Best baseball players in Nortwest Tennessee

[Skyhawk]

Played Baseball (NCAA), COACH BASEBALL, and sat in the LSU DUGOUT at the SEC TOURNAMENT this year. Still pretty sure I can judge talent, and will no longer come back to this post and listen to your lack of knowledge concerning grading out players, if you want to be smart, get off the internet and spend a little time learning about the game. As for the BEAVE, he played baseball, and he knows darn well I did.

[Skyhawk]

Did not play for the Skyhawks, only use this name because it was all I could think of at the time. So get off the Skyhawks, Coach Cates is doing the best he can with the lack of facilities, and tremendous lack of local talent.

[thebeave]

West Tennessee Talent (Jackson/Memphis) yes, Northwest Tennessee (Local) NO.

 

I will try to answer for skyhawk. From experience, I once had illusions of grandeur about being good enough to play at UTM. Men, it is VERY VERY hard to make that jump right out of high school. Only 1% have success at it, probally less than that. The OVC was hard enough, I can only imagine being 18 and trying to play at an ACC or SEC school. This is not a knock on local players. The fact is baseball is a step child around here and the only High School team that produces talent every year in Northwest Tennessee is Henry County; and they have only had 3 or 4 of them go to a D-1 school right out of high school in the last 10 years. Those D-1 schools were MTSU and UTM. These are MID-MAJORS, a step down from the ACC, SEC, and Pac-10.

 

Add these two names to the list:

Jarod Smith-OF

Tyler Neumann-P/1B

Both men from Chester Co., not exactly NW Tennessee!

[coachshorty]

Here are 16 2003 graduates of West Tennessee teams that would make up a good college team and they are all within a radius of 50 miles of Jackson. I dont agree that we dont have any local talent in West Tennessee. If you care to look, they are all listed in the Top 2003 Players in Tennessee website:

http://www.eteamz.com/knoxstars/files/2003index.htm

 

 

Westview: Rafeal Hill (OF), Andrew Laney (C/P)

Lexington: Brandon Manness (P), Chase Parker (1B.

USJ: Adam Warren (CF), Nick Latimer (P).

Greenfield: Tyler Porter (2B/SS), Andrew Clements (P).

Covington: Taylor Bennett (P/3B), Jeff McCollum (P)

Dyersburg: Eric Klinkhammer. (OF)

JCM: Phillip Utley (P/1B).

Chester County: Tyler Newman (SS/P).

JCS: Chris Harris (Pitcher/1B)

South Fulton: Zack Parham (C/SS)

Huntingdon: John Taylor (1B/3B)

 

A coach could beat several local college teams with

this group of boys. There are several guys in this group that are capable of playing college ball.

[thebeave]

I am going to do something I don't normally do. That is talk about players in negative light. Only 12 of the 16 you listed can play college ball next year. This includes NCAA,NAIA, and Juco. Only four of these men could contribute next year. In the future, I could agree with you, but not now.

 

Take a look at Jarrett Jones from Chester Co. if you get the chance.

[HiwasseeVol]

One thing I've noticed these few years of following baseball talent is that "everyone has an opinion" and "beauty is in the eye of the coach". Just for information sake, I have Nick Latimer and Jarrett Jones in the 2004 class.

 

Many players get little exposure, some have plans other than baseball, and some can only hope to make the grade in college. The demands on players today are immense and I try to always look optimistic on their dreams.

[chip10]

coach23 may i ask who u r?