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Where MLB scouts, college coaches, and top high school prospects meet.
In today’s installment of the Friday Five Tool Five, we recap this week’s episodes of the Five Tool Podcast, put together an all-snub college team, and an all Mid-Major team. Finally, we discuss our spring schedule and the new #FiveToolFoodies feature.
Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball and hater of all teams joined us to draft a college team only using players from schools in Texas or the states touching it. Below are the results:
#TeamBish
C: Silas Ardoin, Texas
1B: Brady Slavens, Arkansas
2B: Roc Riggio, OSU
3B: Brayden Taylor, TCU
SS: Trey Faltine, Texas
OF: Dylan Crews, LSU
OF: Colton Eager, Abilene Christian
OF: Gavin Dugas, LSU
DH: Cole Moore, Dallas Baptist
UTL: Cade Horton, Oklahoma
SP: Pete Hansen, Texas
SP: Tanner Witt, Texas
SP: Chazz Martinez, Oklahoma
SP: Jake Bennett, Oklahoma
RP: Brandon Talley, Louisiana
JC: Chris Stuart, San Jacinto, (Texas signee)
#TeamDustin
C: Jimmy Crooks, Oklahoma
1B: Tre Morgan, LSU
2B: Robert Moore, Arkansas
3B: Jace Jung, Texas Tech
SS: Jalen Battles, Arkansas
OF: Eric Kennedy, Texas
OF: Jace Grady, Dallas Baptist
OF: Nolan McLean, Oklahoma State
DH: Peyton Stovall, Arkansas
UTL: Mitch Daly, Texas
SP: Brandon Birdsell, Texas Tech
SP: Johnathan Fincher, Louisiana Tech
SP: Victor Mederos, Oklahoma State
SP: Riley Cornelio, TCU
RP: Aaron Nixon, Texas
JC: Harold Coll, San Jacinto, (Arkansas signee)
#TeamHater
C: Troy Claunch, Texas A&M
1B: Ivan Melendez, Texas
2B: Tre Richardson, Baylor
3B: Cade Doughty, LSU
SS: Peyton Graham, Oklahoma
OF: Jared McKenzie, Baylor
OF: Phil Matulia, Louisiana Tech
OF: Dylan Rock, Texas A&M
DH: Jacob Berry, LSU
UTL: Cayden Wallace, Arkansas
SP: Justin Campbell, Oklahoma State
SP: Tristan Stevens, Texas
SP, Jaxon Wiggins, Arkansas
SP: Austin Krob, TCU
RP: Garrett Wright, TCU
JC: Adrian Siravo, Weatherford, (LSU signee)
All three teams are loaded, and we each made our case as to who was the best group. Lots of potential snubs out there, and I will address those later in the article.
Dustin and I recapped the draft results as #teambish ran away with the votes due in large part to the pitching. I pinpointed a lack in proven starting pitching as I did my pre-draft research and exploited it by filling my rotation early. Dustin and Kendall like to point towards my homer-ism and Longhorn faithful running up the votes, but it’s clear my roster was just better. I did crunch some offensive numbers to see how the teams stacked up using last year’s stats:
#TeamBish: .305/111 2B/14 3B/93 HR/397 RBI (only 8 hitters with stats)
#TeamDustin: .296/115 2B/14 3B/77 HR/362 RBI (9 hitters with stats)
#TeamHater: .318/114 2B/18 3B/93 HR/396 (top 9 performers)
I think if we added up stolen bases Dustin probably runs away with that (pun intended), but I was surprised to see that Kendall and I both had significantly more home runs and RBIs.
This was a really fun exercise, and we look forward to doing this again in the future. It’ll be interesting to see the strength of talent in next year’s group. There is some major star power in this year’s group with guys like Jace Jung and Robert Moore headlining the impending 2022 draft crop.
Dustin and I also were able to recap some of the early season private school games that have taken place. There were a few standout performances already from LSU commits, OF Derrick Mitchell, John Paul II (TX) 2023 and P/IF MJ Seo, John Paul II (TX) 2023. John Paul II looks to be a force to be reckoned with this season as 2025 Vanderbilt commit Minjae Seo dominated on the rubber in Monday night’s win. Oklahoma State signee LHP Trenton Shaw, Prestonwood Christian Academy (TX) 2022 impressed in his season debut as well. Five Tool was also able to get some good early season footage of Casan Evans, St Pius (TX) 2024 and a massive bomb from JD Crisp, Second Baptist (TX) 2024.
4??
Four. Yes, four doubles for the dude Derrick Mitchell (@derrickam04) to open the season for John Paul II. He shoots this ball to the deep right-center gap to lead off the bottom of the 6th. #DudeAlert #FiveToolHitting@jpiihsbaseball (TX) 2023 • @LSUbaseball commit pic.twitter.com/AdgQETGGKs
— ?Five Tool Texas? (@FiveToolTexas) February 1, 2022
As I completed my team, I knew that there were several guys I would have wanted to squeeze onto my roster but just didn’t have room. With guys that didn’t make any of the three teams, I decided to put together another team that I think is pretty stout.
C: Bennett Lee, Tulane
1B: Griffin Doersching, Oklahoma State
2B: Miguel Santos, Dallas Baptist
3B: Andrew Benefield, Dallas Baptist
SS: Bash Randle, Abilene Christian
OF: Douglas Hodo, Texas
OF: Grayson Tatrow, Abilene Christian
OF: Jake Thompson, Oklahoma State
DH: Steele Netterville, Louisiana Tech
UTL: Tyler McManus, LSU
SP: Isaac Coffey, Oral Roberts
SP: Preston Hoffman, Tulane
SP: Tyler Thomas, Baylor
SP: Ryan Prager, Texas A&M
RP: Griffin Miller, Oklahoma
JC: Sabin Ceballos, San Jacinto, (Oregon signee)
This is a loaded group as well with some power (Doersching/Netterville), experienced hitters (McManus/Benefield/Tatrow/Thompson) with a track record, and guys I think break onto the scene this year in a big way (Hodo/Randle/Santos). The pitching is a mix of performance (Coffey/Thomas) and projection (Hoffman/Prager/Miller).
One thing that became evident in my research was the non-P5 talent available. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what a lineup filled with non-P5 players looked like. Here is my crack at it:
C: Bennett Lee, Tulane
1B: Cole Moore, Dallas Baptist
2B: Miguel Santos, Dallas Baptist
3B: Andrew Benefield, Dallas Baptist
SS: Bash Randle, Abilene Christian
OF: Colton Eager, Abilene Christian
OF: Jace Grady, Dallas Baptist
OF: Phil Matulia, Louisiana Tech
DH: Steele Netterville, Louisiana Tech
UTL: Ethan Mann, New Mexico State
SP: Johnathan Fincher, Louisiana Tech
SP: Isaac Coffey, Oral Roberts
SP: Preston Hoffman, Tulane
SP: Dylan Carmouche, Tulane
RP: Brandon Talley, Louisiana
Again, another solid team dominated by Dallas Baptist (for good reason) and up-and-coming Abilene Christian. Louisiana Tech and Tulane also have a solid presence on this team. Excited to see if Travis Jewett’s Tulane crew can take another step this year.
As Dustin and I continue to nail down our viewing schedule for non-district play and tournaments, we have come up with another fun feature we want to get going. A poll-decided name #FiveToolFoodies will be hitting the road throughout the spring. We look forward to hearing from everyone as to what their favorite local eateries and concession items are. Feel free to tweet your suggestions at us or DM either of us for your spots!
Drew Bishop
Five Tool Baseball
National Scouting Director
@drewhbishop
drew@fivetool.org