Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 262 - Top 50 Baseball 10-1

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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 262 - Top 50 Baseball 10-1 · Whatcom Preps Podcast

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This is Murdy and junior jonah Assey, and you're listening to the walcom Preps
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Baseball Top fifty Countdown with Tyler and Ryland Go Trojans. Greetings and welcome into
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the watcom Preps podcast. This episode at two and sixty two, the last
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of three podcasts, as we unveil the Baseball Top fifty Countdown, I'm Roland
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Spencer. Along with me as always is Tyler Anderson of watcum Preps. Tyler,
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how we doing do it? Great? We're down to it now the
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top ten and at this if you're listening to this, you you've you've probably
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seen everything, but now you get to hear us talk about all these guys.
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It's gonna be a fun list. Yeah. In theory, if you're
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listening to this, you may have found it by going to the number one,
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so you're potentially listening to it there. So yeah, that's good because
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that means Tyler gets a click and we get a click on the podcast.
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And I mean all kinds of stuff going on here. It's a it's a
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well oiled machine. That being said, Tyler, we need to give a
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thank you to jonah Assi of the Meridian Trojans. Junior pitcher. We'll talk
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about him here in just a little bit. Hurt, he's pretty good.
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I don't know. Kurt Mayberry Farm, big time sponsor. They love what
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we do. We love what they do because they've got strawberries, blueberries,
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and raspberries, and we are a fan of family and they are a fourth
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generation, family owned and operated berry farm, committed to growing the highest quality
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berries. As I said, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Yes,
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Kurt Mayberry Farm, we've been talking about him, Tyler. When did When
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was the first time we mentioned him, because we've been talking about him for
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like nine months now. I would say, yeah, it's been I think
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I'd first connected with them last August, so it's been ten months. So
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yeah, it's been. Uh, they've been awesome and they've been really helpful.
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And it was probably during the ball preview stuff. So yeah, it's
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been all school year for sure. Yeah. And people, I mean the
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nine people that listen to every episode, they've heard us talk about Kirk Maberry
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Farm a lot by now. They probably know the website, which by the
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way is Kurt with A C M A B E R R y farm dot
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com. Go there, check it out get yourself from strawberries blueberries rather,
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Tyler, can people just go like buy a tub of blueberries from them?
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Is like, how does that even work? I don't know for sure,
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but I would imagine, you know what, they have a they have a
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big, big, you know, uh like freezer in the back, you
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know, with tubs of stuff. So you could probably go in and do
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that. But can you get it on their website right now? Like?
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Can I just go buy some ship it to Kirkland? How does that work?
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Ship it to Kirklan? Yeah? Anyway, Tyler, we also need
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to give it thank you to j e KK Sports Cards and Ferndale Bedlington Farms
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and SIGs At Funeral Cremation Services in Bellingham for their sponsorship of baseball all spring
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long. Awesome sponsors. Just it's people like those three and Kurt Mayberry Farms
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that makes all of this possible. So thank you to them. Tyler.
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District Brewing, are you going to be out there again this coming Sunday?
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Yeah, that's the plan. I'll definitely be out there and right when they
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opened, right at twelve o'clock and sticking around for a couple hours. Last
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week we watched the two thousand and five three a state championship football game.
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And it's been a long time since I sat and watched the entire thing,
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and I knew the final score, and I knew kind of what happened,
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But what I didn't realize about it was that it was like forty to nothing
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after three quarters. Yeah, I thought. I didn't remember that it was
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like that. I thought it was kind of close, and then they when
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Ferndale pulled away, I didn't realize it was you know, Proser scored a
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couple of touchdowns late against the backups. I did not recall that. But
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it was a you know, it was fun game to watch, and we'll
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figure out something for what we're going to watch this next week. I'm not
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quite sure yet. Yeah, if you would have told me it was that
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in terms of that, you know, big of a difference, I would
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have said, I don't remember that. I do remember that it was definitely
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Ferndale, you know what I mean, Like I remember that. I wouldn't
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say I would remember that it wasn't close, but I remember it wasn't one
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where you were like, you know, down to the end or even really
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into the fourth quarter that I remember. But yeah, I do remember that.
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It was, Yeah, a lot of Jake Locker in that game.
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From from what I recall, I mean, I think that was why most
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of us were wanting. I mean I went there because I that's what I
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did. But that's where you go, Yeah, that's what I used to
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doing. Hey, by the way, I got to go to All six
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again this last year, which was crazy, right, but but yeah,
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you know, it was one of those things where it was like we were
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all you know that weekend with the thing we all wanted to see was was
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Jake Locker, you know what I mean. Yeah, and he didn't disappoint.
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I mean, he definitely didn't disappoint. But but yeah, that's cool.
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You don't know what you're watching this weekend though, yet, right,
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Yeah, not quite sure. We're It's always kind of up in the air.
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You know, we might put it to a vote, and but it
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could be you know, whoever comes in, whoever comes in first, they
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could pick a game we'll put it on. So yeah, you just never
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know. I bring my catalog with me when the with the external hard drive
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and we just link it up to the TV and then you know whatever,
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And it's great because I have it like on a split screen, so on
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my screen I can work on stuff and on the second screen is the TV
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and it's just showing the game. Yeah. So so yeah, so it
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was. And it was really cool because the day before this last event,
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I was able to go to a house that where they were cleaning everything out
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and a guy had decades of old stat stuff and I was able to collect
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a bunch of stuff. I haven't gone through all of it yet, but
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I brought a folder with me, and you know, I was looking at
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all that stuff. I mean there was there was just like this Manila folder
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that said that said Envy Football nineteen sixty eight to nineteen seventy three. Whoa,
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that's what it said on it. And it was like an inch and
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a half thick of papers ten years before I was born. And so I
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was really excited for obvious reasons. But what was cool about it was that
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right after that was kind of when the Herald started doing box scores that had
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everything. Yeah, so I didn't have stuff. I had little things before
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then, like I knew who scored touchdowns, but that was about it.
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You know. I might have known these stats at the end of the year
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for like the leader of the county for a certain statistic, like they didn't
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really publish a lot of stuff. But now I've got this handwritten stuff of
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game by game from all these guys that I had only heard about, and
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now it just went back in another five years for Nuksack Valley just like that.
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So I was able to collect a bunch of really cool things. And
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I've been adding it to the database and rewriting the record book, you know,
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like the top fifteen records and stuff like that, and you know,
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it's it's been. It's been really really cool. So gaining all that stuff,
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and so if anyone out there, and what was really cool is they
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had old programs, you know, the roster sheets from like nineteen sixty eight,
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sixty nine. That's awesome. And so like Lyndon Baker, Nokzack,
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Elsie, Blaine, Meridian, you know, all the county teams, they
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were all accounted for. Looked really good, like pretty good condition still,
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so really really neat to see right up my alley. Yeah, Tyler,
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I you know what I envisioned. I envisioned you walking in there like a
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like a karaoke DJ with like you know, a catalog of songs available.
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But here you've got football games, you know, you've got all kinds of
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stuff ready to count. People just like, yeah, right, hey,
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yeah, can I watch ninety seven Nuksack Valley versus lind You're like, yep,
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let's go here we here we are, boys, like, I don't
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know why you want to watch that Week four game that was, you know,
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on this date. And they oh, by the way, it happened
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to be a Saturday because there was a baby being born at this hospital and
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oh it was Kurt Cramey's son in law's brother mother, you know, and
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everything's like, how do you know this stuff? Tyler? You're like,
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I don't know, but this guy ran for four hundred in the game.
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Let's put it on. Here we go, boys, Tyler. If people
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want to reach out to you about sponsorship, how do they do that?
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Well, they could find it District Brewing on Sundays at noon. But also
8:39
get just getting a hold of me through social media is really a good good
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way. Through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, just go to a personal message
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look for Walker Preps send a personal message to me, and I'm the one
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that answers all those things. A lot of people, you know, go
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you know, Hey, you guys or whatever, but it's just me,
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so don't worry about it. It's not going to go through another person.
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It is going to go to me and uh and that that is the best
9:07
way. And also you know, like you know, you could find my
9:13
phone number two on the Facebook, you know, the Walkom Preps Facebook page
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if you wanted to send me a text if that's easier. So there's yeah,
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there's there's there, there's many, there's many different ways. I've been
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posting a lot of legacy supporters lately. Then someone saw that reached out and
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say, hey, how can I do the legacy supporter thing? Which is
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really cool because then that that brings in a little bit that and it can
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display stuff about another athlete and it just kind of keeps the ball rolling with
9:37
Walkom Preps and that's really important. And again, Tyler will be out there
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district brewing twelve to two on Sunday sixty nine to twelve. Hannigan Road in
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London. What is it corner of poll and Linden. Is that what it
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is? Hand pull on Hannigan. Yeah, it's Linden, but it's not
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quite Linden. It's a little south of London on your way to Bellingham,
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but it's also part of Linden because that's what the address is. That's right.
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So if you're not confused, District Brewing twelve to two, Tyler will
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be there, walk in. Suggest the game is so random that Tyler like,
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if somebody can trick, let me put it to you this way.
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If somebody can pick a random game and Tyler doesn't have it, and I'm
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gonna say, it's got to be a playoff game from two thousand to today,
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if Tyler, if you can pick a game and Tyler does, say
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nineteen ninety to today, Okay, nineteen ninety to today, if you can
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pick a playoff game and a playoff game. No, no, I'm just
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saying a playoff game. Okay, I'm trying to narrow it down for my
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own sake here, Tyler, you don't know where I'm going with this.
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And you can trick Tyler and he doesn't have it ready to go within like
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five minutes, Let's say, Okay, and I don't even know how quickly
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Tyler can pull this off. But if Tyler can't have it ready to go
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within five minutes, first picture of beers on me Tyler will get the venmo,
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I'll send it over all right, that being said, Tyler, Yeah,
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oh, I think we should maybe point out you got to be twenty
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one hour older, Tyler. We are counting down and this is the Baseball
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Top fifty countdown. We've already done fifty down to eleven, so today we're
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doing ten down to one. And this is already the fifth of what's going
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to be six total podcast because we've also done Fast Pitch fifty down to eleven.
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So if you haven't listened to those, go back and listen to those
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four, or if you just don't have nineteen hours to kill right now,
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go back and at least listen to the Baseball once because you're listening to the
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Baseball one right now later today. If you're hearing this, what time is
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this one being posted, Tyler? This one will be Well, that's the
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thing. I usually I post the fast pitch before the baseball. Well I
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thought you did the baseball before the fast pitch. I do not. Oh,
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okay, fast pitch is already out right right, we've been putting the
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podcast out Baseball Baseball Fast Pitch, so this will be this will be at
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oh, they go out the same day. No yeah, no, no,
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no, excuse me. The graphics in the post go out the same
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the podcasts have been going out separately because we've been catching right, That's where
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I was confused. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So at this point,
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the Fast Pitch one is already out, even though technically you and I have
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yet to record it. We'll be doing that here in a few minutes.
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That being said, though, they can go back and listen to all of
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that, and the Fast Pitch one came out earlier today if you're listening to
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this on Wednesday, right right. Okay, now we got that out of
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the way. Let's get into the top ten. Tyler, what do you
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say? It sounds good? Sounds good? Stuid all right, number ten
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in the top fifty countdown. He's a senior, a catcher and a pitcher
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from the Meridian Trojans. It's Ian Forbes. Yeah, started catcher since day
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one as a freshman. So now he's a senior. That's a lot of
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oursity experience. It's a lot of putting on the gear. And he was
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called upon to pitch a little bit this year, which kind of I had
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never seen him pitch. He did it, he did a good job,
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but his importance of his leadership and batting in the you know, in the
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middle of that lineup, driving in runs. I remember, I think it
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was his freshman year. I think he was batting like eighth or ninth in
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lineup, and and he was struggling defensively, and and it was just so
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funny because I could hear Coach slesk from the dugout over and over again say
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catch the ball Ian like a ball like kind of like hit his glove and
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bounce out and catch the ball. Ian. You know, it's just and
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it was just over and over again. But you knew he was going to
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be a really good player. And I remember his sophomore year he was batting
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second, a lot of sacrifice bunts and stuff like that and moving the runner
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along. And then as a junior he was, you know, put in
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like that, like that three spot. And he's been there ever since.
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And man, what a great just overall baseball player. Hit two eighty nine
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this year led the team with twenty one singles, at four doubles a triple
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seventeen. RBI's four stolen bases struck out less than ten percent of the time,
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so everything you want on the offensive side, and then to catch all
14:07
those innings. I you know, it was a it was a pitching staff
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that was loaded up and down with freshmen all the way to seniors getting to
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know new pictures and and making them feel comfortable and making some of these freshman
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pictures look great. Uh. He definitely helps along with that. And then
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when he was when he was pitching, he did a he did a pretty
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decent job as well, like I like I said earlier, So yeah,
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he's just a great overall player. He ended up three and two on the
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on the on the year on the mound, and and twenty three innings,
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struck out fourteen batters of the era was kind of high, uh over six
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but man, uh he did, like I said, just did so many
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things. Uh. And and what just what an amazing career. Over three
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hundred plate appearances in his high school career. And that's wow. That's yeah,
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that's going back and it's hard to guys that have that. I mean,
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my stats go back a little ways, and and you know, it's
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it's rare to see that from a lot, like from anybody. Uh,
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partially because I think it was his freshman year was that year when yeah,
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it was like it was like the year after COVID where they but they still
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didn't play a full season. They did, You're right, they didn't play
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a full season. There was there was no playoff and so it was you
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know, so it's not like it's not like yeah, right, that's right,
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Jim Jim Senior. But but you know that's just the way that it
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was. And uh man, what a what a great career and like,
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like I said, a tremendous leader that commands respect and and he did.
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He did the baseball intro for us, you know for when when we did
15:45
the like the season preview, and uh so it's really cool, full full
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circle and what what a great year that he had. Number nine on the
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Top fifty count Down. He's one of three juniors on this list. He's
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a catcher from the Blaine Border Rights. It's Evan Yates. Yeah, left
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handed hitting catcher, big time pop gap power, all those things. Led
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the team with eight doubles and three triples and and and sixteen RBIs and he
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struck out the lowest percentage on the on the team for the Border Rights.
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So all those things combined, uh, you know, this list is full
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of pitchers. And for you to be in the top ten and not pitch,
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uh, that means you better be darn good offensively, and he was.
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He was amazing. More extra base hits than singles. We've talked about
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a few guys that did that this year. He is one of those guys.
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So big time gap power, you know, Like like I said,
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the you know, left handed batter just could just put it all over the
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place. Uh. And and quick around the bases too. I mean I
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saw one of those triples live and he could, he could motor around the
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bases, did did steal a couple of bases, slugged five fiftyifty six,
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and as on base percentage was four fifty five so on our ops of over
17:04
a thousand, which is just you know, you know in baseball, you
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know, I see it happen in fast pitch, but in baseball, that's
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that's pretty rare. More walks than strikeouts, all the all the things that
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you want. And just a junior as well. So it's gonna be it's
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gonna be a big time Uh, it's gonna be a big time year for
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him next year. I think Blaine was loaded with seniors. I think there
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were only two starters on the team that were not seniors, and he was
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one of them. So so he's gonna he's gonna have an old new group
17:37
to work with next year. And uh, you know a big thing is
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gonna be, you know, getting that pitching staff together and all that stuff.
17:45
But but Blaine, Blaine baseball just always seems to kind of come together,
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you know. They you know, they don't really have a lot of
17:52
big ups and downs. They're always pretty good. So and I don't know
17:56
how they're how their JV did, but but he is a he's a big
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time player that is going to be the major leader on that team next year.
18:04
You know, Tyler, if you are, I mean, it's not
18:07
rebuilding, right because it's it's high school sports, so it's a little bit
18:11
different. But if you're in that mode where you got to replace a lot
18:15
of guys, returning a catcher like that is that's a great place to start.
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That's that's the Yeah, if you're returning one or two, you want
18:22
one of them to be your catcher, that's for sure, absolutely, And
18:26
I mean if you got a clear number one, you know on the mound
18:30
as well, that doesn't hurt. But if you got a catcher that can
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that can catch every inning of every game, you know, and and really
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be that leader that you need, not only on the field, but you
18:38
know with the in the battery. You know, Like that's huge, that's
18:42
huge. Let's see here number eight on the top fifty count down, a
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sophomore third baseman and pitcher from the Linden Lions. It's Matthew Carroll. Yeah.
18:52
I first saw him as a freshman. Didn't get a lot of playing
18:56
time, but I would see him like in pregame taking infield at third base,
19:00
and I was just amazed by his how just the mechanics of everything.
19:04
Everything looked smooth. Powerful. Uh, he looked big. I just thought,
19:08
that's no way that kids are freshman Like, I've heard about him,
19:11
but I've never like, I never really got to see him up close.
19:14
And then this year he just he just took over and and was awesome.
19:18
He batted third all year in the in a really veteran Lindon lineup, and
19:22
to take take that spot over really really says a lot. Led the team
19:26
with four doubles, led the team with twenty four RBIs, had a triple,
19:30
had a home run, batted two ninety four and another one of those
19:33
guys that we talked about a little bit where he's always going to put the
19:37
ball in play. Ninety nine played appearances and only eleven times did he walk
19:44
or strike out. Six walks, five strikeouts and uh so that's that.
19:48
Oh and six times he was hit hit by a pitch as well, so
19:53
only five percent of the time did he strike out. That's just I love
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that stat. I just love that he's gonna do something positive and even if
20:03
putting the ball in play, because he's got two big time players ahead of
20:06
him, So if you put the ball in play, it's high school baseball,
20:08
you never know what's gonna happen. Is Ops was seven eighty one,
20:12
slug four hundred, uh score, fifteen runs and then he was he was
20:18
a big time guy out of the bullpen, and that was that was a
20:21
big big thing for them because they have they played a lot of close games
20:26
and you know, you get him to come in and pitch near it near
20:30
the end. That's a that's a really huge thing to have lead led the
20:33
county with five saves. That's a lot of saves in a high school season
20:37
for for a kid, it's just because so there's so there's such a wide
20:41
variety of talent where you're you're gonna you're gonna ten run teams. You just
20:45
are. And so first of all, you have to have enough wins.
20:48
You gotta have wins in close games, and you have to have a kid
20:52
that gets the job done. You need all those things to happen. He
20:56
did that was three and two on the season as well. Uh, pitch
20:59
twenty four and two thirds innings, walked six batters and struck out fifteen.
21:03
He had two point twenty seven ERA. So I don't know if he's gonna
21:07
take over and be one of the starting pitchers next year. He probably will,
21:12
I just I you know, but Linden always seems to have a half
21:15
dozen arms that are great, and you kind of, you know, you
21:19
really like his defense at third base. You want to be able to keep
21:22
him there until the final inning and you can move him over to pitch that
21:26
final inning. But but he's just such a good athlete. He's gonna he's
21:30
gonna find ways to to to do some good things. The highest ranked sophomore
21:34
on the list. Uh, just a tremendous player. I can't believe I
21:37
get to see two more years of when playing baseball. It's awesome. Number
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seven on the top fifty count down. He is a senior shortstop and a
21:45
pitcher from the Linden Christian Links. It's Jonah Turpstra. I think if you
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asked me before the season where he might land, I'd say kind of in
21:55
the middle, maybe in the mid mid mid twenties, maybe twenty through twenty
21:57
five, something like that. Really good player. It's been their leadoff hitter
22:02
for years and and you know he can and he can pitch when needed.
22:07
That was kind of in my head, you can pitch when needed. And
22:10
that was the big thing about the Links coming into this year was do they
22:12
have the pitching. They had guys that have pitched, but do they have
22:18
guys that can dominate? And he'll be the first one to tell you he's
22:22
not gonna you know, he's not gonna dominate you on the mound. Like
22:25
as far as if you just sat and like you're just walking by the park
22:27
and you sat down and watched an inning and then you left, you'd be
22:32
like, yeah, he's not he's not really throwing that hard. He does
22:34
hit the strike zone, but he got you know, he got a guy
22:38
to roll over, and he got two guys to pop up. Okay,
22:42
that's not bad. Well, he seemed to do that every inning. It
22:47
was incredible, and as the season wore on, he just got better and
22:49
better and better, and he was pitching in high pressure situations against the best
22:55
opponents. He shut out the eventual state champions. Like with Ease, he
22:59
pitched a one hitter against Nuksack Valley, who hit the ball a ton this
23:03
year. That was in a loser out winner to state game. I mean,
23:07
so it was, you know, the big time games. He did
23:10
really well. Once they got to State, he pitched that first game they
23:11
got the win in an upset against a better ranked team. He went seven
23:18
to two on the year, pitched fifty eight and a third innings, and
23:22
he walked eight batters. You know, so he is definitely pumping the strike
23:26
zone. But he only struck out twenty four batters in fifty eight innings,
23:30
so he's pitching to contact. He let the defense, which was great,
23:33
do the job behind him. ERA of one point six to eight. So
23:38
just tremendous pitching numbers. And then, like I said, batting leadoff did
23:42
really well, batted two to eighty one. He watched more times than he
23:47
struck out, a couple doubles, a couple of triples, five stolen bases,
23:52
only struck out seven percent of the time. I mean, all the
23:56
good things that you want out of a leadoff guy. Twenty five hits,
23:59
scored eight eighteen runs batted two eighty one, Like I said, And and
24:04
as the season wore on, he was just creeping up and up and higher
24:08
and higher on the list. I think when they did the all the All
24:14
Conference voting, you know they do that before you know it's it's it's only
24:18
based on the regular season. Yeah, and and so I think he was
24:22
just like an honorable mentioned guy. And uh, but if you took into
24:27
account, which I do in the entire season, and I have the ability
24:32
to do that because I don't have to do get it out in time or
24:33
whatever. Boy the postseason, what he did, what he did down the
24:38
even down the stretch of the regular season was amazing. Pitching against the best
24:42
opponents that they had and still going seven to two and one point six eight
24:48
e ra was just it was crazy. And uh, he's just you know,
24:52
it's somebody commented, you know, right handed Jamie Moyer when I posted
24:57
that he made the the top the top fifty list, and that's what he
25:03
was. I mean, he just hit the corners, didn't walk anybody,
25:07
and he pitched a contact, let his defense take care of it. And
25:10
it was awesome to see number six on the top fifty countdown. Senior shortstop
25:15
and pitcher from the Nooksack of Valley Pioneers, it's Casey Newton. Yeah,
25:22
he could do everything. Five tool guy of six if you want to count
25:27
pitching. So it's just yeah, I mean it was and he's just been
25:33
a staple of Nuksack Valley baseball for four years, you know, always batting
25:38
near the top lineup. You know, really good left handed hitter, throws
25:45
right handed. You know, played played all he's played all over the field.
25:48
I mean played a lot of outfield last year, but more in the
25:52
infield this year. And it was just kind of whatever what was needed.
25:56
Great great pitcher. Early in his career, he walked a lot of batters
26:02
and usually walked more than he struck out, but he had a lot of
26:06
both. You know, it's like imagine like Nolan Ryan, but just he
26:08
who had you know, obviously the most strikeouts in major league history. But
26:12
he had the most walks as well. Maybe just flip those two numbers.
26:15
That's kind of what a box score would look like. You know, he'd
26:18
pitched five innings, give up like three hits, but he'd give up like
26:22
six runs and he'd walk nine and strike out seven. It was just kind
26:26
of like, oh yeah, yeah. But as this year wore on,
26:30
he got his he got the ball under control, and it was just totally
26:33
different and he was dominating. And you know, he outdueled Kieran Marcuson in
26:38
a really good game, a really good pitcher there, and he just had
26:42
these big time moments and the hitting was always going to be there. Led
26:47
the team with twenty seven hits, three doubles, three triples, the double
26:52
double in RBIs and stolen bases eleven of each. Batted three sixty five on
26:56
the year, slugged four eighty six on the year. Uh you know this
27:00
line drive after line drive. I remember near the end of his career.
27:04
I think it was a second last game. I'm standing in the dugout and
27:08
I'm taking pictures and he sits down next to me and he goes. I
27:11
think I just I think I finally went over strike. I finally have more
27:15
strikeouts than walks in my career now on the mound and I just started laughing.
27:19
I go, I think you do too, because, like I said,
27:22
he walked a lot of guys early in his in his career. This
27:26
year he went four and five in thirty four innings. He struck out fifty
27:32
three batters and walked just twenty seven four point twenty nine. E er.
27:37
You know, he's a he's a he's an interesting kid. He's kind of
27:41
a knucklehead sometimes, but man, he loves baseball and he'll go out there
27:47
and he's a he's a big time gamer. He gets the he gets his
27:49
guys going, gets them excited, and he pumps everybody else up. And
27:55
he's a guy that's definitely gonna be missed on that Pioneer team going forward.
28:00
We are into the top five here in the top fifty countdown, and at
28:03
number five is a senior centerfielder and pitcher from the Linden Lions, Kyle Stapleton.
28:10
Yeah. You think of all the great pitching that Walkin County had this
28:14
year, and there was a lot of it. Nobody had more wins than
28:18
Kal Stapleton and I think that that's that's h you know, high praise for
28:23
him. He went eight and two on the year, and he pitched over
28:26
sixty innings UH sixty one and a third inning and UH walks twenty but struck
28:32
out sixty three a one point two six ERA, and did all that while
28:37
batting lead off the entire year. And boy, he knew how to get
28:42
on and he knew how to take advantage when he was on. This is
28:48
these are some crazy This is some crazy numbers. But he got hit by
28:51
He got hit by pitch thirteen times, which which led the county. He
28:56
stole thirty two bases, which which led the county. Led his team in
29:03
at bats, runs, twenty eight hits, twenty seven singles, twenty two
29:07
doubles, four did hit a triple. He knocked in ten runs, batted
29:12
three hundred on the year. Man, what an awesome, awesome season playing
29:19
center field when he wasn't pitching great out there. He did everything and he,
29:26
like I said, when he got on, he's he's going. I
29:30
mean, thirty two stolen bases on a stolen bases is that is so many?
29:34
I mean the next guy on the team had ten. Usually ten is
29:40
you know, a pretty high number. And you can kind of look at
29:41
like stolen bases in high school, like okay, based on like a major
29:47
league season, you can kind of take it and you go times three,
29:49
because ten's a good year, like thirty in majors. Right, if you
29:52
steal thirty bases of the major that's really good. Yeah. Well tell me
29:55
how many teams in Walkham County didn't have thirty two? Yeah exactly, I
30:00
would. I would say half of them. It's probably a handful like it.
30:04
Yeah, yeah, I mean and so and but to do that you
30:08
got to get on right. Ye batted three hundred, Like I said,
30:11
he got hit by pitched thirteen times as on baseball centage was four thirty two.
30:18
So yeah, just and last year he played all over the place.
30:21
I mean he was playing first base, he was pitching, he was playing
30:23
in the infield, he's playing left field, right field, he was all
30:26
over. And this year he found that home in center field and he pitched.
30:30
And that was basically it. And and and Linden is just they're so
30:34
machine like where you can almost say you can almost predict who's going to be,
30:40
you know, who the next bunch of guys are after graduation and just
30:45
take the guys that have those that have that experience, and you move them
30:48
up in the lineup and there they are boom boom, boom boom, and
30:52
it's it's really fantastic to watch and it's just a great program and and uh
30:57
yeah, it's it's it's pretty amazing. Did you say that that that he
31:03
led the league in stolen bases too? Yoh yeah, okay, so stolen
31:07
bases hit by pitch and wins and wins yeah on the mound. I mean
31:11
that's a real triple crown right there. That's yeah, who who else has
31:15
done that before? It's uh, stapleton, pretty crazy. Yeah, that's
31:18
called a Stapleton. Yeah, the Triple State. You stiff staple all those
31:22
numbers together and you get a staple. I like it. Number four on
31:27
the top fifty countdown. Senior first baseman, pitcher and just all around good
31:33
looking dude from Ferndale. It's Camden Raymond. Yeah. Maybe the most intimidating
31:38
a force at the plate if you were pitching another left handed hitter here and
31:45
and is kind not I don't want to say crowds the plate, but he's
31:51
just big, right, he's and he stands right there to where you could
31:55
throw a pitch that may be a little bit high and in and it's gonna
31:57
hit his elbow like he's right there, kind of think of like Barry Bonds
32:00
would be pretty close to the plate, Like if you're pitching him inside,
32:05
you're almost hitting him, but you're not really throwing at him. And he's
32:08
got such a quick bat where he could turn on a pitch. He's these
32:12
things really well and can't I don't know, I'm trying to find the best
32:19
way to put it, but he could see things so well to where he
32:21
can adjust while in the batter's box to what the pitcher's doing, and he
32:25
can you know, I've heard him talking to teammates where he said, well,
32:30
he threw that pitch because of that. Like he's he's coaching up the
32:32
other guys. And the Ferndale team was very young this year. There's a
32:36
lot of new varsity kids, and so there was a lot put on him
32:39
to be, you know, the ace on the mound and the big time
32:42
hitter in the lineup. And they moved him up to second in the lineup
32:45
just to get more at bats out of him. Led the team with nineteen
32:51
hits, twelve singles, led the team with two home runs, had seventeen
32:54
RBIs, batted three forty five on the year. He walked twenty times,
33:00
which I you know, I think is like the second or third most in
33:02
the county this year. Was hit by pitch five times as ops was over
33:07
eleven hundred, so big time offensive numbers there. On base percentage of five
33:14
point fifty, so he's getting on base more than half the time, and
33:17
it's just, you know, there's no holes in his swing, and it's
33:21
really hard to get a player like that out, you know, who would
33:24
just swell and always does the right thing. Did there was a lot of
33:34
tough things that happened while he was on the mound as far as his defense
33:37
behind him, there was a lot of you know, there were some tough
33:40
innings where they'd have three or four errors in one inning, and it's hard
33:44
to get through that, especially when you're pitching, you know, get through
33:46
that inning and get past it with the pitch count too, right, right,
33:52
yes, exactly. He threw thirty eight and two thirds inning, struck
33:55
out thirty two batters, and the RA was two point one seven. He
34:00
had more earned or had more unearned runs scored on him than earned runs.
34:07
Wow, So that just tells you right there, and that's always a tough
34:08
thing to deal with. He went five and oh last year as a pitcher,
34:13
went one in four this year. And it's hard when I mean he
34:16
had I think he had a couple of games where he pitched the whole game,
34:21
lost the game but didn't give up any earned runs. That happened a
34:24
couple of times, you know, So that's tough. But he never complained
34:29
about it. Always went out there and he pitched against the top teams for
34:34
you know, the entire year as well. So you know, you look
34:37
at that schedule for the week and you have three games, you're like,
34:38
okay, Camden, you're pitching against Lyndon, you know, or you know
34:42
whatever. It's like, you got that one, okay, you know,
34:45
because that's just the way that was. But what an offensive force going to
34:51
Edmonds College to to play baseball and and uh yeah, it's he's a he's
34:57
a he's a heck of a player. I know that you're sitting over there,
34:59
going, man, he should be playing football somewhere, but uh but
35:02
yeah, just you know, he loves loves baseball. It's what he does
35:06
in the summertime. And and I hope he does well. Tyler. You
35:09
know the movie Rookie of the Year, Yeah, the Chicago Cubs one.
35:15
Yeah. I like when I think of Camden Raymond, I think of the
35:19
big guy from the New York Mets with the beard. Yeah, you know,
35:22
like that's that's like I I envision, yeah, in the movie.
35:27
If Camden Raymond was in a baseball movie, he wouldn't be the hero.
35:30
He'd be the villain on the other side that everybody hates that goes yard in
35:34
the final play or something to actually make it a bad story, you know
35:37
what I mean? Like, yeah, yes, that's exactly. Who is
35:43
Clue Haywood? Yeah, or he and and and the pitching version is the
35:46
guy that beamed his own son, you know, through his own kid father
35:52
son game. Yeah exactly. Now, Tyler, tell me this, bottom
35:54
of the ninth, two outs, you know, run around third, you're
35:58
down by one or ball game? You want Camden Raymond at the plate?
36:02
Oh? Man? Is that the guy you want from the county? Who?
36:05
Who? You? Who? You hitting? Tyler? Well, I
36:08
mean we've got a couple of guys coming up here too. But Camdon Raymond
36:12
is like that guy that could go yard, you know what I mean,
36:14
like right, yeah, he's just he's just he's hard, just hard to
36:19
get out and and I would yeah, it's just be tough. I mean
36:22
those left handed hitters for some reason. Yeah, itching against those guys.
36:28
And he's also you know, kind of like right about the biggest guy out
36:31
there. So it's like it's it's intimidating to step up on the mound and
36:35
want to throw at that guy, you know, not throw at him,
36:37
but you know what I mean, like, yeah, but here we are.
36:42
Tyler top three now and in at number three is a junior second baseman
36:45
from the Linden Christian Links. It's Austin Engels. What a year played,
36:52
you know, a big chunk of the second half the year with an injury,
36:58
and you know, I think he DHD a game, ended up coming
37:02
back and playing second base. But he wasn't you know him, he wasn't
37:06
one hundred percent out there. It didn't I don't really think it affected his
37:09
hitting. I don't think anything could affect his hitting. The best hitter this
37:15
year. It was just unbelievable. If you just if you just look at
37:21
the regular season, he was the triple Crown winner if you take if you
37:27
take the postseason into it, which I do, he was one away on
37:30
RBIs batted five hundred on the year on the dot thirty four for sixty eight,
37:37
had four home runs, and thirty RBIs. Those are just insane numbers
37:44
led his team with in almost every single offensive category. Twenty four runs,
37:49
thirty four hits, twenty two singles, eight doubles, four home runs,
37:52
thirty RBIs, batted five hundred, slugged seven ninety four. He got on
37:57
base sixty three percent of the time. His ops is fourteen twenty five.
38:02
And he struck out four percent of the time. He struck out four times
38:07
in ninety seven played appearances. So and he how about this, And this
38:12
is a crazy stat that, like I think the last guy to do it
38:14
in the majors was like Joe DiMaggio or some crazy thing where somebody hit more
38:20
home runs than they struck out in a season. Wow, And and he
38:25
didn't I or maybe it was Yogi Berra that did it, but he did.
38:29
And he didn't do that, but he was He had the same amount.
38:31
He was four and four, which in high school baseball is just that's
38:37
crazy. To have just as many home runs as you did striking out,
38:40
it's crazy. And he always DoD I mean, he batted five hundred on
38:45
the year, but I would think that I haven't gone back and looked at,
38:49
you know, with runners in scoring position and all that kind of stuff,
38:52
but I think he might have even been better. It seemed like every
38:55
time there was a guy on base, he was driving him in, especially
38:59
early on in the seas. I mean it was just time after time after
39:01
time. Really really quick bat and plays a good second base as well,
39:07
and just a junior, and I think that the sky's the limit for him.
39:12
Offensively, He's came right in as a freshman and was hitting a ton
39:17
right away. I think he's batting over four hundred for his high school career
39:22
so far, and that this is not like a you know, a shallow
39:25
career. This is a kid that's had two hundred and fifty nine plate appearances
39:30
and he's hitting four to eleven. I mean, that's just it's incredible.
39:36
And he's got another year to go, and and I know numbers can go
39:38
down, but I think his is only gonna his are only going to go
39:42
up. I'm talking about averages and percentages and stuff like that. So the
39:45
highest ranked player on here that never touched the mound, I think people are
39:51
gonna go, well, geez, he should be number one. But it's
39:52
really tough when when these other guys ahead of him pitched as well. But
39:59
he has he has, you know, all the ability of being you know,
40:05
m v P. Well, it's kind of tough to be the MVP
40:07
when you're in the same class as Xavier Nine's. But but yeah, I
40:10
mean, he's he's that kind of player. He's he is. He is
40:14
the guy that you have to be worried about in that LC lineup where you
40:19
know, you you could you can hear the chatter, you know, in
40:22
the crowd when he's batting because people he's he's Uh. It's funny because they
40:27
say it probably more in football. He's a home run threat. They probably
40:31
say it more in football, but it's a baseball term, you know what
40:35
I mean. And and every time you know, I remember on the Dan
40:38
Patrick Show they were talking about each ye row was bc W that means bathroom
40:44
can wait. Who are guys that when they come up to the plate,
40:45
you're like, Okay, the bathroom, can wait? I want to watch
40:49
this guy hit He's he's the guy, he's the guy in Walkom County for
40:52
that so uh incredible season and and get to see him another year, which
40:58
is just ridiculous. Yeah, I mean obviously, like as a kid,
41:01
Griffy was that guy. Sure, you know he was that guy where oh
41:07
you know, oh that's the end of the inning, Mariner's coming up to
41:10
bat and they have the list of who's coming up at the Griffy leading off
41:15
and you're like, oh, man, I gotta wait, Like I can't
41:19
even I can't even risk it in the bathroom right now, Like I if
41:22
it takes any longer than it needs to, then we're gonna have a problem
41:24
because I'm gonna miss doing something. And for all you kids out there,
41:29
there was no DVR, there was no pausing why TV back in the day.
41:32
So this was a this was a real thing that we had to deal
41:36
with. And if we really had to go to the bathroom, there wasn't
41:37
enough time to throw a blank one in the VCR and hit hit record.
41:40
Right. It's a lot of work when you're holding it. Tyler, I'm
41:45
just the just found a thing here more homers than strikeouts in a season.
41:51
Yeah, it's actually happened quite a bit, but most of them were very
41:55
early in baseball. We're talking thirty yeah, yeah, it hasn't been a
42:00
while, I would imagine. Yeah. Well, the last one that I
42:01
see here is Barry Bonds in two thousand and four, Yeah, had forty
42:06
five homers and forty one strikeouts. The most homers ever with less strikeouts than
42:15
home runs was Johnny Maize in nineteen forty seven, had fifty one and forty
42:20
two. The one that you mentioned, and this is maybe the craziest one
42:24
of them all. Well, Joe DiMaggio thirty home runs thirteen strikeouts. Yeah
42:30
in a season. That's insane, more than double Yeah. Yeah. In
42:35
nineteen forty five, Tommy Holmes had twenty eight and nine. Wow, yogi
42:44
berra twenty eight and twelve. Yeah, I know he had a few.
42:47
Yeah, maybe maybe just one, I don't know, wild, I mean,
42:51
and then there's some other ones, Ken Williams twenty five and fourteen.
42:52
I mean, well, you're talking about striking out nine times in a season,
42:57
Like, what the heck? How does it happen? And that was
43:00
the thing is, like Tony Gwyn would strike out. We've talked about Tony
43:02
Gwinn in the past, who was striking out like less than twenty times in
43:06
a season, but he was only hitting ten to fifteen runs a year too,
43:09
so he got really low. Yeah, this guy played. He played
43:13
one hundred and fifty four games, Tyler, he had Oops, where'd it
43:17
go? He had one hundred and fifty one hundred and fifty four games,
43:21
seven hundred and thirteen played appearances, nine strikeouts, Like, how does that
43:27
even happen? Man? Like that is unbelievable. Two hundred and twenty four
43:30
hits. What year was this? Nineteen? Where was it here? Nineteen
43:35
forty five? See that there's a lot of numbers between forty two and forty
43:39
five where they're a little skewed because a lot of really good players were at
43:45
World War Two. Ah, yeah, that's true, and so including pictures.
43:50
So if a lot of pictures were gone, like I think Bob Feller
43:52
was, you know, so you can you can kind of get away with
43:55
it not saying what he did was not amazing. Yeah, but there's there's
44:00
some years in there where it can kind of get a little skewed. Yeah.
44:04
And actually the crazy thing too, is that year he finished second in
44:07
the MVP voting to Phil Cavaretta of the Chicago Cups. I've never heard of
44:15
Phil Caveretta before. Well, the year Ted Williams ht Furrow six, I
44:19
think he was second the MVP voting too. The year that wil Chamberlain averaged
44:22
over fifty points a game and more than forty eight minutes per game played.
44:28
Think about that for a second. There's only forty eight minutes to say,
44:30
so he played every minute and then a couple of them had to go to
44:32
overtime, right, and he was. He was not MVP that year.
44:38
So there's just some you know, a lot of times it just goes to
44:42
the best player on the team with the best record, you know, or
44:45
nowadays it just goes to a quarterback. Let's see here, Tyler number two,
44:50
numer odells number two here on the Top fifty Baseball Countdown. Senior pitcher
44:54
and first baseman from the linden A Lions. That Lane Simonson. Yeah,
45:00
what an amazing season, what amazing career. I've done this list three times
45:04
and he was number six, then number two, and now number two again.
45:09
But just dominant, dominant pitcher went straight from high school. Now he's
45:15
pitching with the belling and bells, which is really cool. You know,
45:20
if you just look at this year, it's just it's a carbon copy of
45:22
almost every year. It seems like he went seven and one sixty eight two
45:27
third innings, only gave up thirty five hits, walked twenty three, and
45:30
struck out eighty eight a zero point eight two era. But Mike, what's
45:36
even more impressive is a zero point eight four whip. You know, a
45:40
good whip is. You know, you want to be in that one point
45:45
three to five. Maybe you definitely want to be under one and a half.
45:47
Nobody's ever under one. He's zero point eight four. If you're listening,
45:52
you don't know what whip is. Its just walks, h and hits
45:57
combined divided by innings pitched. So you know, it's basically how many base
46:00
runners are you allowing per inning? Not runs, just base runners. And
46:04
he was under one, so extremely dominant. You know, I've talked about
46:09
his his his career numbers twenty five and three, two hundred and thirteen innings,
46:15
struck out three hundred and fifteen, an era in his career of under
46:19
one zero point seven to six a whip career zero point eight eight, which
46:22
is just crazy. And this year, you know, his offense was was
46:28
pretty decent. If he wasn't pitching, he was playing first base. He
46:31
caught a little bit earlier in his career, but they had their catcher set
46:36
this year and so he so he was playing in the field when he wasn't
46:40
pitching, batted two fifty, a couple doubles, a triple fIF fifteen RBIs
46:45
six dolen bases. So he was out there every single year. And man,
46:52
just and what a great kid too. You know, I saw him
46:57
out at fast pitch games if there wasn't baseball going on, and supporting,
47:00
you know, supporting the Linen girls, especially out of the district tournament.
47:05
And it's just you know, he's signed to go to University of Washington.
47:08
His story is really amazing, just everything that he's gone through. And uh
47:15
so, yeah, there's I want to say Connor Ben and Tendi wrote a
47:19
story about him not too long ago. I was like like a little bit
47:22
a little over a year ago maybe, and it was just this incredible story
47:25
that I didn't know, the stuff that he went through, and and uh
47:30
again, a great, great kid, and and uh, every time he
47:36
pitched. I mean, it was just so cool to witness. And I
47:39
remember first seeing him as a freshman and and I was like, man,
47:45
that kid is tall like he is, but and he wasn't like a string
47:49
bean. You know, he was built pretty well. And he just kept
47:52
getting bigger and bigger and throws harder and harder, and and uh really excited
47:57
for his future. And and uh, I know Walking County'll be paying a
48:00
lot of attention to him and everything he'll be able to do going forward.
48:04
Tyler, before we get to number one, you've made me mad. Okay,
48:10
Will Chamberlain deserved to be the MVP that year. Oh, his numbers
48:15
are ridiculous. I know Bill Russell won it, I think yeah, and
48:17
he had like he I averaged under twenty points a game. He averaged.
48:21
So let's just do this really quickly. Bill Russell eighteen point nine, Wilt
48:27
Chamberlain fifty point four points per game. Yeah, rebounds per game Bill Russell
48:31
twenty three point six, Wil Chamberlain twenty five point seven. Assists four point
48:37
five for Bill Russell, two point four for Will Chamberlain. So he got
48:40
him an assist. Oh boy, field goal percentage fifty percent for Will Chamberlain,
48:47
he shot over fifty percent, Bill Russell forty five point seven. So
48:53
what do you call war? The war in baseball wins above replacement or whatever
48:58
it is. Yeah, yeah, their version of basketball is called wind share.
49:01
Yeah, wind share for forty eight minutes to eighty six is what Wilt
49:07
Chamberlain had. Bill Russell had two seventeen, So he's got him and it's
49:13
not even close in everything. So then they have win shares, So like
49:16
how many wins were contributed basically by that player? And Bill Russell had fifteen
49:22
point five and Wilt Chamberlain had twenty three point one. So back in sixty
49:27
two is when this was. It was voted on by the players, and
49:31
you couldn't vote on your own teammates, it says, so it was impossible
49:36
to have a unanimous winner. And it's not like this was close voting.
49:39
Tyler Bill Russell got fifty one out of sixty first place votes. Yeah,
49:45
it should have been fifty nine to one going the other way, or excuse
49:52
me two, I guess probably more than that. Either way, it makes
49:55
no sense that, I mean, that's stupid. That is one of the
50:00
biggest snubs I've ever seen in any sport as far as a as a as
50:04
an MVP goes. Look up the ninety we'll do it later. But the
50:07
nineteen ninety five American League MVP move I remember this one. Yeah, but
50:14
Albert Bell, Yeah, I got him in everything. You and I might
50:17
have talked about that one before. Yeah, well we did talk about that
50:21
season with Albert Bell with the fifty to fifty with doubles and home runs.
50:23
Yeah, you and I might have talked about the MVP voting before on something
50:27
because I remember looking it up going wait what And I mean just really quickly
50:32
looking at that one, Tyler, They're they're not even really even in very
50:37
many things. The only thing they're really even in is RBIs Yeah, they
50:42
were dead even I think, right, yeah, dead even at one twenty
50:44
six. Everything else, it's like, I mean, Albert Bell blows them
50:46
out of the water. M h. And I mean but that was voted
50:52
on by media, right, yeah, and they don't like they didn't like
50:55
Albert Bell, right, And And what the weird thing was is that,
51:00
I mean that was the first year of the wild Card yep. And that
51:07
the first year of interly play too. I think ninety four was and they
51:10
were going to do well. They were going to do wild card then too,
51:14
but you know there was and I think that and I don't even know
51:17
if Boston made the playoffs in ninety five. I don't think they did ninety
51:22
but I think Cleveland did. Yeah, well because Mariners played them in the
51:27
ALCS. Yeah or no, did didn't Boston play Cleveland. See, that's
51:31
what I'm trying to remember. I'm pretty sure Boston, I mean, I
51:34
could pull it up here real quick. I'm pretty sure Boston won the won
51:37
the East because the New York New York was the wild Card. That's why
51:42
they played in Seattle. I thought maybe Baltimore won it, but maybe I'm
51:45
it was the Red Sox. Red Sox won by seven by seven games.
51:49
Okay, so that's and and yeah, so but Cleveland they won the Central
51:54
and my goodness, they won the Central by thirty games. Yeah. The
51:59
second place team was the Royals, who probably weren't very good because they were
52:02
just never good around those years. They probably under five hundred. Probably everybody
52:06
was under five hundred. Exer, Cleveland was so good in those nineties.
52:09
Yeah, they were, I mean they were their pitching staff was unreal,
52:14
Tyler, Should we talk about number one? Do we really need to?
52:16
I mean speaking of pitching, yeah, speaking of a guy that knows how
52:21
to throw, Yeah, number one, Tyler. He's a junior. He's
52:25
a pitcher and a centerfielder from the Meridian Trojans. It's the guy that gave
52:30
us the intro. Obviously, it's jonah Assi. Yeah, this was what
52:36
a year. And you know, just dominant peer pure dominant. Hurt his
52:43
arm halfway through the year, took himself out of the game against Segar Woolly.
52:46
I think they were up by like three or four when he did.
52:49
They end up losing that game. Came played the rest of the year DHD
52:53
most of the time, started to play a little bit at first base,
52:59
and then ended up playing center field at the end of the year when he
53:01
wasn't pitching, and and a great defensive player too, obviously with a great
53:07
arm, but he could do so. He could run the ball down in
53:09
the outfield with with ease. But his pitching numbers for just mind blowing.
53:16
I mean, I I don't even know how this is real. Three and
53:22
zero record did have a save as well in thirty five and two thirds innings,
53:28
allowed one earned run wow, and walked eight and struck out seventy eight.
53:36
So you're talking, you know, over two strikeouts per inning, you
53:43
know, not one strike up for inning over for two is ere is zero
53:50
point two zero whip of zero point six seven. He had that, you
53:53
know, he had that perfect game against Squalicum where only one batter did not
53:59
strike out. It's just you know, and there and there's been discussion about,
54:05
oh, well it didn't go seven innings. It only went six innings.
54:08
That's like, come on, man, you can't I mean, play
54:13
another inning and have him to strike out three more guys for crying out loud,
54:15
it wouldn't matter. And then, but I think what people his pitching
54:22
is so good, what people lose sight of was how great of an offensive
54:27
player he is. And I think that because I'm not posting Meridian stats every
54:31
week, some people don't don't know. Well, you're gonna find out right
54:36
here. He led the team with thirty runs, scored, led him with
54:39
twenty eight hits, batted four to twelve on the year, had three triples,
54:44
four doubles. He hit a home run twenty nine RBIs, had eight
54:50
stolen bases, you know, these are all leading the team. He walked
54:54
thirty one times, that led the county. You only struck out seven times,
55:00
just crazy, crazy numbers on base percentage of six nineteen, slugged over
55:07
six hundred, So his ops right there is over is over twelve hundred in
55:10
one hundred and seven played appearances, only struck out seven times, just you
55:15
know, crazy. I remember seeing him bat leadoff as a freshman. He
55:20
just threw him out there and he's bat lead off and he's he was playing
55:22
center field and he was pitching a lot, and he was just he just
55:27
he just whipped. He just was awesome. I mean, I think as
55:30
a freshman he went nine to three on the mound and was like one point
55:35
one seven and just crazy crazy, And and then as a junior he struck
55:39
out one hundred and twenty eight patters. And then and this year, you
55:43
know, he missed half the year of pitching, he still struck out seventy
55:45
eight guys. Souh extremely dominant. And it's not just him throwing hard.
55:51
I mean, he's gonna he's in the low nineties. But he's really good
55:53
at at breaking up the timing of it of a hitter. You'll see him
56:00
take his time a lot, and you could tell if a batter doesn't like
56:02
that or not. And he'll take his time and then he'll get the ball
56:05
and he'll just he'll rush it a little bit and he could break up that
56:09
rhythm for the hitter so well. And he's just he's just pumping the strike
56:14
zone. I mean, it is right there, and but it's coming in
56:17
so fast that it's it's it's hard to hit. And he's got you know,
56:21
he's got a ton of run on the two seam fastball and and uh,
56:25
he he just knows how to pitch and and uh and he's committed to
56:30
you, dubb. But who knows if he if his if his numbers just
56:35
keep getting better and and all these different things, he might get drafted next
56:39
year out out of high school. It's it's gonna be really interesting to see
56:45
if that happens. I mean, that junior class is loaded up here.
56:49
You're talking about Austin Engeles, We're talking about Evan Yates, and of course
56:51
we all know about Xavier Nine's being one of the top rated players in the
56:53
nation. And yeah, and uh, it's it's a really it's a really
56:59
good area for for baseball and and the state as a whole, which you
57:04
know better than I, has always been pretty darn good with some really good
57:07
players that have come out and and uh, really really fun to see.
57:10
You and I both love the game of baseball, and uh so it's and
57:15
it is fun to see high school baseball. You got to see a ton
57:19
of it this year. You got to see state tournament baseball. And and
57:22
when it's when it's high level high school baseball, uh where there you know,
57:28
there's motion and sacrifices and hit and runs and and all that good stuff
57:32
and and a lot of because players can play so many different positions, there's
57:37
so much strategy going on with you know, do I do I? You
57:40
know, where when do I take the picture out? Because he's going to
57:44
go play another position somewhere and and how is that going to affect who I'm
57:46
moving to? What other other spot? And there's just so many things going
57:51
on and and you know, gamesmanship and signs and all that stuff, and
57:55
and it's just been so fun. I've been so fortunate over the years to
58:00
see some really good baseball and and uh and Jonah Assi is I don't I
58:06
don't know for sure, but he could be the best baseball player I've seen
58:08
in Walkin County since I've been doing the walk and prep stuff. I mean,
58:13
it's just his his whole game is so phenomenal. And I love when
58:16
there's when new people come in, you know, whether it was you know,
58:21
when Eric trent Or or Connor Benintendi or Haley Palmer and now Joe Kramer
58:25
and all these guys come in. I I I would say, you have
58:29
to go to a Meridian game and watch Jonahssi pitch. Just trust me and
58:34
uh and then know it never disappoints and so uh, you know, really
58:38
happy for him and and all of his success. I know he works really,
58:43
really hard and and it's uh, this next year is it's gonna be
58:49
really interesting because Meridian brings back they graduate some great players and obviously losing Ian
58:53
Forbes behind the plate, it's gonna be huge, but they bring back some
58:58
key pieces, including jonah Assi. They were soaked they were a runaway,
59:04
you know, from from being right there for the state championship that would have
59:07
been the first one in Meridian history. And they've had some great baseball teams
59:13
in the past, and they've been so close, but last year was the
59:16
closest they they had gotten since I think the mid eighties when they got second
59:22
place. So he's gonna be the guy, and he's and he's gonna be
59:28
pitching against those big time teams. So if you're a really good team,
59:30
you're gonna you're gonna see him next year. And and you better get on
59:35
that first pitch fastball because it's gonna be a tough at bat if you don't.
59:39
Yeah, Tyler, you mentioned it, you know, getting the sea.
59:43
I mean, I saw more baseball this year than I've seen since you
59:45
know, probably two thousand and two, you know, because I would always
59:50
go to a few games here or there, you know, typically when one
59:52
Eita was playing Lake Washington because those two schools both they both have fields at
1:00:00
at the high school, but they also share a field in downtown Kirkland,
1:00:04
and when they play each other, most of the time they play at the
1:00:07
field in downtown Kirkland. It's usually a night game under the lights, and
1:00:10
the whole city is you know, going nuts. Yeah, and it's it's
1:00:15
really really cool. It's it's it's one of the it's well, it's funny
1:00:20
because I say this and people always agree with me. It's one of the
1:00:22
best places to play a baseball game in the state. It doesn't have huge
1:00:27
stands, the dugouts are actually huge for some reason. But there's no grass
1:00:31
in the infield. It's a full dirt infield, you know, and so
1:00:34
people go, oh, come on, it can't be that. No,
1:00:36
it's just is there's something about that place that is just special, you know.
1:00:40
But yeah, I mean, I don't think I've seen a state tournament
1:00:43
game since Oneida was in it in ninety nine when I would and I think
1:00:49
we made it to the semi finals and lost to Richland and I want to
1:00:52
say Columbia River if I remember right, and end up finishing fourth. But
1:00:57
yeah, I mean, it was a lot of fun this year, not
1:00:59
only talking baseball with you on this podcast, but just being involved with baseball
1:01:02
again, you know, kind of kind of you know, got me going
1:01:07
again, you know. Baseball. High school baseball is just so much fun
1:01:09
and there's so much talent. You mentioned it, and you know, it's
1:01:13
just it's crazy. It really is crazy. One of the things that always
1:01:16
blows me away when it comes to like high school baseball in the state of
1:01:19
Washington. The guys, the guys that get drafted high, like yeah,
1:01:24
you know those names, because like Exavier Nians is going to go probably high
1:01:29
in the draft and he's gonna deserve it. But the thing that's always blown
1:01:34
me away, the guys that seem to make the majors are the guys that
1:01:37
like you kind of never heard of when they were in high school, you
1:01:39
know, and then they go off to some random college and then all of
1:01:43
a sudden, they're, you know, pitching in Double A, and you're
1:01:46
like, wait, wait a minute, this guy played at that school,
1:01:49
like I've never even heard, like huh, you know, and it's always
1:01:52
it's it's fun to watch. Baseball is one of those sports. And you
1:01:57
know, for the most part, Tyler, I don't care who you are.
1:01:59
If you came from the state of Washington and you're at the high levels,
1:02:01
I'm rooting for you. But baseball's you know, maybe even got a
1:02:05
little bit more pride to me, you know what I mean. Like I
1:02:07
love it when when guys from the state of Washington go places and do big
1:02:10
things. So it's definitely been a lot of fun, Tyler. But that's
1:02:15
it. We're done talking baseball for the year. Yeah, yeah, it's
1:02:19
uh, it's it's done. And you know a lot of these guys are
1:02:22
playing summer league and stuff like that, but we'll be back at it next
1:02:25
spring. And and uh yeah, I just I'm if baseball was always one
1:02:30
of those sports that, you know, once I got out of high school,
1:02:35
I kind of I didn't keep as much of a track of it.
1:02:37
I mean I covered some for the Harold, not a ton usually when the
1:02:39
playoffs rolled around. Yeah, and then uh, but then there was a
1:02:44
big gap where I wasn't really paying too much attention and I and I would
1:02:47
go and look and just you know, in the newspapers and stuff to see
1:02:51
what was going on, and just wasn't really heavily covered, not like you
1:02:54
know, football and basketball, and I just I always kind of thought,
1:02:58
man, that's that's really too bad. And when I started walking preps,
1:03:00
it was kind of right between winter and spring and twenty eighteen, and I
1:03:06
was jacked to be able to really cover baseball hardcore. And I went out
1:03:09
to all the practices and I took headshots of the kids, and I met
1:03:14
all the coaches and they were just like, what you what are you doing?
1:03:16
And I'm like I'm going to cover this like year round, and they
1:03:20
couldn't believe it, and or not year around, but for the whole season
1:03:22
like everything. Yeah yeah, right, Like but I was going to jump.
1:03:28
I was jumping right into baseball right away, and they were just so
1:03:31
shocked by it, and and they just thought, they're, like, no
1:03:35
one really covers baseball anymore. And I was like, I know, that's
1:03:37
why I'm so excited to bring it back. And I couldn't tell you any
1:03:40
of the good players were, but I went into it blind and and got
1:03:44
to know a lot of these kids. And now that was you know,
1:03:45
that was six years ago. So now all the kids I've seen now,
1:03:50
i've seen since they were freshmen. And and the coaches I've gotten along with
1:03:53
all of them. I mean, every single one of the baseball coaches I
1:03:57
really enjoy talking to. So that's that's really great too, you know.
1:04:00
And and man, it's it's so much fun baseball. You know. Obviously
1:04:05
I love football and high school football. They're like nothing can beat that as
1:04:10
far as like it's just Christmas for me going out to a game. But
1:04:15
uh, my favorite just sport as a pure sport is baseball. And so
1:04:20
It's just so fun to go out and watch these games and and see these
1:04:25
these great players and see the appreciation that the coaches and the kids and the
1:04:29
parents have. I mean, it's it means a lot. Is that it
1:04:33
were done? Yeah, done with baseball, Tyler. We need to give
1:04:38
it thanks again to j e KK Sports Cards and Ferndale Bedlington Farms and SIG's
1:04:43
Funeral and Cremation Services in Bellingham for their sponsorship all spring season. We also
1:04:49
need to say thanks to Kurt Mayberry Farm. Go check out their website Kurt
1:04:54
with A C. M A B E r ry Farm dot com. He's
1:04:58
Tyler Anderson, Watchome Preps, walkompreps dot com. I'm Ryland Spencer. You're
1:05:01
listening to episode two hundred and sixty two, the last of three podcasts we
1:05:06
unveil the top fifty countdown here on the walkom Preps podcast. We will talk
1:05:11
to you sometime soon. I don't know when next, Tyler. We haven't
1:05:13
even talked about that yet, but we'll talk to you soon. What that