Top Ten HS players you have seen

I had the privilege (or misfortune??) of playing against Legrande Russell. WOW, I cant believe I left him off, he was a heckuva pitcher, strong arm and his control was excellent. Dominated games!! Competitor!!

As far as the questions asked of me above, referring to Patrick Lennon and Brien Taylor, let me say this... Lennon had all the tools and could flat out play. Taylor was without a doubt the best HS pitcher I have ever seen!! 94-95 from the left side, nasty breaking ball and spotted his pitches well. Saw him dominate some very good Wilmington teams in my day!!

 

Top HS players

These are no particular order:

Josh Hamilton- Athens Drive- Is the best I have ever seen- no question
Tommy Greene- Whiteville
Kevin Millwood- Bessemer City
Trot Nixon- New Hanover
Brien Taylor- East Carteret
Justin Willoughby- Princeton
John Hendricks- Glenn
Cameron Maybin- TC Roberson
David Mailman- Providence
Chad Flack- East Rutherford

 

I'd surely leave some great ones out if I had to list 10, but over my years theres clearly 2 individuals that truly stick out as my top 2:

1) (definitely tells my age) David Caldwell, Northwest Cabarrus HS early-mid 70's, All-American outfielder at Clemson, played several years in Orioles organization. Always gave 110% on playing field and could hit tape-measure shots to all fields using wooden bat.

2) In recent years, Cameron Maybin is a no-brainer.

Btw, actually saw Steve Streater pitch for Sylva-Webster the year he won his 20+ games (1977, I believe),,,,,,, he could've definetly played baseball for a living, if he hadn't chose football.

 

There are a lot of good names brought up. I have heard of most of them, but I never got to see them play HS.

Nobody has mentioned Ralph Roberts yet. That's surprising

 

Local Kids From The Past

Just a couple kids who were good from my area..Most of you won't know these boys but trust me, they could play!

Willie Stewart- Now head coach at UNCA. Extremely hard worker.

Jason Tuttle- Currently still playing I believe in the Independant League and played for a bit in Montreal's organization as a free agent. A fast lefty who hated me when at 12 years old told him he was no longer a shortstop and was moving to center field. Also played at Elon.

Alec Zumwalt- Used to beat us up pretty regularly. Pitches now but in High School could hit the ball 2 miles...

Brian Meadows- lesser known but what a competitor. Left handed pitcher who proved me wrong and never brings it up. Another hard worker from the Willie Stewart mold. Both were also wrestlers...Brian began at High Point and moved to UNCW.

 

oldangelscoach,
had the privalege of coaching tuttle an meadows. 2 very good ones
had the privalege (even though they usually beat our butts) of coaching against the other 2
will have to agree on all of them.

 

I didn't get to see these two players play but there's a lot of talk about them from the Whiteville Area:

Terrell Godwin-UNC - Reds AAA team.
Chuck Baldwin - Clemson

 

Godwin

it seems like Terrell Godwin has been in the minors for ages now, and it's the Reds , one of MLB's worst teams for the last decade. Will he be a career minor leaguer? He was a great HS player.

 

Tyrell Godwin was drafted out of high school (East Bladen) by the Yankees, but chose to go to Carolina (UNC, that is), on a Morehead Scholarship. I thought he was with the Nats AAA team this year, but I am probably wrong on that one. One heckuva player!!!

 

Tim Smalling

NC player of the year and freshman standout SS for Arkansas. Raleigh Broughton alum.