farragut: great team or just overhyped

[Guest Oakland]

recently, i have been very disappointed and frustrated with all this talk and pre conceived notion that farragut is just gonna simply walk away with this state tournament. Last time i checked, rarely does any team just simply dominate this state baseball tournament, which i believe is the most competitve and unpredictable out of all the sports at the spring fling. Contrary to what many of ya think, i am not here to toot oakland's horn, iam here to speak for the other 7 that are in the tournament, and out of 7 , i feel about 5 i have a real good chance of unseating the mythical champion in farragut. Obviously, when start thinkin of the teams that can unseat farragut, u think of the other 3 teams in their bracket, houston,riverdale,and hendersonville. With houston, you have one of the biggest baseball traditions in tennessee and consistently one of the best in what is considered by many to be the toughest district in tennessee. Then you have riverdale, an up and comin state power, but by no means is their first taste of success, has a combonation of good talent with very good coaching and great fan base, expect them to make a lot of noise and wouldnt be suprised if they went all the way. And finally u have Hendersonville, which has seemed to pretty much own all the midstate teams this year, this teams it seems is almost in the tournament every year, plus it won at riverdale earlier this year, something which no other team has been able to do this year. But where u got the challengers, you have to have a couple of darkhorses, and the dark horses this year are no more than 50 miles away from each other in oakland and mt.juliet, both of which have shown on countless ocassions that they can play with the best, both beat riverdale this year and have played tough out of state competition. So, with that part covered I enter into my home stretch: one more thing that cinges my hair is all this smack talkin and chest beatin and so forth. this is the state tournament men. Nobody cares who you are, what your record, who you beat , or who is your daddy. No team in this tournament fears any other( yes i am talkin about u, farragut)and i guarantee all will play like there is no tommorrow. With that said i wish good luck to all the players that participate as i know u guys will trasure it, but just not treasure it go after it with ur all, but hopefully in the end, oakland will win this highly competitive tournament and if not, lets at least keep the trend goin of havin rutherford co. state champions and riverdale win it. GO PATS!

[dp2]

Oakland,

You just better be ready to see Nick Hill from Sullivan East first game, because he is as good as you will see. Left that throws upper 80's with 4 quality pitches that he can spot. Northeast Tennessee baseball is pretty good and he dominated it. East may have problems with depth of pitching, but their #1 is as good as you will find. Ask Maryville.

[Guest Oakland]

i have seen hill pitch this year dp 2, and ur right he is a very good pitcher, but oakland isnt northeast tennessee and i feel oakland playin the teams that have been playin will have them ready, i look forward to a great game wednesday.

[In10city]

You may be exactly right. It's skill, talent, intestinal fortitude, and just darn good luck that brings any of us to state. Some days you're the ball, some days you're the bat, and some days you're the Louisville Slugger. Good Luck to all who made it.

[SoupKitchen]

Oakland2001,

The smack talk is by non-players.....I will assure you of that. I am a parent and the big talk has come from some of our appreciated, enjoyed, and very vocal loyal fans....I'm sure you guy's have those fellow students who are caught up in the success of your program. Farragut is not overlooking anyone, particularly Middle TN.

 

The state tourney has 8 quality teams......and just like those rumors you hear in the hall at Oakland.....you can't do anything about what someone says about you when your not around. These guys have gotten a good bit of local press here in K-town.....which is very rare for a baseball team in these parts.....and of course, like you competitor's at Riverdale and Blackman....there is trash talk.

 

So with that said..........."Play the game" as Coach Pharr would say.

[bizazz]

I will echo what Soupkitchen said. I don't know all the people behind the screen names, but I do know about some of the players who post on this board. None of them have talked any smack.

 

I am a neutral observer in the sense that my allegiances are with a team other than Farragut. I have seen Farragut play several times this year and have observed that the players conduct themselves with a great deal of class. It would be very easy to let all this attention and national recognition expand one's hat size. Publicly, the Farragut players have done a great job of "playing one game at a time." I don't spend every waking moment with these guys, so I can't say that they never talk trash, etc. But I have no knowledge of this.

 

We all know that in a tournament setting anything can happen. There are 8 great teams in this tournament. If Farragut fails to bring home the crown, it would not be the first time that a tournament favorite fell short. As the wins have piled up, and the national rankings have climbed, the burden on Farragut has gotten heavier.

 

Nothing can take away from the outstanding season that Farragut has put together. However, in a tournament, none of that matters. It's what you do going forward that matters. I believe Farragut has what it takes this year to prevail and bring home the trophy, but we'll have to play the games and find out.

 

It looks to be a great tournament.

 

Any of you Farragut fans with access to the internet, please keep us posted.

[HiwasseeVol]

bizazz,

I'm going to call SoupKitchen and try to get an update, if I get through, I'll post whatever I hear.

[#1LB]

I hate to inform you that farragut is the best team in the state and possibly the best team in Tennessee High School History. So, all you na sayers just sit back and watch a class act team take your state title.

[Opperman]

I hate to inform you that farragut is the best team in the state and possibly the best team in Tennessee High School History. So, all you na sayers just sit back and watch a class act team take your state title.

They looked really good today...they didn't make any mistakes, and they did just enough to get to Pomeranz. This game could have gone either way, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Farragut win it...they've scored 43 percent of the earned runs Pomeranz has given up all year.

[bizazz]

Farragut has demonstrated all year that they don't just "out-power" or "out-talent" the opposition. In many games they had superior talent and it showed in the score. But they were involved in a number of close games as well and were able to do what it takes to win.

 

I think the ability to prevail in the close games speaks volumes about the quality of the team and its coaching. They have so much depth that they don't have to depend on that one great hitter or one great pitcher to come through in the clutch.

[gameday03]

cobb pitched a great game against houston mixing his change perfectly.. he stole the "main attraction" today

[bigbadblue]

I hate to inform you that farragut is the best team in the state and possibly the best team in Tennessee High School History.

 

Knox Central, early nineties, Todd Helton, Bubba Tramell. Germantown, 1995 (I think). Germantown, last year; seven DI scholarships. I think Farragut being the best team in state history is taking it a tad bit too far. They are the best team in the state though.