[BaseballIsLife]

I'll do Scott High School's bit here:

For Scott High School, after losing in the 10th Region Championship Game to Harrsion County, there will be alot to account for. They were hit hard with graduation and lose many of their contributors offensively, defensively, and from pitching.

They do have some bright spots though. They will have a very experience middle infield in EJ Murray and Zach Sowder as they both have two and one year experiences at the varsity level and displayed their talents well last year. Joe Adkins will most likely step in at 1B for Adams and Logan Taylor at 3B for Morrison. Joe Adkins most likely won't produce some of the numbers Adams produced offensively but he will still bat over .300 and produce solid numbers and most imporantly he is healthy, which is what is needed at that position as Adams had been injured for two years at 1B his Junior and Senior year. Logan Taylor will be a very good upgrade at 3B offensively as he is able to bring more to the table with his bat. The thing he won't be able to replicate, at least for the moment, is Morrison's glove. Morrison had one of the best gloves period in the Region last year and made some truly outstanding plays. I'm not saying Taylor doesn't have a good glove, I just don't think its in the caliber of Morrison's is all.

As for the outfield, they will have a couple returning players in the likes of Nick Hiller of Taylor Smith. Nick Hiller brings a lot of speed to the table with a good arm while Taylor Smith brings an absolute gun and a big bat as well. Hiller played LF year as Rob Hankinson covered CF who had, at the time, just a little better range in the outfield than Hiller did. I look for Hiller to move to CF to take over that position as his speed will be vital for the Eagles out at the crucial position. Smith will stay in RF as he did last year so no big change there.

Those spots will be somewhat covered. The biggest spots and concerns for the Eagles lie in their pitching depth, catcher and Left Field. Pitching wise their isn't much after Murray. George Sparks did decently last year but will need to improve his velocity and ability to consistently throw strikes if he wants to be an impact. If you'd like to see a further description of the pitching scenario, take a look at the Top Pitchers in the 10th thread as I covered it there. Catching is the one thing that worries me. Karl Nagaleisen was one of the best catchers in the 10th. He didn't let any balls get by him and he had a great arm as well. Runners and Coaches were hesitant to steal on him all year. He was also a pretty good signal caller for the game too. Whoever the replacing catcher is will not be able to reproduce that as the two people I see vying for the job, David Thomas and Tyler Osbourne, just don't have that. Thomas does a pretty decent job defending and not letting balls get by but his arm just won't cut it at the varsity level. Osbourne has a decent arm but his blocking abilites just aren't up to the snuff as of yet. Offensively though, almost ANYBODY who steps into that position will be an upgrade in the bat. Karl Nagaleisen struggled all of last year hitting as I believe he was batting somewhere .100, maybe even less. Between Thomas and Osbourne, I think the offensive edge is in Osbourne's favor as he has consistently hit for a better average and drove in more runners, and he has a little bit of speed to bring to the table as well. If Osbourne takes the C position then LF will be in a bit of trouble as Tyler can also play LF as well. If that were to happen then LF will most likely come down between David Thomas and George Sparks. Neither have the great arm nor an extremely good bat so its going to be hard to find somebody to fill that position. Hopefully there is a young kid who is brewing in the ranks that I haven't seen or heard of that will rise to the occasion and take over the position.

Thats pretty much my analysis for Scott's baseball team but I will add to it or revise it as I continue to recieve more and more information going into this years season.