eo1914

What was he suspended for?

Anybody know what happened with Stansberry at Morristown West?

No doubt Randy Frazier knew how to play the game of football, but his coaching ability was suspect. His record before East and while at East tells the tale and I would dare state that his overall coaching record is sub .500 . Irregardless I can agree that Billy Seals got a raw deal. I've known Billy for a long time and was very hopeful that he would get the job. In my opinion, Jerry T's coaching hires have done more to screw up East High Athletics than anything I can think of in the last 10 years. If Billy would have been hired, it would be a lot easier to understand a young coach having some problems, while allowing him to get things headed in the right direction. I think Billy will be a head coach very soon but we will probably lose him to some other school. Same thing that happened in baseball. East gets Griffen as coach, he leaves and rather than hire Rice, Jerry T hires Wills who was not very good and is fired in two (2) years. Now East loses Johnny Rice to Karns where he will be head coach. I hope same thing doesn't happen with Seals. The bottom line is East High Football has some problems. It will take some time to correct. Hopefully, Smith is the man who can turn things around. Maybe with a change in administration good things will happen.

No doubt Morristown West has dominated of late. However need I remind anyone that Morristown East handed West 5 or 6 consecutive losses prior to Woods and including his first year. This was one of the main reasons that West went looking for a coach who could beat East and found a heck of a coach. Additionally, East got most of these wins as one of the smallest (population) in Class 5A as well as against Science Hill, Sevier County, and Dobbyns Bennett. East won their conference in 1995 against 5A powerhouses. This was all done while West remained in 4A. I am a fan of East High Football, but I would have to agree that Martha Stewart could win above .500 with East's schedule. While I understand Morristown East's talent pool is somewhat limited, Frazier did nothing to help their program and Smith remains to be seen. East needs someone who can make kids want to play football and take pride in winning again. Woods has proven that when kids can be on a winning team, they will come out in droves. When you can have enough kids to run totally different players on offense and defense, you will win ballgames on the 4th quarter alone if nothing else. This is nearly unheard of in TN high school football.

The Volunteer State is well-represented in PerfectGames new top 100 HS Prospects list. The list of players and rank is as follows: Player Rank David Price 44 Matt Spencer 48 Cale Iorg 58 Kyle Waldrop 63 Matt McGahey 71 Chris Kirkland 73 John Lalor 83 Link: www.perfectgame.org/2004/newsandupdates/top100.html

No thanks! I try not to live vicariously through high school athletes or relive my past "glory days" on internet message boards. Instead, I enjoy reading these boards and keeping up with high school athletics and the athletes who play them. Additionally, I think that if you don't have anything positive to say then it is probably better kept to yourself.

Jeffersonairplane, Please refer to my earlier post where I corrected baseballninja on Spencer's velocity. I agree with you, Jefferson County got the job done and West didn't. No need to make excuses for Spencer because he played a fantastic game, but still came out on the losing end. The title of this thread is about Matt Spencer, not whether Jefferson County beat West High. It sounded as if you were trying to imply that Spencer was not all he is cracked up to be based on the fact that he only topped out at 91mph and didn't get the win in an 18 strikeout performance. Therefore, I simply put the question to you as to how many times you have topped out at 91mph or had 18 k's in a ballgame. From your reply, I can tell that would be zero (0).

Jeffersonairplane, How many times have you ever thrown just 91 mph or had 18 k's in a game? It was only about 50 degrees at most and he still had 18 k's. As far as hitting, he was walked 4 times (2 or 3 intentionally). Not his best game at the plate, but remember he is 1 of 9 players on the team and occasionally other people are gonna have to step it up.

You won't hear any argument from me. I am a big fan of Spencer. However, I think he topped out at about 91 and consistently from about 87-90 on Monday and his BA is closer to .560. Also, I was aware that he has been chosen as a Sportslink All-American which will be announced tomorrow. This is the same group that selects the U.S. Army All-American game in football. There will be an All-American game in June in Albequerque, NM televised on Fox Sports Net. Congratulations to Matt. Additionally, another player who definitely was not mentioned and should have been for a legitimate conversation of top draft picks is the Adkins kid from Middle TN. He is a big lefty with major league stuff evidently. He is featured in an article on Teamonebaseball.com today. Sometimes in East TN we forget about the other quality players in other parts of the state.

Spencer added 3 more homeruns on Tuesday in a doubleheader against conference foe Greeneville. Spencer hit two of his homeruns in the 1st game while also throwing a no-hitter (2nd on year) against the Greene Devils and picking up a 12-1 victory. Spencer went yard again in 2nd game, but Morristown West lost 6-4. Spencer now stands at 17 homeruns on the year and his avg. is over .560 for year.

Spencer of Morristown West hit 3 homeruns in a doubleheader against Greeneville on Tuesday to bring his total to 17 on the year. In the first game, Spencer threw a no-hitter (2nd no-hitter on the year 5-1 record) and hit his first two homeruns in a 5 inning 12-1 win. Second game, Spencer went yard again, but West lost 6-4.

Bizazz, I would bet that you've probably seen Waldrop play a little more than Spencer and vice-versa for myself. If you haven't seen Spencer throw in a while I think you might change your mind about the "polished" comment. Additionally, at the plate Spencer has more of a natural homerun swing and generates a lot of power quite easily from the left side. Waldrop hits the ball hard as well but doesn't seem to have quite as much power. I would also have to say that Spencer is the better athlete of the two having been clocked at 7.0 in 60 yd. and could be a legitimate corner outfielder at the next level. Additionally, Spencer's glove is very good, just ask the folks over at Teamonebaseball.com, who think he's the top 1b in the country. From my understanding, scouts are having a difficult time on deciding whether both of these players are pitchers / hitters. I think its probably safe to say that its okay to agree to disagree and as you said both are great players.

Not to take anything away from Kyle Waldrop, because he is a fine player and seems like a class act, but I believe Matt Spencer of Morristown West is a cut above. First of all, if you want to look at numbers batting and on the mound, Spencer's batting around .530 with 14 homeruns while being walked quite often. Additionally, he has a 3-1 or 4-1 record on the mound while avg. about 2.5 k's per inning. He's also a two-time All State selection which is something that no other AAA player in the state can say and should be a shoe-in for a third. I understand that Kyle Waldrop's numbers are similar but Farragut is strong enough 1-9 that Kyle probably sees better pitches. Waldrop may have the edge on the mound simply because he has pitched more games in high school, but a 6-4 220lb. lefty who has been clocked as high as 94 mph and consisently between 88-91 is probably pretty appealing to the scouts. Additionally, Spencer must also be a pretty strong performer in the classroom in order to get into a highly touted academic school such as University of North Carolina. Again, let me reiterate that I think Kyle Waldrop is a great player, but I simply wanted to throw out someone else to consider.

Spencer hit two more homeruns on friday in two games at the Blue Devil classic in Unicoi County. Morristown West went 2-1 in the tournament and Spencer brought his total to 14 homeruns on the year while batting over .500 for the year.

Matt Spencer added 2 more homeruns tonight to bring his total to 12 on the year in a 16-0 thrashing for Morristown West.