors of baseball during the spring season on watcompreps dot com,
• 2:35
  and yeah, we just want to say thank you to them, Tyler.
• 2:37
  If somebody wants to get a hold of you about sponsorships, there's all kinds
• 2:39
  of stuff coming up in the fall, And I mean, even if they
• 2:43
  wanted to start talking about the winner, if they have something in mind,
• 2:46
  how do they get in touch with you. Well, for the next few
• 2:50
  days they can't because I'll be in silver Lake, but I through social media
• 2:55
  would be the best way. And just look for WALKAM Preps, send a
• 3:00
  personal message, you know through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and and just
• 3:05
  explain that you want to help out. And sometimes you might have an exact
• 3:08
  idea of what you want to do. Sometimes you just say I want to
• 3:12
  sponsor walk the Preps. Tell me what I need to know, and we
• 3:15
  can go from there and figure something out. So there's a lot of options
• 3:19
  and it's going to be a great you know, next school year coming up
• 3:22
  right around the corner, so there'll be a lot of things to talk about.
• 3:25
  Yeah, I mean they can reach out to you with an idea and
• 3:28
  say hey, yeah, I like this, what do you think about that,
• 3:30
  or they can reach out to you and say, hey, here's my
• 3:32
  budget. You know what can what can we do? Or what am I?
• 3:38
  What am I looking at? You know what can I get? You
• 3:39
  know? What do you think in budget wise? Like what should I be
• 3:43
  looking for? And then boom away you go again? Falls coming up.
• 3:46
  It'll be here before you know it. And if somebody wanted to do something,
• 3:50
  they want to say, hey, can we already start talking basketball?
• 3:53
  I mean, obviously we're not gonna do it on the podcast or even really
• 3:54
  on the website until basketball gets going. But somebody said, hey, can
• 3:58
  we talk sponsorship basketball stuff? I'm sure you might go, well, sure,
• 4:02
  what do you think about doing the Fall two? Though? Huh?
• 4:04
  What do you think? Okay, while we're on the topic, Tyler,
• 4:08
  if they're listening to this on Friday or Saturday, that would mean District Brewing
• 4:14
  is gonna be hosting you on Sunday, right, Yeah, I'll be there
• 4:17
  from noon to two. Come out to District Brewing, the one in Lindon,
• 4:21
  right on the corner of Pull and Hannigan, and come check it out.
• 4:27
  Really really good food. I love the wings, Holy cow, they
• 4:30
  are so good. The pizza is fantastic. The salad is great. Come
• 4:36
  check it out and hang out and watch some old sports games. There's a
• 4:41
  there's a high school sports dedication room with tons of old jerseys, old helmets
• 4:45
  you would love. There's a Meridian helmet in there with the big center bar
• 4:47
  down the middle, yes, and that you would love. Yeah. And
• 4:51
  there's some newer helmets or some LC helmets and Nuksack Valley helmets. There's there's
• 4:56
  like an autographed team picture of last year's Nuksack Valley State champion girls basketball team.
• 5:01
  Uh, there's a there's a framed jersey of Luke Ridanow with that with
• 5:05
  autographs and stuff like that, a Sonics jersey. There's a frame jersey of
• 5:09
  Ty Toppenheim who played at Lyndon and then he pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays
• 5:14
  and it's got like his scorecard from his first game and everything. And there's
• 5:16
  just some really cool stuff in there, and just come check it out.
• 5:19
  There's old yearbooks from like Mount Baker and Nukzack Valley and Meridian and stuff like
• 5:25
  that, and there's jerseys on the wall. I mean, it's it's a
• 5:29
  it's a really really cool place. I mean, just just come hang out,
• 5:31
  get some good food, and it should be a lot of fun.
• 5:34
  Do you know what's being shown this weekend? I do not know right now.
• 5:40
  I I'm gonna kind of leave it open. I'm gonna I'm bringing my
• 5:45
  external hard drive. So there's twenty five hundred games on there roughly, so
• 5:50
  you know, if you put someone whoever shows up first and they say,
• 5:54
  hey, do you have this, I'll put it on there. So that's
• 5:58
  that might be the way I go in the beginning. And once we get
• 6:00
  more of a following, then people can start voting and stuff like that on
• 6:02
  what they want to see. So I just want to get the word out
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  for people to come out now, and and yeah, it'd be it'd be
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  fun, you know. It was. I was. I was talking to
• 6:14
  Kate Shintaffer who was there last week, and she played on that state champion
• 6:17
  basketball team for Knooksack, and we were talking about like like like her her
• 6:23
  basketball coach played basketball see Home, and she's like, do you have any
• 6:26
  film of when he played? And I was like, I want to get
• 6:28
  some because that was in the late eighties, and but I said, but
• 6:31
  I have some of coach Bartell playing quarterback at Sea Home and and so you
• 6:36
  know, just it's just fun stuff like that, like people that these kids
• 6:40
  might know that they never saw play because they weren't alive yet, you know,
• 6:44
  and just fun stuff like that. If they have coaches that played.
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  There's a lot of coaches in this area that that played. So so we'll
• 6:50
  see, we'll see what we ended up playing. Yeah, and Tyler,
• 6:54
  I'm just looking at Google Maps of the area, right. So first off,
• 6:59
  District Brewings six nine to twelve hand Again Road. As you mentioned,
• 7:02
  it's on the northeast corner of Pole and hand Again. I mean, you
• 7:08
  know, they could wake up early, go get in around of golf over
• 7:11
  there at Raspberry Ridge golf Course. Yep, come over, have some have
• 7:15
  a couple of Bruce skis and some wings or some pizza, whatever it is,
• 7:19
  watch it, watch a game, maybe go across the street to this
• 7:23
  sports place, get some skis and some snow you know, snow boots or
• 7:28
  whatever. Go over to anytime fitness and work out. Ye, go over
• 7:30
  to anytime fitness work it all off. I mean, you know, I
• 7:33
  mean, yeah, it makes a lot of sense here. I mean,
• 7:35
  it sounds like it sounds like a good good Sunday, you know, fun
• 7:39
  day. Yeah. Yeah, and then I mean, you know, maybe
• 7:41
  make your way out and see if you can't find some some raspberries, blueberries
• 7:45
  and strawberries over it. Now we're getting crazy here, Tyler. Maybe maybe
• 7:48
  you talk to Marty staffers st if you can't grab some insurance while you're out
• 7:51
  there anyway. Yeah, that's going on Sunday, So Tyler will be out
• 7:57
  there again. Yeah, head on out District Brewing. You know, get
• 8:01
  out there early and request something that Tyler doesn't have, just to make him
• 8:05
  feel uncomfortable there you Yeah, so again District Brewing Sunday. Tyler will be
• 8:11
  out there. We got a lot of stuff to talk about here, Tyler.
• 8:13
  We've got another twenty names on this list. Are you lined up?
• 8:18
  Are you ready to go? Yeah? I'm ready to go. All right.
• 8:22
  We will start with number thirty on the top fifty count down. It's
• 8:26
  a sophomore utility player from Knicksack Valley. It's Evan Brown. Yeah. Last
• 8:31
  year he was just a pitcher. He as a freshman. He pitched,
• 8:35
  pitched quite a bit, had some rough going, but he had a really
• 8:37
  really strong arm, and I remember remember watching him pitch. I was.
• 8:41
  I was behind the backstop, not directly, but I was kind of off
• 8:45
  the side. And then his brother, Joey comes over and I said,
• 8:48
  hey, so your brother pitches. Then he goes, yeah, he's pretty
• 8:50
  good. I said, do you play any baseball? He goes, no,
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  I can't play baseball to save my life. But of course now he's
• 8:54
  going to go be a Decatholic at Western, right, So it was it
• 8:58
  was just so funny, how I mean, and Evan is the spitting image
• 9:03
  of Joey Brown. I mean they look identical and but just two different skill
• 9:07
  sets when it comes to throwing something. We'll will get used to that name.
• 9:13
  Come football, he's gonna be start, you know, taking over the
• 9:16
  starting quarterback. But this year he really really improved, especially at the plate
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  and got you know, I think he only got like a handful of that
• 9:24
  bats as a freshman. You usually got d H four when he pitched,
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  but this year, uh he did. He did great. I mean he
• 9:31
  was hitting you know, I think like number five in the lineup for most
• 9:35
  of the year, uh, five or six, and he was playing some
• 9:37
  some outfield. Uh he played you know, he played some first base.
• 9:41
  If Cole Bauman pitched. But and then all of a sudden, I go
• 9:46
  to a game and it's at Bellingham and I'm in the dugout. I'm in
• 9:48
  the Knicksack Valley dugout, and I'm looking at the lineup and it has Evan
• 9:54
  Brown att shortstoped. I kind of like looked at it again, like is
• 9:58
  it is that right? Like is he playing? I've never ever ever seen
• 10:03
  him play short stuff and he's about six three, six' four. You
• 10:07
  know, you just usually don't see that kid in short stuff, and especially
• 10:09
  in high school. You're right, and and he's out there and he did
• 10:13
  awesome. And I even asked him to Doug, I go, is this
• 10:16
  your first time playing? He goes, yeah, and he's just a natural,
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  like he just picked it up. And so he played some infield,
• 10:24
  played some outfield, and and was a really good pitcher too. Uh.
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  He hit the only home run for Knukxac Valley this year that was against that
• 10:33
  was and that was off of Kieran Marcuson which says a lot. And uh,
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  yeah, it was just it was just an unbelievable season for him that
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  where he really improved quite a bit, did strike out a handful of times.
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  That's probably the one thing he still needs to improve on a little bit.
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  But he's a he is aggressive at the plate. He he threw forty
• 10:56
  three and two thirds innings and struck out thirty seven. Battery was a three
• 11:00
  point three six ERA, so you know, he he he was there kind
• 11:05
  of their their guy that threw the most inning. I mean, he did
• 11:09
  throw the most innings for the team. And uh and when they had that
• 11:13
  winner, that loser out game against Lennon Christian in the district playoffs, that's
• 11:20
  who they put on the mound and that that that told me a lot.
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  And he threw I mean I think he threw five innings and he didn't allow
• 11:26
  any runs. They end up losing that game one to zero. So really
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  bright future for him in multiple sports. But uh, I'm really excited to
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  see him come around the next couple of years for baseball. Number twenty nine
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  on the Top fifty count down. Also a sophomore catcher and a pitcher from
• 11:43
  Lynn Christian is Traycon Johnson. Yeah, speaking of that one nothing game,
• 11:48
  he was the one that drove He's the one that drove in that only run.
• 11:52
  So uh, kind of funny that they're right next to each other here.
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  Trayson Johnson is a stud man, I mean, plays on the defensive,
• 12:00
  big burly kids, super strong and just can drive the ball all over
• 12:05
  the place. And started last year as a catcher as a freshman on a
• 12:11
  team that you know, got to the second round of the regionals of state,
• 12:15
  you know, one win away from the final four. And and this
• 12:20
  year it was it was the same deal. You know, they got they
• 12:22
  got to that second round and he's and he's going to be a four year
• 12:26
  starter as a catcher, and that's really really impressive. Did hit three doubles
• 12:33
  on the year, almost had a triple against Mount Vernon, got thrown out
• 12:37
  at third base, but uh yeah, really impressive. And Mount Vernon that's
• 12:41
  a heck of a team. I mean they I think they got second in
• 12:43
  state. Yeah at the three A level, So fourteen, RBIs batted two
• 12:48
  forty six and he was he was ended up pitching quite a bit, I
• 12:54
  think, probably more than he thought he would. And that was kind of
• 12:58
  the question mark coming this year with Lyndny Christian was how's their pitching gonna be?
• 13:01
  And you everyone kind of knew their offense was going to be there,
• 13:05
  and he ended up throwing twenty three innings and had an ERA at three point
• 13:09
  three five, so one in one record and struck out twenty batters and allowed
• 13:13
  twenty hits and only walked twelve. So, uh, that's that's pretty awesome.
• 13:18
  And he might be he might be one of the main guys now on
• 13:22
  the mound. But it's like I said it before in the prior podcast,
• 13:26
  is when you have a really good catcher, sometimes you just want to just
• 13:30
  kind of hold him back there and just you can just breathe easy knowing you
• 13:33
  have a stud back there and and uh, and that's what he is,
• 13:35
  and he's going to bring that the next couple of years. Number twenty eight
• 13:39
  on the top fifty count down senior pitcher and infielder from the Bellingham BayHawks.
• 13:45
  It's Jake Trust Yeah, the opening day guy. Uh saw him pitch right
• 13:50
  up right. The first game of the year I saw a year was you
• 13:52
  know him against It was against Lennon Christian as a matter of fact, and
• 13:58
  had I think he had some army shoes at some point, because there was
• 14:01
  a while there where he wasn't pitching and he was dhing, but it was
• 14:05
  able to come back at the end of the year and play had fifteen hits
• 14:09
  nine RBIs batted two fifty as on base percentage three eighty four. The led
• 14:15
  the entire team for Bellingham, big time senior leader. He's gonna go play
• 14:20
  college, and uh, I'm not sure if he's gonna pitch or if he's
• 14:24
  gonna play in the infield, but he played. He played some third mostly
• 14:28
  and if ky Nelson pitched, he'd go over and play some shortstop. He
• 14:31
  ended up throwing thirty one and two thirds innings. I love this. Struck
• 14:35
  out thirty seven, only walked seven. And we've talked about that at the
• 14:39
  high school level where he just throw strikes. Man. Yeah, you know,
• 14:43
  Tyler did just watch the Americas game yesterday. I did not the So
• 14:48
  first off, the guy pitching for Cleveland was six five, one hundred and
• 14:52
  sixty five pounds. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. I was like,
• 14:56
  Wow, that guy's like, I go, is he really taller? Is
• 14:58
  he really skinny? Like? I couldn't tell. So then I just looked
• 15:01
  up his name really quickly and I went, oh, he's both. But
• 15:03
  they said that he leads the league in walks, and I don't know how
• 15:09
  many would he pitched two and a third or like two innings last today because
• 15:11
  he couldn't locate the ball. Yeah. I listened to parts of it when
• 15:16
  I was because I had to go and get some supplies for the camping trip
• 15:20
  coming up, and so I listened to some on the way out there on
• 15:22
  the way back, and yeah, they were saying that there was a big
• 15:24
  inning in the third and yeah, and they end up scoring the fourth to
• 15:28
  fifth to sixth, you know, yeah, and that and that. But
• 15:30
  that's exactly what we talk about, is like, yeah, throwing strikes.
• 15:33
  Yeah, throw strikes. I mean, give your defense a chance, right,
• 15:37
  I mean, you don't just throw middle, middle over and over and
• 15:39
  over, but you know, you got to throw strikes. If you can't
• 15:43
  throw strikes, then it's all you know, nothing's gonna happen for you.
• 15:46
  Yeah. Absolutely, and he I mean it was a it was a great
• 15:50
  career too. I mean he threw one hundred and twenty eight and the third
• 15:52
  innings and his career struck out over one hundred batters in his career. So
• 15:56
  longtime varsity kid that just did that, did a lot of things with that
• 16:00
  with that team, and and uh yeah, just a really a guy that's
• 16:06
  easy to root for too. He's just he's just pretty. He's just pretty
• 16:10
  fun. I mean, he had two hundred and nineteen plate appearances in his
• 16:12
  high school career, so that's that's a lot of varsity baseball. Guy hit
• 16:18
  I picked thirteen times in his career, six as a senior, which probably
• 16:21
  helped him with the three eighty four on base percentage to lead the team.
• 16:25
  That's awesome. Yeah, well, we need to put together a graphic of
• 16:29
  like the all time leaders in Walkam County of hit by pitch, Like I
• 16:33
  want to know what that is, you know, with like a with like
• 16:34
  him squirming with the ball hitting him, you know. Yeah, and like
• 16:37
  even if we don't have a picture of somebody getting hit with the ball,
• 16:41
  like all photoshop it in there. Of course you will number twenty seven on
• 16:45
  the top fifty count down. He's a junior short stop and a pitcher from
• 16:49
  Ferndale. I feel like we've been talking about this guy for a decade.
• 16:53
  Is talent bung guard I know, and he's got another year to go.
• 16:56
  I know. That's why I started laughing because it's a junior and I was
• 16:59
  like, wait, what this guy's got to be like a ninth year senior.
• 17:03
  What's going on here? Man? And he looks like a like a
• 17:06
  college kid. I mean, he's just he got the big shoulders, big
• 17:08
  arms, takes a mighty cut. I mean, there was a lot of
• 17:11
  times where I saw I think I saw at least two or three balls that
• 17:18
  he hit out that were just foul, you know what I mean, Like
• 17:22
  he's just he just crushes the ball. He it was. It was a
• 17:26
  little bit of a struggle early on. I mean, he he kind of
• 17:30
  started the year with a hitting slump, and he you know, he was
• 17:32
  right around like batting a hundred for after like three weeks, and it was
• 17:37
  just kind of not coming. And all of a sudden, he hit one
• 17:40
  out and and I remember, and I think I was talking about this when
• 17:45
  we did the podcast a few months ago, about when I was at that
• 17:48
  game and I was standing like foul foul ball territory by the third base and
• 17:56
  taking pictures and stuff like that, and he was up and he hit it
• 17:59
  out over the left fild old wall. And I'm trying to remember who was
• 18:03
  against, but it was a team I think it was a team from down
• 18:07
  there somewhere. It was a non league game, I believe, and they
• 18:08
  were like, that's the farthest bleeping ball I've ever seen it. And someone's
• 18:14
  like that had to have been over four hundred feet. And he was just
• 18:17
  kind of laughing as he's you know, round in the bases and and he
• 18:21
  did end up with this is this is a rarity, but there are a
• 18:25
  few players like this. He had more extra base hits than singles, and
• 18:29
  you see that sometimes in fast pitch. You do not see that very much
• 18:32
  in high school baseball. He had seven singles and he had nine extra base
• 18:37
  hits. He had six doubles, a triple, two home runs, led
• 18:41
  the team with seventeen RBIs. He led the team with fifteen runs scored,
• 18:48
  and batted two fifty eight, stole six bases. I think he stole twenty
• 18:52
  three bases last year. And that was just he would just get on and
• 18:56
  just go. But he had a big time veteran lineup around him. It
• 19:00
  was a little younger lineup this time, and this time he's hitting the ball
• 19:03
  and getting on second or third already, so there wasn't those bases to steal.
• 19:08
  Perhaps so four eighteen on base percentage played A played a pretty good shortstop,
• 19:12
  might get moved to third base next year, and he would come in
• 19:17
  and pitch a little bit. He did some he would close out some games.
• 19:21
  He ended up with a one to one record, and uh, but
• 19:26
  yeah, just mainly a relief guy if if needed, because they want,
• 19:30
  you know, they need that defense in there. Especially this year they really
• 19:33
  they kind of struggled as a team defensively, especially in the infield, so
• 19:37
  he kind of needed his his glove out there. But but yeah, I
• 19:41
  mean, just what a great athlete and a great kid, and and expect
• 19:45
  big, big things at him. Is probably gonna play at the next level
• 19:48
  football. I know he's visiting you know, some spots, uh in the
• 19:52
  Montana area and stuff like that, Idaho and stuff like that. This this
• 19:57
  like as we're speaking, I think he's going okay, yeah, so yeah,
• 20:02
  there's some camps going on. I know we actually might I might be
• 20:04
  headed out next Wednesday to go do a little like Montana, Montana State,
• 20:10
  Montana Tech, Montana Western Carol College, like a little thing with some guys.
• 20:15
  So it's good. That's good to hear because he's I mean, athletically,
• 20:18
  there's there's no question he's a he can play college football. It's a
• 20:22
  matter of where, and you know, find the right academic fit and find
• 20:26
  the right you know, football fit and the way you go. I mean,
• 20:29
  that's that's really really good to hear because he's he's very, very talented,
• 20:33
  that's for sure. Yeah. Absolutely, number twenty six in the Top
• 20:37
  fifty Countdown, a senior centerfielder and a pitcher from Nooksack Valley. It's Eddie
• 20:41
  Surta, one of my personal favorites. He is just a joy to be
• 20:48
  around. He is hilarious. I I kind of compared him like when we
• 20:53
  did the pre like the preseason, like the preview, I kind of compared
• 20:57
  him to Julio Rodriguez. It's like, you know how he's just always looks
• 21:02
  like he's the life of the party, having a good time. That's Eddie
• 21:04
  Serda. And they played to both play center field and but Eddie ended up
• 21:11
  pitching quite a bit. And and he would like he threw a complete game
• 21:17
  against Lyndon, Like he would come in there and he was just a guy
• 21:21
  that could just throw a complete game. He probably I don't I don't have
• 21:22
  the stat but he probably led the team in complete games. You know,
• 21:27
  he's just a bulldog out there, went three and three on the year,
• 21:32
  did have a save as well, and pitched thirty eight innings and era at
• 21:36
  three point three to two, struck out twenty seven batters. Really good defensively
• 21:41
  too, covers a lot of ground in center field and then offensively a bat
• 21:45
  at two eighty six. One of the few guys like we talked about,
• 21:48
  like in the majors, you know they talk about like the thirty thirty club
• 21:51
  or the forty forty club. I always look at the double digits with RBIs
• 21:55
  and stolen bases. I always find that to be kind of like a guy
• 21:59
  that can do a lot of things, and he had ten of each,
• 22:02
  and there's not a lot of guys. There might be one or two guys
• 22:06
  on each team to add ten of each, and he is he is one
• 22:10
  of those guys. And so he you know, he could do a lot
• 22:14
  of things. That had second in the lineup, pretty aggressive, hit or
• 22:18
  two, only walked five times, and it's see here, he had seventy
• 22:23
  one plate appearances. So he wants to swing the bat. There's nothing wrong
• 22:27
  with that, and and he makes things happen on the on the base pass.
• 22:32
  But just talking to him in the dugout stuff like that. He's just
• 22:36
  funny and he keeps things loose, and you gotta have guys like that.
• 22:40
  And and I mean, he's he's he's serious when he's up at the plate,
• 22:44
  but he's you know, he's just kinda he always has a smile and
• 22:48
  I love that. And uh, he's gonna be a guy that's really going
• 22:52
  to be missed on that in that Pioneer program. Doesn't the name Eddie Surtis
• 22:56
  sound like a guy from like the eighty that played for the Brewers with a
• 23:00
  mustache and a flat brim hat, you know what I mean? Like I
• 23:04
  could I can envision his his tops card with the fake wood paneling, you
• 23:08
  know what I mean? Right right and eighty seven or whatever it was.
• 23:11
  Eddie's got a pretty good mustache too. Him and Jake don't trust. Oh
• 23:15
  yeah, Eddie and Jake trust competing for for best mustache there. And see
• 23:19
  I can see it, like you know, Cecil Cooper leading off, Rob
• 23:23
  Deer right behind him, Eddie Surda batting third, you know what I mean,
• 23:27
  Robin out right behind that, Like you know what I'm saying, Like,
• 23:30
  yeah, Jim, Yeah, it just sounds like a, who is
• 23:33
  the outfielder ben Ogilvy ben Ogilvie. Yeah, you know, like it just
• 23:40
  sounds like that guy. You know, I don't know anyb I'm wrong.
• 23:44
  Maybe that's what we should do for next year, Tyler, instead of doing
• 23:45
  the comparisons. Well no, well that would be wild, Like nobody would
• 23:49
  even know who we're talking about. All the names you and I just listed,
• 23:52
  there's like seven total people that in Wakham County that know what we're talking
• 23:56
  about. The remember the eighty seven tops I think it was with the with
• 24:00
  the Faith. Yeah. Yeah, maybe that's what we should do next year
• 24:03
  for the uh the graphic for the graphic. Yeah, make everybody their own
• 24:07
  baseball card, you know what I mean. Like I've thought about that.
• 24:10
  I wanted to get actual cards made and like sell packs at games and stuff
• 24:14
  like that. It's something I've seriously thought about and I've looked into and it's
• 24:18
  it's uh, that'd be fun. It would be cool. It would be
• 24:22
  cool. Yeah. Or how about this, Tyler. You get a you
• 24:26
  get a sponsor, like a District Brewing or somebody to sponsor something like that,
• 24:30
  put the logo on there and then give them out for free all over
• 24:33
  the place. Yeah, yeah, there you go. I mean saying,
• 24:37
  but eighty seven tops. Yeah, I wasn't sure we'd bring that up today,
• 24:41
  but here we are. It's funny you mentioned that. Actually, I'm
• 24:42
  just gonna cut you off really quickly. When I went to the Baseball Hall
• 24:45
  of Fame in Cooperstown, you know, there's I mean, there's just so
• 24:49
  much to see. It's overwhelming, and I spent hours there. But there
• 24:52
  was this one booth where you go in and I think you pay like three
• 24:59
  bucks or something like that, and you can they'll just take a picture of
• 25:03
  you right there, and they make a baseball card of it, and and
• 25:06
  you get like there's like three different background or three different like cards to choose
• 25:08
  from, and one of them was the eighty seven tops with the wood.
• 25:11
  That's awesome, And that's the one I chose. And I'm standing there in
• 25:15
  my my Mariner's T shirt and uh yeah, so I have that picture.
• 25:19
  I'll have to send it to some time, but it's it's pretty it's pretty
• 25:22
  cool. I was like, oh they have that, that's my favorite.
• 25:25
  That's my favorite card. You know. You know one thing that the NFL
• 25:26
  Hall of Fame that I thought the Pro Football Hall of Fame that I thought
• 25:30
  was really cool was the Did they have the Madden exhibit when you were there?
• 25:36
  Oh? No, because he was still alive. I think when I
• 25:37
  went there. Okay, so well it was this was the video game specifically?
• 25:41
  Oh yes, yes, I saw that, yes, And I thought
• 25:45
  of the covers on the wall and like, yeah. I got there right
• 25:48
  as they opened, so there was very few people in the building. And
• 25:52
  that was the like at the very end of it, right. So I
• 25:55
  get to the end and I'm like, I still have a lot of time
• 25:57
  to kill and like, I mean, I had like three hours before I
• 26:02
  needed to be twenty five minutes down the road, you know what I mean.
• 26:03
  So I'm like, I'm like, I don't know what to do.
• 26:06
  And then then I'm like, oh, what is this? Oh Madden,
• 26:07
  Like that's kind of cool. Oh, you can play the game. I
• 26:11
  sat down and played the game for like forty five minutes, put it on
• 26:15
  all Madden mode, and just started running Power and Trap over and over and
• 26:18
  over again. It was great. Tyler number twenty five on the Top fifty
• 26:22
  count down. The first freshman that we're going to talk about here, is
• 26:26
  it the first freshman overall on the list, Tyler, I don't have a
• 26:30
  baseball I think so. Yeah. Yeah, But first of three freshmen we're
• 26:34
  going to talk about in this podcast. He's a utility player for the Meridian
• 26:40
  Trojans. It's Pierce Berezowski. Yeah. I knew the name because I think
• 26:45
  he was hurt during the football season. He had a hand injury or else
• 26:48
  he would have been able to help somehow on the Varsa team even and then
• 26:52
  I saw him on the basketball court and then so I wasn't surprised to see
• 26:56
  him on the baseball field for Meridian, and right away he was making an
• 27:02
  impact. He he you know, probably threw or four games into the season,
• 27:04
  he got moved up to the leadoff spot and he never took a never,
• 27:07
  it was never taken from him after that. So he was all of
• 27:11
  a sudden he was playing. He was you know, he was playing all
• 27:14
  over the place, and then he just got inserted into shortstop, lead off.
• 27:18
  End of story, played shortstop from there on out. Unless Ian Forbes,
• 27:22
  the catcher was going to pitch, then he would go catch. So
• 27:26
  that tells me a lot right there. I also had noticed that probably about
• 27:30
  seven or eight games into the season, he was the only player in Walking
• 27:36
  County that hadn't struck out yet. Wow, And I was just like blown
• 27:41
  away. I just thought, my goodness, that is crazy, that's incredible.
• 27:45
  And uh and there were some guys that had like two at bats that
• 27:48
  didn't strike out, but that doesn't count. I'm talking starters, right and
• 27:52
  and you know, eventually he struck out a few times. But it was
• 27:55
  just it was a it was he was not the moment wasn't too big for
• 27:59
  him. The the lights weren't too bright for him, you know what I
• 28:00
  mean. Like he came right in and he belonged, and you know it
• 28:04
  could pick it. Defensively, he hits, he just laces line drives on
• 28:08
  offense. Batted two seventy four on the season on base percentage of four forty
• 28:14
  eight, walked nineteen times, so which is pretty darn high. That's near
• 28:18
  like the top you know five, probably top four in the county. And
• 28:23
  so yeah, just a really really good year. And he also had twenty
• 28:26
  hits, had a double six RBIs three stolen bases. Big time, bright
• 28:32
  future for him. I'm I'm just pumped up to I love when I learned
• 28:37
  about these freshmen and when they especially when they play multiple sports, and just
• 28:41
  knowing that I get to just sit back and watch them develop and watch them
• 28:45
  shine at all these different things that they love to do. And it's just
• 28:49
  that's what it's all about. That's what I love what I do. And
• 28:52
  I always tell people that, you know, I'd rather be going to,
• 28:57
  you know, a high school football game than I would the Super Bowl.
• 29:00
  I'd rather be going you know what I mean, because it's just Wow.
• 29:03
  I know you've been to Boat and I but you know what I mean,
• 29:06
  Like that's yeah, it's it's my comfort level, it's my it's it's and
• 29:10
  I would I mean, you're also thinking about it from like the you don't
• 29:14
  like big crowds like stuff like that, but like that's that's definitely part of
• 29:18
  it. But at the same time, I wouldn't be doing this if I
• 29:19
  lived, if I, like had moved to Madison, Wisconsin. You know.
• 29:22
  Yeah, but I love the history, I love the Seahawks in the
• 29:26
  Super Bowl. You got a chance to be there, No, I can't.
• 29:30
  Meridian versus Nooksack on a Thursday or on a Friday night, you'd rather
• 29:33
  be at Nuksack. Absolutely, Oh, you're Tyler, I love high school
• 29:37
  football. You know that. I can't kill me. That's more the crowd
• 29:42
  though, Okay, I keep that out of it. I mean, you're
• 29:48
  telling me if if, for whatever reason, Knoksack Valley was playing Meridian on
• 29:53
  the same day the Seahawks are playing in the Super Bowl, I'm definitely going
• 29:59
  to the Hig school FOOTB game. You know, Tyler, I've never wanted
• 30:03
  to smack you before, but next time, if I happen to come up
• 30:10
  to District Brewing at some point, I'm gonna smack you just for saying.
• 30:12
  I mean, and and there's no offense to these guys, but Tyler,
• 30:15
  you're killing me here. I know, I know, I just it's it's
• 30:21
  just, you know, it's it's the ultimate for me. It's it's it's
• 30:23
  what I love and and that that's the best way I can put it.
• 30:26
  And so that's why I'm just so happy about being able to do this.
• 30:30
  So so it's you know, it is a lot of fun. And it's
• 30:34
  players like that too that I'm like, holy cow, we just we're gonna
• 30:38
  get you know. And when I saw Jake Trust when I you know,
• 30:41
  as a freshman, I was like I felt the same thing. I was
• 30:42
  like, I get to see him for the next three years. You know.
• 30:45
  That's the thing I love is when you see a guy that's young and
• 30:48
  you're like, Wow, this guy's already really good and I get to watch
• 30:52
  this fool for another three year. Like absolutely, it's a really really cool
• 30:56
  feeling. So and now that I'm broadening to all these other sports, it
• 31:00
  I'm learning about so many of these other kids. I mean, I knew
• 31:03
  about Landon Downey. I didn't know he played soccer, you know what I
• 31:07
  mean, Like stuff like that was like, holy cow, he's really good.
• 31:08
  Oh, that explains why he kicks and punts. Okay, now it
• 31:12
  all makes and it's like I start You're starting to see the broader aspect of
• 31:17
  the entire thing. And it's a lot of fun. That explains why he's
• 31:19
  such a great pick in the uh in the pick ems that we do.
• 31:23
  Yeah, you do a lot of things. Number twenty four on the Top
• 31:29
  fifty Countdown senior centerfielder from the Bellingham BayHawks. It's Joe too. Yeah.
• 31:33
  When we did the preview, I talked about how he had maybe the most
• 31:37
  violent swing that I had seen, like in a long time. Like it
• 31:44
  is. It's almost like an all or nothing, so like a Reggie Jackson
• 31:47
  swing kind of yeah, uh and uh. And it was so funny because
• 31:51
  then I was at a game where they're playing Mount Vernon and and he's up
• 31:56
  to play, and everyone in the duckouts like, yeah, he's got a
• 31:57
  violent swing, let's go Joe. And I'm like, oh my goodness,
• 32:00
  Okay. So they either they knew I was there or they were just kind
• 32:05
  of saying it because they heard me say it on the podcast, which was
• 32:07
  pretty funny. But left handed swing a long time, I mean three year
• 32:13
  starter in center field covers a ton of ground. I don't think he made
• 32:17
  an air all year, which is super impressive at the high school level.
• 32:22
  And he led the team with fifteen RBIs and and three triples and batted three
• 32:29
  hundred and he had the I mean he had the most triples on the team,
• 32:32
  the most rbi is on the team, and the lowest strikeout percentage.
• 32:37
  You know, he was he was at the team, had eighty one played
• 32:38
  appearances, struck out nine times, so you just you know, even with
• 32:43
  the violent swing, he's making contact. You know, Reggie Jackson for a
• 32:46
  long time led the majors in career strikeouts. I mean he was like eight
• 32:52
  hundred ahead of the next guy. You know, he was way ahead.
• 32:54
  And now with today's game, I mean, who knows, maybe it's Mark
• 32:58
  Reynolds or some crazy, you know, obscure name that just struck out a
• 33:00
  ton. But but yeah, he so much fun to watch. Uh love
• 33:07
  that swing, that left handed swing, and and it just a guy that
• 33:12
  you could you could say, just loves baseball. And and uh kind of
• 33:16
  wore his emotion on his sleeve a little bit, especially when he was an
• 33:19
  underclassman, always wanted more, like just he felt disappointed if he couldn't do
• 33:24
  as good as he you know, you know what I mean, Like if
• 33:27
  if he would feel like he was disappointing the team, and it would hit
• 33:30
  him a little bit. And I just thought, man, baseball is you
• 33:32
  know, he batted three hundred, so he failed seven times out of ten.
• 33:36
  Right that It's one of those sports where you know you'll you'll find the
• 33:40
  positives in the little thing, especially being a left handed hitter. If you
• 33:43
  can move the runner over to third base on the ground out, that's a
• 33:45
  good thing. You know. Think things like that, And I think the
• 33:49
  positivity came to him more as a senior. He had a really really good
• 33:52
  year and and it was just it was awesome to see, uh Tyler.
• 33:59
  Whenever you throw out random names, maybe it's Mark Reynolds, I'm always intrigued,
• 34:05
  Like, Okay, well, let's see how close he is. Mark
• 34:08
  Reynolds is eleventh all time. Yeah, and that's a guy that like played
• 34:13
  not that long ago that nobody knows. Yeah, twenty seven strikeouts. Yeah,
• 34:19
  Reggie had like twenty five eighty seven or some crazy number. You're off
• 34:22
  by ten, twenty five ninety seven. Okay, second place, twenty five
• 34:25
  forty eight, So he was close, Jim Tome. Reggie Jackson's still in
• 34:30
  first. Yeah, Reggie Jackson is still in first. Oh goodness. But
• 34:34
  those two are not even Like those two are way way ahead. The next
• 34:38
  one is like two hundred down. And it's a guy we talked about last
• 34:44
  podcast or two podcasts ago, Adam Dunn, right, Sammy Sosa, a
• 34:47
  Rod, Miguel Cabrera, Andres Galarraga. Justin Upton, which is a little
• 34:52
  bit of a surprise because I don't think of him as like a guy that
• 34:54
  had a great longevity, you know, Jose Canseco. Makes sense. All
• 35:00
  that guy did was hit home runs and strike out. He was ahead of
• 35:02
  his time. Yeah, Willie Stargel, Yeah, Mark Reynolds, Nelson Cruz,
• 35:07
  and Curtis Granderson both are tied for twelve and the current active leader,
• 35:12
  Tyler who do you think? Holy cow? When I say it, it's
• 35:16
  obvious, oh boy, And honestly, he's got a shot to get to
• 35:22
  the all time like, yeah, because Nelson Cruz retired. Yeah, and
• 35:30
  uh uh oohls retired. Yeah, but he's didn't strike out very much,
• 35:34
  but he just played a long time. Actually, pooh, hols is I
• 35:37
  have to keep looking, but he's not. Yeah. I was gonna say
• 35:40
  he was so good as a hitter. He didn't. He had a great
• 35:44
  average and stuff. Holy cow, I'm trying to think of someone who's just
• 35:47
  been in the league for like Ryan Brown. I don't I don't know,
• 35:52
  John Carlos Stanton. Oh, yes, that makes sense. Yeah, he's
• 35:57
  got six is what he has? He had eighty six last year. Wait,
• 36:02
  no, I take that back. He has eighty six right now.
• 36:07
  Wait what is his twenty twenty four strikeouts? So yeah, he has eighty
• 36:09
  six at the moment. Yeah, that's a ton of strikeouts, man.
• 36:14
  Yeah. They did a graphic that showed once where he struck out like thirteen
• 36:19
  times in a weekend series, and then it showed a picture of Joe DiMaggio
• 36:24
  and it was like he struck out that many times in a nineteen forty one
• 36:29
  or something like that. Yeah. So yeah, I mean Stanton could he
• 36:32
  could absolutely get there. I mean, yeah, he's thirty four years old.
• 36:38
  I'm sure his contract is still probably and I was just going to say
• 36:43
  that contract was ridiculous, and it was long. It was like thirteen years
• 36:45
  or something. So that contract they're going to keep him around for like,
• 36:49
  let's just say another seven years. That puts him right there. I mean
• 36:52
  it does. Oddly enough. The guy in fifteenth place, a former Mariner,
• 36:58
  A little surprised to see his name here, Mike Cameron. I mean
• 37:00
  he struck out a lot, but Mike Cameron really yeaheenth all the time?
• 37:05
  Interesting, Yeah, right directly ahead of Mike Schmidt, Fred McGriff and Tony
• 37:09
  Perez, Yeah, hall of famer, and then Chris Davis, Ryan Howard,
• 37:14
  Bobby A. Bray. You I would have thought Ryan Howard had been
• 37:17
  higher on that list, but I guess he got kind of he did have
• 37:21
  a lot of injuries. Yeah, Derek Jeter is tied with Bobby A.
• 37:24
  Bray you yeah, yeah, Dave Kingman, Yeah, I like Dave Kingman.
• 37:32
  Paul is second currently, and then Griffy is twenty eighth, which is
• 37:38
  kind of cool to see. I'm glad that he's not, you know,
• 37:40
  super high on that list, right, Yeah, play a long time.
• 37:45
  Yeah, and he did struck out a lot too. Yeah. I don't
• 37:47
  see and I mean I'm not looking too closely here, but I don't see
• 37:52
  Albert Poohols in the top one hundred, which is that's impressive, very impressive
• 37:57
  when you consider how long that guy played and maybe him We'll go on to
• 38:00
  the next one and then I'll take a closer look here, but let's go
• 38:04
  number twenty three on the top fifty count down Tyler. Another freshman, the
• 38:07
  utility player for the Lindon Lions. It's Gordie Bedlington and in the first,
• 38:14
  you know, half of the year, so he was a true utility guy.
• 38:17
  He was coming off the bench early on, just a freshman, and
• 38:20
  then all of a sudden you'd see him pinch run in a game or take
• 38:23
  over defense at the end of a game if there was a swap, whether
• 38:25
  a pitcherknew, a new pitcher came in or whatever. And then all of
• 38:30
  a sudden, he would, you know, play first base if Lane Simonson
• 38:36
  was pitching, or he'd play center field, if Kyle Stapleton was pitching,
• 38:40
  or he'd go into third base if Matt Carroll was pitching, or he'd or
• 38:45
  I'm sorry, I mean it was just he was all over the place,
• 38:47
  like he just kind of played second, right field, and you just never
• 38:51
  knew where he was gonna play. And all of a sudden, I believe
• 38:54
  River Langstrak got hurt and so put him in a shortstop and he and he
• 39:00
  played basically every inning at shortstop for the rest of the year, for like
• 39:04
  the second half of the year. And as a freshman again, these these
• 39:08
  these players come in and they're ready to go left handed hitter again and got
• 39:14
  moved up in the like he was batten second in the lineup. I mean,
• 39:15
  this is the Linen Lions. He's batt in second in the lineup as
• 39:20
  a freshman and just a really impressive athlete again that we will see as a
• 39:24
  three sport kid, you know, suited up for the basketball team that won
• 39:28
  the state championship team. I believe it was him and Malachi Canaan, where
• 39:32
  the two freshmen that were suited up as and you know, out there on
• 39:36
  the layup line and stuff like that. And and he's going to be a
• 39:40
  good running back, you know in the future, and and so you're gonna
• 39:45
  see the three sport athlete there. Led the team with twenty three walks and
• 39:50
  I believe that was second in the county in walks. So an on base
• 39:55
  percentage of four eighty. You know, as a freshman, had fourteen RBIs,
• 40:00
  stole five bases, scored twenty three runs, batted two seventy one.
• 40:07
  Again, future is super bright makes everything look really really easy. He did.
• 40:14
  He did pitch a couple of innings just kind of you know sometimes they
• 40:17
  they have those like they there's that when they played that tournament down in Ridgefield.
• 40:23
  I think they played like three games in two days or something like that,
• 40:28
  so they you know, I think they just needed some arms there at
• 40:30
  the end of the tournament. So he pitched a couple of innings and and
• 40:34
  allowed to run over two innings and you know, nothing spectacular there, But
• 40:38
  I think in the future, he might be an arm to pitch, but
• 40:42
  the value that he had at playing all those positions was was awesome. And
• 40:45
  then being able to just say, hey, your our everyday shortstop and him
• 40:50
  taking it and playing well. I mean in the district playoffs it was probably
• 40:53
  when he played his best, which was that says a lot too, when
• 40:58
  when it really counts and stuff like that, and it's just he's gonna have
• 41:02
  a really really bright future and and you know, kind of like one of
• 41:07
  those future a potential like future like player of the conference type player, you
• 41:12
  know what I mean, Like that's that's the kind of future that projects right
• 41:15
  down for him. Albert Pooholes, Yeah, fourteen one hundred and four puts
• 41:23
  him at one hundred and tenth all time. Get this, okay, thirteen
• 41:29
  thousand and forty one plate appearances. Yeah, Jay Buhner is directly above Albert
• 41:37
  Pooholles. Okay, fourteen hundred and six strikeouts in five nine hundred and twenty
• 41:43
  seven plate appearances. Yeah, so more than double. Oh yeah, he
• 41:49
  had more than double plate appearances and struck out two times less. I mean,
• 41:57
  yeah, that's just different. That's just crazy. That is so crazy.
• 42:00
  It's I mean it's unbelievable. That is just so crazy. I mean,
• 42:06
  thirteen thousand plate appearances is just insane too. I mean it really is.
• 42:10
  Like when you just think about that number, how many did Reggie Jackson
• 42:14
  have? Reggie Jackson had eleven thousand plate appearances, so he had two thousand
• 42:17
  more. Yeah, I mean that's just and a thousand more strikeouts, right,
• 42:24
  and Reggie Jackson is I mean, nobody's turning that guy away, is
• 42:29
  not wanting him. While other than maybe Billy Martin, you know what I
• 42:30
  mean, Like yeah, i mean first Battle Hall of Famer. Yeah,
• 42:36
  yeah, you're not saying no to having Reggie Jackson on your team. But
• 42:39
  when you look at the numbers, like just that alone is wild. Yeah,
• 42:44
  and I'm sure Poohols had more home runs too, like yeah, number
• 42:50
  twenty two on the top fifty count down. The third freshman on this list
• 42:54
  pitcher in a left fielder for the Meridian Trojans. It's Nate Payne. Yeah,
• 43:00
  another guy that got a lot of run on the basketball team. And
• 43:01
  he was the first post off the bench, which was, you know,
• 43:07
  pretty impressive. Hes about six three, six y four as a freshman,
• 43:10
  and that's a team that went to the state tournament as well. On the
• 43:15
  baseball field, just so impressed with his composure on the mound, being a
• 43:22
  freshman, you know, throws strikes, all the all the things that you
• 43:28
  want. And he had some huge wins in the postseason. I mean when
• 43:32
  they played, he had to he had to get the save. He had
• 43:36
  to come in and get the save in which he threw. I think he
• 43:38
  it was one of those uh it was one of those Seattle Mariners says where
• 43:43
  he got like five outs and and he yeah, and he did it.
• 43:47
  And he did it, you know, in the in the semi final game,
• 43:52
  and he had to start the finals. You know, so you're pitching.
• 43:55
  He started this the state championship game. He's a freshman. Wow,
• 44:00
  and uh and did really really really well. I mean it was tied when
• 44:04
  he hit the pitch limit, you know, so uh exactly, I mean,
• 44:10
  he threw he was there. Really their horse the whole year. Ended
• 44:14
  up with a six and four record, did have that save in the in
• 44:17
  the postseason, sixty four and two thirds innings, and he allowed forty eight
• 44:22
  hits and struck out sixty eight. Uh so, really good numbers. A
• 44:27
  two point two seven era, you would never think that he was a freshman.
• 44:31
  I mean, just like I said, the composure. I've seen him
• 44:35
  multiple times on days where he's going to start, and he's just got that
• 44:38
  straight face. And and what was really impressive was when Jonah Assi got hurt
• 44:46
  and couldn't pitch for a month or a month and a half, five weeks,
• 44:50
  whatever it was, he just was like, all right, I'm the
• 44:52
  I'm the guy. I'm the ace now. And he was the guy pitching
• 44:57
  against the big time opponents. You know, he was the game one guy.
• 45:00
  And you go to district tournament, you know, you play in the
• 45:04
  district championship game against Cedar Park Christian, He's the guy that's going to start.
• 45:08
  And I talked to coach lesk about it and he's like he's our ace
• 45:10
  right now, Like that's our guy. And it's just really impressive to do
• 45:15
  that as a freshman. And he and he hit pretty well too. He
• 45:20
  batted two fifty, had three doubles, ten RBIs. So he when he
• 45:24
  wasn't pitching, when he did pitch, he played, I mean he batted,
• 45:29
  which again for a freshman, doesn't happen too often. And when he
• 45:32
  wasn't pitching a lot of times he'd go out and he'd play left field,
• 45:37
  you know, or or he might even d H for somebody, or he
• 45:42
  you know, he would be in the lineup somehow, And it was really
• 45:47
  really impressive. Again, another one of those kids that I think that is
• 45:53
  going to excel in multiple sports. I remember talking to Patrick Ames during August
• 46:00
  last year about this incoming freshman class and nights, so I knew about Pierre
• 46:05
  Sperzowski and Trey Alexander and and Casey Brennan and all these guys, and he
• 46:10
  goes, he said something about, he goes, we have a kid that'd
• 46:14
  be a perfect tight end, but for some reason, he's not turning out.
• 46:16
  And after I watched basketball and baseball, I'm guessing that's the kid.
• 46:22
  And if he does, if he is right now doing spring practice at Meridian,
• 46:27
  I guarantee you he will start at tight end and he will be a
• 46:30
  stud. So I never want to put any pressure on a kid. But
• 46:35
  playing multiple sports we've talked about is an awesome thing. So but you know
• 46:39
  I did, when you're that potentially good, I mean yeah, and and
• 46:44
  and for me selfishly, I just want to see him play. I want
• 46:45
  to see him play multiple sports, so so I really hope that's the case.
• 46:51
  Love watching him play basketball, but baseball was really really fun to see
• 46:57
  and it seemed like every time I went to a Meridian game he was starting,
• 47:00
  So I got to see him a lot, and he pitched very very
• 47:04
  well in a big time, bright future for him. Number twenty one on
• 47:09
  the Top fifty Countdown sophomore utility player for the Linden Christian Links, it's Eli
• 47:15
  Mayberry. Yeah, I'd put utility, but really it was shortstop, center
• 47:22
  field, and pitcher. And there's a few kids like that where those are
• 47:27
  the three positions that they're playing, and I instead of putting three positions down
• 47:30
  on the graphic, I would just put utility because it just makes it easier.
• 47:34
  Uh. But the one thing that the first thing I think about with
• 47:37
  him is, and you've seen this czazillion times, like when each row would
• 47:43
  come up to the plate and if he had two strikes on him and he
• 47:47
  would like foul like six in a row off because there weren't there weren't what
• 47:51
  he wanted. Was it that did it the other day? Was it Josh
• 47:53
  Rojas? I think with the Mariners had like a fifteen pitch at bat.
• 47:57
  Yeah, so it was like the second hitter of the game too. Yeah,
• 48:00
  that's awesome when you get that. Yeah, and that's Eli Mayberry.
• 48:06
  There's some kids that when they have two strikes on them, they can just
• 48:10
  foul it off at will until they get the one they want and have a
• 48:14
  good enough eye to take something that is definitely a ball not close enough to
• 48:19
  be called a strike. And he was doing that as a freshman. He
• 48:22
  did it even more this year. Really impressed with his game. He's gonna
• 48:28
  be I would imagine. I don't want to say for sure, because I
• 48:31
  know coach Urbster's loves to have like ten quarterbacks and try it to try to
• 48:36
  figure out what he's got, but I would assume he's going to take over
• 48:38
  a quarterback this upcoming year. Super smart kid. But everything, everything he
• 48:45
  did was really really great. Added three two led the team or tied with
• 48:50
  the team lead with eight stolen bases, tied for the team lead with twenty
• 48:53
  two hits at five doubles, drove in fifth to fifteen runs in ninety four
• 49:00
  played appearances walked or I'm sorry, ninety four play appearances. He struck out
• 49:05
  five times that's that was the best on the team as well as as a
• 49:08
  strikeout percentage on base percentage of four to forty one. And again, you're
• 49:13
  putting him at shortop, you're putting him at center field, so you know
• 49:15
  his defense is good, he's reliable. And then and then as a as
• 49:20
  a pitcher, he ended up throwing thirty two in a third innings, gave
• 49:24
  up thirty nine hits, struck out twenty two, went two and four on
• 49:29
  the year. He's gonna be probably leaned on to be maybe their ace next
• 49:34
  year. It could be. It could be him and Tracy Johnson, who
• 49:37
  knows a couple of sophomores now so, but really really bright future for him
• 49:44
  as well. I would imagine that he'll be It won't be kind of jumping
• 49:47
  around for short to center. He would play center if if like Brody Bauman
• 49:52
  pitched and they'd have Jonah Turpster at short and so he would go out and
• 49:55
  play center. But I would imagine he's just gonna take over at shortstop the
• 49:59
  rest of his career and then pitch here and there as well. So a
• 50:02
  left handed batter, perfect number number two hitter in the lineup, and uh
• 50:07
  yeah, just and he's got that bright orange bat, and I just I
• 50:10
  would laugh every time because he'd come up and I'd start smiling because I know
• 50:15
  he's gonna get the pitch he wants, and if it's something that's he doesn't,
• 50:17
  he'll just flick it over the left field fence or you know, the
• 50:21
  foul foul fence. And it's like, man, you better get some kid
• 50:24
  out there that just stays out there getting foul balls because he's gonna the umpire's
• 50:28
  gonna turn around and and you know, hold his hold his mask out waiting
• 50:31
  for some more balls to be putting in it, because it's a he'll just
• 50:35
  he'll, he'll, he'll lose him out there. And it was pretty hilarious
• 50:37
  to see number twenty on the top fifty count down, another sophomore centerfielder and
• 50:43
  a pitcher from Ferndale. It's fent In Vasik is a kid I didn't know
• 50:47
  anything about coming into the ear nothing, didn't know what Grady was in,
• 50:52
  didn't know anything, never even heard of him. And and it took a
• 50:55
  little while before I went out to a Ferndale game. And when I eventually
• 51:00
  did, I had, you know, I'd seen you know, the numbers
• 51:04
  on game Changers. So I was like, Okay, who is this kid?
• 51:07
  I got to see this kid and I saw him out in center field.
• 51:09
  I got to see him pitch a little bit, and my goodness,
• 51:13
  he's a stud. And as the season wore on, the offensive numbers just
• 51:16
  got better and better. He's another kid that had more extra base hits than
• 51:22
  singles. Had eighteen hits, eleven of them went for extra base hits had
• 51:28
  He had more doubles than singles on their own. He had seven singles,
• 51:31
  eight doubles, three triples. He batted three fifty three. He slugged six
• 51:37
  twenty seven. That's like top three in the county. I mean, and
• 51:43
  just a sophomore. And I and for a kid that I didn't know hardly
• 51:45
  anything about. I didn't know anything about. I didn't know I'd never heard
• 51:50
  of him. Ops was over one thousand, you know. I Mean.
• 51:53
  It was just like, who is this kid? This is amazing. And
• 51:58
  I was talking to some parents and they're like, he's such a great kid,
• 52:00
  like really diverse in his in like what he likes and stuff like that,
• 52:05
  Like he runs a cross country in the fall. You don't see a
• 52:08
  ton of baseball players that run cross Usually if you run a cross country you're
• 52:12
  a long distance run around the track team. That's just that's usually kind of
• 52:15
  how that goes. And I've heard of like some like some wrestlers that are
• 52:19
  run cross country to get to get in shape for wrestling. I've heard that
• 52:22
  before. Uh, but he's a kid that likes to run, I guess.
• 52:25
  So it's just a you. He's just a unique kid with an awesome
• 52:30
  skill set. And then as a pitcher, he was he was great as
• 52:34
  well. I had went had had a five and two record, pitched thirty
• 52:37
  four innings, struck out twenty eight at a three point five h e there
• 52:43
  was that there was that potential, you know, fifty to fifty. You
• 52:47
  know, however you want to say it no hitter that was thrown earlier in
• 52:52
  the year where there was that one play where there was a play at third
• 52:54
  base and I ended up sending it to you and a bunch of baseball coaches
• 52:59
  and I was like, tell me, was this a hit or is this
• 53:01
  an air? Because it was you know, there's a no hitter on the
• 53:05
  line here. And based on what ninety percent of what you guys said,
• 53:10
  including yourself. Technically that's a hit. So he had a one hitter on
• 53:15
  the year. But so I really like a lot of things going forward with
• 53:21
  him. And it's a really young Ferndale team, but he's going to be
• 53:24
  leading that team. Him and Talon bung Guard coming up, you know,
• 53:29
  Chance Hatchett. Once he gets into high school, it'll be one of the
• 53:30
  main guys, Braylan O'Brien, and it'll be you know a lot of guys
• 53:37
  that are that kind of got their feet wet this year and hopefully if they
• 53:40
  all kind of improved together for next year, it could be another really good
• 53:44
  Ferndale team, another really good Ferndale team. Number nineteen on the top fifty
• 53:51
  count down the senior first basement and a pitcher from Lynden Christian. It's Brody
• 53:55
  Bauman. Yeah, one of the four kids that's that are from the senior
• 54:00
  class that played football, basketball and baseball. And you know what a great
• 54:07
  bag bait baseball player. I mean, yeah, I think that he's He's
• 54:10
  one kid on this list that I look at and I go nineteen on the
• 54:14
  list that he's a top ten baseball player. But the just the numbers weren't
• 54:20
  quite there. And and but as far as like projecting to the next level
• 54:24
  stuff like that, he's a guy that you know, probably should be higher.
• 54:30
  But again, uh, you know, the numbers were just I mean,
• 54:34
  he batted two thirteen, you know, but he doesn't get a lot
• 54:37
  to He doesn't get a lot to hit. I mean, he walks seventeen
• 54:40
  times. You know, he led the team and walks with seventeen. He
• 54:44
  had two doubles, two triples, a home run. I think he had
• 54:47
  like four or five home runs in his career. And I mean even I
• 54:52
  think his best average, his best year for batting average was his freshman year,
• 54:55
  and and and he would always hover around like ninety to two twenty kind
• 55:00
  of in there. And but you but you watch him play and you go,
• 55:04
  there's no way that's a that's a two twenty hitter. There's got to
• 55:06
  be a lot of line drive outs there, and there probably were, you
• 55:09
  know, but he was plug him in at that clean up spot. You
• 55:15
  know. He looks the part about six three, two hundred and fifteen pounds
• 55:19
  and does really smart things on the baseball field. You know, I can
• 55:24
  I you know, I see him on second base, you know, flashing
• 55:28
  signs to the hitter and maybe he's doing that just to get into the head
• 55:30
  of the other team. Maybe he's really checking things. You know. I
• 55:34
  saw him. I remember seeing him at third base. Uh, and I
• 55:37
  can't remember exactly what he did, but he he did. It was something
• 55:42
  that he did. And I looked over at Nate who was at the Leonard
• 55:45
  Tribune at the time, and he goes, that was one of the smartest
• 55:47
  players I've ever seen a high school kid make, and I was just like,
• 55:51
  yeah, And I don't even remember what it was now. I just
• 55:52
  remember being at Joe Martin Field and seeing that, and so there's all these
• 55:57
  little things that he's gonna do well at the next level. But but yeah,
• 56:01
  I mean, a great, great player. And then thrown into pitch
• 56:05
  this year as well, you know, probably not a true pitcher, but
• 56:09
  did pretty darn well through forty four innings, went three and three, had
• 56:14
  a three point three four ERA, struck out thirty two batters, and probably
• 56:17
  just got thrown in there because they needed pitching. He's a big, strong
• 56:21
  kid with a good arm and here we need, we need you, you
• 56:24
  know type thing. So, uh, just a great overall baseball player that
• 56:30
  can do so many things, and again one of only four seniors that were
• 56:35
  that played football, basketball, and baseball. And if I had to take
• 56:37
  all four of them, you know, I said, who's the who's kind
• 56:42
  of that best athlete, It's probably him, so really impressive overall senior season
• 56:46
  and baseball career for him. Number eighteen on the top fifty countdown senior first
• 56:52
  basement and pitcher from Blaine, it's Alejandro Moja Hernandez, Yes, Rico Suave.
• 57:00
  Really intimidating at the plate, I mean a legit six' five and
• 57:07
  another violent swing. You know, we talked about Joe two for the violent
• 57:09
  swing. He's he really has that as well. Hit the Blayne as a
• 57:15
  team only had two home runs. He hit one of them. The other
• 57:19
  one was by Hunter Vizetti, a kid that would definitely be on this list
• 57:22
  if he didn't have all the injuries his his career was cut short. Only
• 57:27
  only was able to have twenty plight appearances, which is a shame because I
• 57:30
  mean he had that injury during football and then and then torn labor and baseball
• 57:35
  on a diving catch that he made by the way, and he ended up
• 57:39
  able to dach a few games and he was dhing with the injury when he
• 57:43
  hit the home run and then and then he had surgery, so that that
• 57:45
  was that. But but yeah, Alejandro Moser Hernandez, another one that I
• 57:51
  love to watch. Led the team with twenty two hits, led the team
• 57:53
  with seventeen singles, had the home run drove in fifteen, led the team
• 57:59
  with a three ninety three batting average. Guy hit by pitch eight times,
• 58:02
  big big target in the batter's box. There a five point fifty three on
• 58:07
  base PERCENTAGEPS over one thousand. These are unbelievable numbers. He was player of
• 58:13
  the Week that one time, and and good defensive first basement as well.
• 58:17
  I thought he was going to pitch a little bit more than he did.
• 58:21
  He ended up only throwing eight innings, and in those eight innings he struck
• 58:23
  out thirteen and only walked three. For the yard. Well, the only
• 58:29
  thing I could think of is he may have hurt his arm. You know,
• 58:31
  whenever I see that where a guy only when the guy threw like less
• 58:35
  than ten innings and dominated, I'm like, okay, he must have hurt
• 58:37
  his arm or something. And and sometimes they they put those players at first
• 58:43
  base. Well, he's already a first basement, so it's hard for me
• 58:45
  to know. And but yeah, just you know, he had that he
• 58:50
  hit a big home run that he hit I think was at Bellingham. And
• 58:52
  it was funny because I was talking to somebody I might have been Jason Ingles,
• 58:57
  and we were talking about, uh, home runs hit at Bellingham High
• 59:01
  School. Like he's like, you know, since they've redone the field,
• 59:05
  He's like, have you seen a home run hit here? I was like,
• 59:07
  I think I have. They've been playing there for about four or five
• 59:09
  years. I go, I don't think I've seen a home run hit here
• 59:12
  yet. And then his son hit one later that day. I was over
• 59:15
  watching the soccer game, and so I was like wow. And then like
• 59:19
  a week later, Alejandro hit one in that same field, So and that's
• 59:23
  a shot. That's a shot to hit one out there. So yeah,
• 59:28
  great, great career and a really good season. Like I said, batting
• 59:31
  three ninety three, led the team in hitting, and and yeah, just
• 59:37
  a massive force at the play number seventeen on the top fifty count down,
• 59:42
  we go back to sophomores. Here a shortstop and a pitcher from Bellingham.
• 59:46
  It's Kai Nelson. Yeah, the highest ranked Bellingham player that I had led
• 59:52
  them in Holy Cow like you'd like. I love when they talk about black
• 59:58
  ink, you know, like the back of the Bay card. He's got
• 1:00:00
  a lot of black ink. Like you know, you turn over to don
• 1:00:02
  Matting League card or a Kirby Bucket card and you see all that black ink.
• 1:00:06
  You know, he led the league and all these things. Well,
• 1:00:07
  I do the same thing when they lead the team in certain categories. And
• 1:00:09
  he's got a lot of black ink. At bats, you know, runs
• 1:00:14
  nineteen hits, twenty four singles, sixteen doubles with seven three zero eight batting
• 1:00:17
  average thirty three total bases for twenty three, slugging percentage seven ninety five ops.
• 1:00:23
  I mean he led in all those categories as a sophomore. Last year
• 1:00:28
  as a freshman, I left him off the list, and I was thinking,
• 1:00:30
  man, he was so close. He was so close. But I
• 1:00:34
  you know, I was like, he just he just missed it. And
• 1:00:37
  and I don't think he took a person or anything. And if he did,
• 1:00:40
  that's totally fine, because he came out and he bawled this year.
• 1:00:44
  He was unbelievable, batted leadoff, did you know, did everything? Probably
• 1:00:51
  in my eyes, the best defensive shortstop in the county. And that's you
• 1:00:55
  know, that's saying a lot because they're you know, you're good, you
• 1:00:59
  play shortstop, and he is phenomenal. And and again just a sophomore.
• 1:01:02
  And then I didn't I didn't know he was gonna pitch this year. I
• 1:01:07
  had no idea. I don't know, I don't remember him pitching at all
• 1:01:08
  as a freshman. And and uh, I mean he may have pitched a
• 1:01:14
  little bit, but I don't, I know, I maybe like an inning
• 1:01:16
  or something like that. But he came in and he was awesome. I
• 1:01:20
  mean, he was great out of the bullpen, got a couple of saves,
• 1:01:22
  and he picked up three wins. He pitched the one hitter against Lyndon
• 1:01:27
  and beat him. You know, I mean it was just, man that
• 1:01:30
  that's what a boost for your confidence. So all those things combined, especially
• 1:01:35
  when your buddy and and the team might be the team's best player, Alton
• 1:01:38
  Scott, it goes down halfay through the first game of the year. He
• 1:01:43
  might have felt a lot of pressure on him to do, you know,
• 1:01:46
  to kind of help carry the team as a sophomore, and he did awesome,
• 1:01:50
  and they had a they had a pretty good run there in the district
• 1:01:52
  playoffs where they were staying alive. So uh again, another kid where the
• 1:01:57
  future is bright. This sophomore class is loaded, and you know, I
• 1:02:01
  just I could just see him, you know, like you said, shortstop
• 1:02:05
  pitcher. He's going to be cemented there for the next couple of years.
• 1:02:07
  And uh yeah, if he he's just he's one of those kids. Man,
• 1:02:12
  I'd love to see him come out and play football. But I think
• 1:02:14
  he's I think he's a baseball through and through kid that plays, you know,
• 1:02:17
  a lot of Summer league and different things, and travels around and plays
• 1:02:22
  and it shows because every single aspect to his game is phenomenal. Number sixteen
• 1:02:28
  in the top fifty count down a senior picture from Blaine, the young man
• 1:02:31
  that gave us the intro. It's carrying that marcuson. Yeah, and we
• 1:02:36
  didn't give the shout out to begin the podcast, but oh we'll do it.
• 1:02:39
  No, we didn't even we didn't even mess Well, thank you to
• 1:02:42
  kier marcus In and by the way, Tyler go ahead and talk about him.
• 1:02:45
  Yeah, it's and I was going to say something earlier, but I
• 1:02:47
  figured out when we get to him, we'll say it. Yeah, and
• 1:02:52
  just a great kid. First of all, got to know him pretty well.
• 1:02:55
  He came and worked at Totally Chocolate during the busy season that we'd get
• 1:03:00
  some Blain students every once in a while that would come in and work after
• 1:03:05
  school for like four hours, and uh, you know, and I'm coming
• 1:03:07
  in at like three in the morning and then I'm staying until those kids are
• 1:03:10
  done. So those are long days. And uh. And he was just
• 1:03:15
  awesome and he's just willing to help out with anything. But he you know,
• 1:03:19
  it was fun just talking baseball with him and getting to know him as
• 1:03:22
  a person as a kid, you know, because I you know, I
• 1:03:23
  see them with the uniform on, I see them with their hat on.
• 1:03:27
  He's the most chill kid in the world. He just kinda like nothing really
• 1:03:30
  phases him. But Ben, if he strikes out a kid to get the
• 1:03:35
  final out of an inning, he has fired up. He pitched such a
• 1:03:39
  great game. I think he threw eight innings in the in the in those
• 1:03:45
  extra inning loss to Overlake that that knocked them out of the season. They
• 1:03:49
  lost one to nothing in extra innings, and and he struck out like thirteen
• 1:03:54
  kids and Overlake won the state championship. I mean him as a pitcher,
• 1:04:00
  just strictly as a pitcher was I mean, he was an All conference first
• 1:04:02
  team kid. And we're talking this is this is over one A, two
• 1:04:05
  A and three A and he was All conference first team pitcher. I think
• 1:04:09
  they choose three of them and he was. He was one of them.
• 1:04:13
  Went six and four in the year through sixty innings and walked seven and struck
• 1:04:17
  out seventy. So you talk about the strikeout to walk ratio, that's ten
• 1:04:21
  to one. That's unheard of, and I know you might want to look
• 1:04:27
  it up, but there was a year that Dennis Eckersley I think struck out
• 1:04:30
  like sixty one and walked four some crazy thing when he won the Cy Young
• 1:04:35
  as a relief pitcher in the late eighties or it might have been nineteen ninety.
• 1:04:39
  But and Karen's not a reallyf pitcher, but he the guy that's going
• 1:04:42
  to go out and he can pitch the complete game, and he's just and
• 1:04:45
  he throws strikes. And it was funny because the Roughs game he had was
• 1:04:50
  against Nukzac Valley where and where Nikzak, you know, they were getting extra
• 1:04:56
  base hits and they were just crushing the ball. And I was walked over
• 1:04:59
  and coached whist but goes, well, we listened to you on the podcast.
• 1:05:01
  He throws strikes, we're gonna swing, you know. And it worked,
• 1:05:08
  and it worked. I mean they were scoring runs left and right and
• 1:05:11
  and the and the funny thing about Kieran is if they're playing on a on
• 1:05:15
  a natural grass field where there's dirt and everything, he's just filthy like his
• 1:05:19
  he's all dishevel is, his shirts hanging out and he's got dirt all over
• 1:05:25
  his hat and his jersey. He's not slider or anything. He's just and
• 1:05:28
  he's just so funny like that. And and uh and and but he's just
• 1:05:31
  so chill. And the repeated motion in his pitching is that's huge, and
• 1:05:39
  that's how you throw strikes. But he's you know, he can he just
• 1:05:42
  peppers the strikes out. But he's dot in the corners. He's got a
• 1:05:45
  good curveball, off speed stuff everything. He's gonna go pitch at the next
• 1:05:50
  level. He he did play in the field a little bit, had thirty
• 1:05:56
  four plate appearances, had eight RBIs, had a double, batted two hundred.
• 1:06:00
  A guy hit by pitch four times in his thirty four played appearances,
• 1:06:02
  which is a pretty good, great show. But pitching is the name of
• 1:06:06
  his game and he he uh yeah, yeah, won ten games in his
• 1:06:13
  career, struck out one hundred and fifty six batters in his career, and
• 1:06:16
  the era of two point four zero in his career. So just talking about
• 1:06:20
  a career there, pretty pretty impressive and again a great great kid. Nineteen
• 1:06:27
  ninety Tyler seventy three strikeouts, four walks for Dennis Eckers League. Get this
• 1:06:33
  again, seventy three and a third innings, so average a strikeout an inning,
• 1:06:40
  but forty eight saves a point six y' one era. Yeah, as
• 1:06:45
  a closer, that's incredibly hard to do because you give up one or two
• 1:06:49
  runs and it screws everything up. Yep. I mean all of a sudden,
• 1:06:54
  these guy's got a five ra or something. So a couple of years
• 1:06:58
  later, where is it here? A couple of years later he had a
• 1:07:02
  three point nine to one era, a four to seven six, I mean
• 1:07:05
  like kind of you know in that threes the fours range. Yeah. Now,
• 1:07:10
  Tyler nineteen ninety two, he won the MVP and the cy Young all
• 1:07:16
  right, I remember I knew he did that at some point. Yeahah,
• 1:07:19
  fifty one saves, eleven walks, ninety three strikeouts, right, and he
• 1:07:28
  faced three hundred and nine batters. Yeah, he's one of my all time
• 1:07:31
  favorite baseball players. I mean, Cayle Ripkens my guy, but like he's
• 1:07:35
  he's top five. I loved Dennis Secresy. The first profit hat that I
• 1:07:41
  ever bought was an A's hat because of Dennis Secresy. Yeah. I mean
• 1:07:45
  obviously I hated him because the Mariners played him all the time and he always
• 1:07:47
  yeah you know, but yeah, he was great. He was awesome.
• 1:07:50
  I mean that guy, and he was ugly, long hair, big old
• 1:07:54
  mustache on him. Yeah, he looks the exact same now. Yeah.
• 1:07:57
  And he threw kind of from a weird angle. It wasn't yeah side arm,
• 1:08:00
  it wasn't submarine, it wasn't it was. It was just a weird
• 1:08:04
  angle that he threw. I mean, I guess it was kind of side
• 1:08:06
  arm, but it wasn't what a normal side arm looks like. Wasn't a
• 1:08:10
  true sidearm. Yeah yeah, it was almost like he was like stepping towards
• 1:08:13
  third base to throw, like I mean, I don't know, Yeah,
• 1:08:15
  yeah, he would step, he would step back towards first and then he
• 1:08:18
  moved towards third, and then he kind of did this weird motion and they
• 1:08:21
  point at you if he struck you out, and yeah he was, but
• 1:08:25
  it was crazy. Thing is like earlier in his career, like with the
• 1:08:28
  Cleveland Indians, he was a starter, he pitched a no hitter, like
• 1:08:32
  he was. He was the big time dude, played for the Red Sox,
• 1:08:35
  the Cubs, and then he got in like some some problems like with
• 1:08:40
  alcohol and stuff like that, and he had to he had to completely change
• 1:08:43
  his career and he became the best closer in baseball for the next ten years.
• 1:08:45
  And so when you look at like a guy like John Smoltz, like
• 1:08:49
  they their their careers are very mirrored. As far as a dominant starter turned
• 1:08:54
  into a dominant closer, I would say Smoltz was a better starter and and
• 1:08:58
  you did it longer. In Eckersley a better closer and he did it longer.
• 1:09:00
  But they're kind of similar in that way. Both Hall of famers just
• 1:09:05
  give you a Hall of Fame. MVP. Cy Young, six time All
• 1:09:10
  Star, won the eighty nine World Series, was the ALCS MVP and two
• 1:09:15
  time Roll AIDS Relief Pitcher of the Year. Yeah, I totally forgot about
• 1:09:21
  the Roll Aids Relief for the Year. Yeah. Dennis Eckers I mean,
• 1:09:25
  doesn't he look like a guy that just like he's gonna like show up to
• 1:09:29
  his you know, two year old grandson's birthday party on like a motorcycle with
• 1:09:33
  you know, big old chaps on and just you know, and he's got
• 1:09:38
  one of the like the kickback motorcycles with the giant bags on the back so
• 1:09:41
  he can carry. Absolutely, Dennis Eckersley, Man, that guy was good.
• 1:09:46
  He looks like a guy that might hang out at cheers, you know
• 1:09:48
  what I mean. Like, Yeah, he did pitch for Boston for a
• 1:09:51
  while. He did, Yeah he did. And he's the color guy on
• 1:09:56
  Nessen Now, oh is he? I didn't know that? I think so.
• 1:09:58
  Yeah, that's awesome. Number fifteen on the Top fifty count Down Tyler
• 1:10:02
  junior pitcher and infielder from the Sea Home Mariners. It's writer McGrath. When
• 1:10:09
  the regular season ended, I think he led the county in innings pitched and
• 1:10:14
  strikeouts. Wow. He was just and Seahome always seems to have a guy
• 1:10:19
  like that. Jacob Gillig was like that, like, if you're the ace
• 1:10:25
  for Seahome, you're going seven period and and I mean, obviously there's there's
• 1:10:30
  pitch counts and stuff like that, but if they're you know, if they're
• 1:10:33
  struggling in the third inning and they've thrown eighty pitches, they're gonna keep you
• 1:10:39
  in, you know, because you are the best option. That's just kind
• 1:10:42
  of how it is. Yeah, it might not be your day, but
• 1:10:44
  right now, you are our best option. And and he took that and
• 1:10:48
  was, Hey, through hard Man and there are some you know, game
• 1:10:53
  changers. There's some teams that have like they keep the miles per hour on
• 1:10:57
  every pitch, and I don't know how accurate they are, but if they're
• 1:11:00
  pretty consistent, I would imagine they're decently accurate. And he was always in
• 1:11:03
  the mid eighties there could touch eighty seven every once in a while, but
• 1:11:10
  just a really tall, lanky, you know, probably six' four and
• 1:11:14
  uses everything and there's just a little extra gidea up on that fastball. Ended
• 1:11:18
  up with fifty eight and two thirds innings pitched and seventy one strikeouts three point
• 1:11:24
  four to six ERA se him won five games as a team he won three
• 1:11:27
  of them and just was relied upon so heavily on the mound and then defensively,
• 1:11:34
  I mean he played some played some short, he played some third.
• 1:11:38
  I think he even played some second. And as a hitter, you know,
• 1:11:43
  the number three hitter in the lineup, led the team in RBIs with
• 1:11:47
  fifteen led to the team with doubles, with three triples, with two,
• 1:11:51
  batted two sixty nine, walked more times than he struck out, struck out
• 1:11:56
  only eight times in eighty two played appearances, had twelve stolen bases. So
• 1:12:00
  again in that double double club with RBIs and steals, Uh, yeah,
• 1:12:05
  there was nothing he couldn't do. And there were you know, there were
• 1:12:12
  times I could see his face where he's just like you could tell that he's
• 1:12:15
  carrying this team the most that he can, especially like the last couple of
• 1:12:20
  years, they've had to play these playing games to get into the district tournament.
• 1:12:25
  Last year they won it. This year, it was a really,
• 1:12:28
  really tough loss. I was in the dugout for both of those games because
• 1:12:33
  it's usually like on a Tuesday, when you know, this the one game
• 1:12:36
  in town, and I'm going I'm definitely gonna go to it. I think
• 1:12:39
  I did a live broadcast of it last year, and uh, and this
• 1:12:43
  year, I just I just you know, stood there and watched and and
• 1:12:45
  and he pitched, I mean, he pitched awesome in that game, but
• 1:12:48
  it just it just wasn't enough. And and uh but this basically, this
• 1:12:54
  entire senior team or this entire SEALM team returns next year. So I'm really
• 1:12:58
  excited to see the improved everybody and hopefully it's just gonna you know, just
• 1:13:03
  carry over and everyone's gonna get that one step better because they don't lose.
• 1:13:08
  They don't lose anybody. And really impressed with you know, the I mean,
• 1:13:13
  the coaching staff there is awesome. So I'm really expecting some big things
• 1:13:15
  next year. And he's gonna be that big time senior leader. Number fourteen
• 1:13:19
  on the top fifty count down. The senior third baseman and pitcher from the
• 1:13:25
  Meridian Trojans. It's Silas Bershower. Holy cow, line shots. He's a
• 1:13:31
  guy that I wouldn't I you know, if I'm pitching against him, I
• 1:13:34
  want the screen, you know, get yeah, just give me an screen
• 1:13:40
  out here? What you he everything he hits, he just shots bat three
• 1:13:45
  point fifty one had three home runs on the year, I was second most
• 1:13:50
  in the county, led the team twenty three RBIs, six doubles, which
• 1:13:55
  led the team. Also had a triple walk seventeen times, struck out just
• 1:14:00
  ten times in one hundred and four played appearances. Guy hit by pitch eight
• 1:14:02
  times as well, and it batted fifth in the lineup and played a really,
• 1:14:11
  really good third base. His improvement sophomore to junior to senior year was
• 1:14:15
  just he just I love it when a kid and you could tell he puts
• 1:14:17
  work in in the off season. And then he pitched a little bit this
• 1:14:20
  year too, which was kind of a nice surprise. I didn't I didn't
• 1:14:25
  know that. He pitched twenty seven innings, went three and one on the
• 1:14:29
  year, picked up a save in twenty seven innings. He struck out thirty
• 1:14:31
  nine batters a four point four to one e RA, So, uh,
• 1:14:35
  that was a that was kind of a nice thing to see. And and
• 1:14:39
  uh, you know, they kind of some guys had to fill the gaps
• 1:14:42
  with with Jacob Feife not playing, especially on the mound, and he was
• 1:14:45
  able to do that and and fill that spot. But boy, like I
• 1:14:49
  said, just laser shots all over the place. You know, guys,
• 1:14:55
  some guys are some guys see it really well for a couple of weeks and
• 1:14:58
  they they do that. He's just one of those guys that just sees it
• 1:15:01
  like all the time. He's locked in and he just hits line drives and
• 1:15:05
  man, awesome to watch. And like I said, good defensively too,
• 1:15:09
  so good all around player. Stole five bases, so he did everything.
• 1:15:14
  Number thirteen on the top fifty count down senior second baseman from the Linden Lions.
• 1:15:17
  It's Cooper Moore again. I don't want the line shots again. It's
• 1:15:24
  now it's starting to get to these guys where it's like, oh man,
• 1:15:27
  scary, scary, you know. Led the team with twenty seven hits,
• 1:15:30
  led the team with four doubles, led the team with a three forty six
• 1:15:32
  batting average, five twenty six, slugging four eighty five on base over one
• 1:15:36
  thousand ops. A really really good defensively hit two home runs, hit two
• 1:15:43
  triples, the cleanup hitter for Linden and the heart and soul the team.
• 1:15:47
  Good defensively at second base. He was the one that when I placed him,
• 1:15:53
  I thought I was gonna get the most flack on like where he should
• 1:15:57
  be. He should be a top ten KiB blah blah blah. And I
• 1:15:59
  did hear a little bit. But there's just some really good players out there.
• 1:16:03
  And when I look at a player, and I'm just being honest here,
• 1:16:09
  when I'm looking at a player that that doesn't pitch, it's hard,
• 1:16:13
  you know, It's it's it's almost like when we're doing the top one hundred
• 1:16:15
  for football, if it was a guy that just plays on one side of
• 1:16:17
  the ball, it's really hard to make the top ten. It's just it's
• 1:16:20
  just it's just just the way that it is. And and so that's the
• 1:16:25
  main thing going against him. But being being ranked thirteenth is still pretty amazing,
• 1:16:29
  especially with the these kids that are on there. But yeah, offensively,
• 1:16:33
  I mean he was he was the guy on that Linen team as far
• 1:16:38
  as supplying the power, the gap power, the two home runs the team
• 1:16:42
  hit three as a team, he hit two of them. So uh yeah,
• 1:16:47
  just a tremendous player and and uh what a great career. I mean,
• 1:16:50
  he had an unbelievable catch in the state championship baseball game as a junior
• 1:16:56
  well and the state championship football game as a junior. But uh, but
• 1:16:59
  of course in the we saw what he did on the football field this past
• 1:17:00
  year and and had it didn't didn't turn out for basketball. I think he
• 1:17:05
  played it earlier in high school, but hasn't played it in a couple years.
• 1:17:10
  And uh, and then in baseball, I you know, I didn't
• 1:17:12
  really know who that who that that cleanup hitter was gonna be and for Lindon,
• 1:17:16
  and he took that spot and he proved that he belonged in that spot.
• 1:17:21
  Number twelve on the top fifty countdown. Another sophomore infielder and pitcher from
• 1:17:28
  the Seahome Mariners. It's Hudson Nef. Another kid that last year I left
• 1:17:32
  him off the list as a freshman just because I felt like he didn't quite
• 1:17:36
  do enough. Him and Kay Nelson are very very similar in that way,
• 1:17:40
  even though they started the entire year they batted, you know, batted okay,
• 1:17:45
  and Hudson Neff was playing out of position last year because they just needed
• 1:17:47
  a center fielder as a freshman and he's an infielder, you know. But
• 1:17:54
  this year, I think he started the year at center field because he played
• 1:17:56
  it last year, but he ended up moving and playing PLoP played most of
• 1:18:00
  the innings at second base. Uh played different spots in the nfield, but
• 1:18:03
  mostly played second base. But he had some big time games on the mound
• 1:18:08
  as well. I mean, there were there were some games where I think
• 1:18:11
  maybe it might have been the belling Am game where he pitched into extra innings
• 1:18:15
  and and just you know, he had some moments where he was the dude
• 1:18:18
  dot there. He had a couple saves, so, uh, you know
• 1:18:23
  good, you know, coming into the game late thirty eight innings, pitched,
• 1:18:27
  struck out twenty nine, only walked eleven, a two point zero three
• 1:18:30
  e er. So he's again one of those one of those big time arms
• 1:18:34
  that the steelm is going to rely on next year on the mound with Ryder
• 1:18:38
  McGrath and Keegan Glennon another kid who was just a sophomore this year, Gunner
• 1:18:42
  Tweight just a sophomore, so they're all they all come back. And then
• 1:18:45
  hitting, I mean, he's such a tough out, very similar to Eli
• 1:18:50
  Mayberry as far as really hard to strike out. He'll foul pitches off.
• 1:18:56
  Led the team with twenty three runs scored. In fact, that's almost twice
• 1:19:00
  as many as the next guy. That's crazy. Uh, twenty six hits,
• 1:19:04
  twenty three singles. He had a home run. It was inside the
• 1:19:06
  park home run, a true one too, not one of those Little league
• 1:19:10
  inside the park home runs. Louis Soho style twenty three stolen bases twenty three
• 1:19:16
  that was second in the in the county. He batted three ninety four,
• 1:19:21
  slugged four seventy, got on base over fifty one percent of the time in
• 1:19:25
  his eighty two played appearances, only struck out six times. I mean,
• 1:19:30
  that's everything that you want in a leadoff hitter and and just really really smart,
• 1:19:35
  like takes advantage of little things. You know. He's a guy that,
• 1:19:39
  like you know, you you and I have seen the play every once
• 1:19:42
  in a while where a guy will steal home just because of the defense is
• 1:19:45
  napping, you know what I mean. He is going to be that guy
• 1:19:48
  that's gonna do it. I guarantee, like the next time at Akinson and
• 1:19:51
  Walking County, it will be him. He's very alert, he sees things,
• 1:19:55
  he picks up on on the rhythm of the game and kind of what's
• 1:19:59
  going on, and he will be a guy that I'm sure he's got the
• 1:20:01
  green light anyways. But he will be the one that once he sees that
• 1:20:05
  catcher a little bit back of the pitcher who happens to always be turning towards
• 1:20:09
  first base when he catches it, he's gonna run. So that's that kind
• 1:20:14
  of player. And again, just a sophomore. And we we you know,
• 1:20:17
  we talked about him on the football field, like leading the team in
• 1:20:20
  tackles as a sophomore from the strong safety spot. So good athlete. And
• 1:20:26
  again just another NEF kid that does really good things. Tyler. Did you
• 1:20:30
  see that guy steal home? It was pretty recently. I think it was
• 1:20:33
  like a week or two weeks ago, where yeah, the pitcher and the
• 1:20:38
  catcher both looked at their wristband. Yes, And and the guy on third
• 1:20:44
  was just he noticed that they kept looking down at their wristbands. Yeah,
• 1:20:47
  and like as soon as they got the number, he took off and then
• 1:20:51
  they looked down and they didn't even see I mean, yeah, they had
• 1:20:56
  no clue. You know, I don't know, it's kind of funny when
• 1:20:59
  I see the guys, when I see coaches yelling numbers and stuff, and
• 1:21:02
  then I see guys looking down at wristbands, and you know, sometimes they
• 1:21:06
  look really quickly. But other times I'm like, man, you could absolutely
• 1:21:10
  you gotta be ready. Yeah yeah, Number eleven the last one we'll talk
• 1:21:14
  about today on the top fifty count down. Junior third baseman from nook Sack
• 1:21:18
  Valley. It's Kolby Martin. Yeah, very similar to Cooper Moore, where
• 1:21:23
  a player that could probably be ranked higher just on us offensive output alan but
• 1:21:27
  didn't but didn't pitch again. But still, I mean, just incredible year.
• 1:21:32
  We're gonna learn a lot more about him in the football season two.
• 1:21:34
  He's gonna be starting at linebacker, but you know, starting at fresh starting
• 1:21:40
  since he was a freshman at third base, and every year is offensive output
• 1:21:44
  just gets better and better. Led the team with sixteen runs, led the
• 1:21:46
  team with four doubles, led the team with nineteen RBIs, led the team
• 1:21:50
  with a three eighty three batting average on base five oh seven, got hit
• 1:21:56
  by pitch nine times, went up to the plate with a wooden bat sometimes
• 1:22:00
  what just a probably because he needed the challenge. I don't know, just
• 1:22:04
  I mean, he just rakes like he's he's one of those guys where middle
• 1:22:09
  of the lineup and he's just gonna crush the ball all the time, and
• 1:22:13
  uh, you know, just a stud, just just a pure stud.
• 1:22:17
  Like you know, it reminds me of kind of like Alex Mololei on the
• 1:22:20
  football field, like he's just he's the he's a dude man, like he's
• 1:22:26
  and hya he's I mean, he was flirting with like four fifty for most
• 1:22:30
  of the year, had a little rough patch in the playoffs there. His
• 1:22:34
  average went down all the way to three eighty three. I mean it's crazy,
• 1:22:39
  but man, what a what a great, great year. And you
• 1:22:44
  know, the Nuksack Valley team as a team, very aggressive swinging the swinging
• 1:22:48
  the bat and getting after the first pitch and those kinds of things, and
• 1:22:53
  he kind of led that charge. I think I think, you know,
• 1:22:57
  some guys lead by example. He's not a real vocal kid, uh but
• 1:23:00
  I think they all kind of a lot of his teammate, especially the younger
• 1:23:04
  ones, are pretty much in awe of him. And and it's you know,
• 1:23:08
  especially when you walk up there with a wooden bat and you're hitting doubles
• 1:23:11
  and triple I mean, you know, it's it's a little different. And
• 1:23:14
  sometimes it could be a psychological thing for the other team as well. And
• 1:23:17
  uh yeah, he's just he's that guy. He's he's a stud, and
• 1:23:23
  yeah, I expect some big, big things out of him this next year
• 1:23:26
  as well. That's it. That's all Tyler for this one. Anything else
• 1:23:30
  before we go, Nah, just a really really good group of players.
• 1:23:34
  And uh, there's there's a little break here between you know, posting these
• 1:23:40
  and I'm curious to other people think are gonna be in the top ten.
• 1:23:44
  I think I think the ten. I think the ten are probably known.
• 1:23:47
  I'm just curious for people think they're gonna be ranked. And uh, this
• 1:23:50
  was a this was a tough year of ranking baseball. Third third year doing
• 1:23:55
  it. It was it was really hard to move players around in those spots.
• 1:23:59
  Uh. Reminder, Tyler, you're going to be a district brewing.
• 1:24:01
  What time on Sunday? Noon to two on Sunday the restaurant opens at noon,
• 1:24:08
  so uh, you know, get there, get there ready so you
• 1:24:11
  can get a good spot, and uh and we'll hang out and watch some
• 1:24:15
  old games. Sixty nine to twelve Hannigan Road, as we've mentioned before,
• 1:24:20
  Northeast corner Hannigan and poll right there pretty easy to find. Again. Thank
• 1:24:26
  you to j e KK Sports Cards. Bedlington Farm six Funeral and Cremation Services
• 1:24:30
  for their continued support of baseball on walkcom Preps, and to Kurt Mayberry Farm.
• 1:24:35
  Kurt with A C M A B E. R. Ry Farm dot
• 1:24:40
  Com is the website. He's Tyler Anderson from Walkompreps walkompreps dot com. I'm
• 1:24:44
  Ryland Spencer. You've been listening to episode two hundred and sixty, the second
• 1:24:47
  of three podcast as we unveil the baseball Top fifty count down here on the
• 1:24:53
  watcom Preps podcast. We will talk to you next week. What that do