I watched Midland high (Eric Paulson) play Amarillo Tascosa (Evan Gerald) last night. We have a couple of good pitchers on the way to Aggieland. Evan struggled a little with his curve, was throwing it too high.
Eric was really bringing the heat. I'm guessing he was throwing mid-90's. Eric threw a 2 hitter and a 4-3 win. He struggled the third inning,but did not allow a man on base the rest of the game. His curve ball would absolutely freeze the hitter after setting them up with the fast ball.
If last night was an example of these two guys abilities, Evan's got a little work to do and Eric is ready. They bothe definitely have the tools to be good pitchers for the Ags. Now let's just hope they don't go pro.
Just thought you Ag's might be interested.

thats good news. if we can get some good pitching to go along with our hitting, we could be dangerous.

Thanks GrayDog. Being from Midland, it sure is nice to see some West Texas talent headed to Aggieland.

PermianBasinAggie,
I see you are now in Houston. Let me guess, you now live in the Katy area where most Oil company engineers from Midland now live.
And I might add, you would move back in a heart beat if given the opportunity.
Midland High is going to be very good this year, Lee should do well also.

When did you move to Houston?

GrayDog-I moved to Houston after I graduated last May. I actually work downtown, so I live pretty close to downtown. And yes, I would love to move back to Midland, but I'm not sure if Mrs. PBA wants to move back. Maybe she will someday, but until I get an opportunity, I guess it's not an issue.

MHS usually has a strong team, so I'd really like to see the Ags develop a little bit of a pipeline. It makes me sick to see Midland players up at tech. I'm actually a Greenwood alum, though. It looks like they might be going to state in hoops, and their baseball team has been playing well so far as well. People don't realize how much good talent is playing HS sports in the Midland-Odessa area.

PBA,

I assumed you were an old Ag like me (class of 83). In recent years, alot of my Pet.Eng. friends have been transferred from Midland to Houston. Mrs. PBA will probably want to move back when you start having little PBA's running around. Midland/Greenwood is a great place to raise kids.

I suspect you are being extremely generous on the velocity. If the guy is in high school and throwing as fast as Roy Oswalt, then you can forget about him going to college. It is very very rare for a high school pitcher to throw mid 90's. You see these mph's exaggerated all too often. Josh Beckett/Octavio Dotel/Mark Prior throw in the mid-90's. Very few 17-year olds can match some of the fastest pitches in MLB. Against high school competition, mid 80's is enough to get by with one pitch and blow everyone away.

ok, I have a question.

My team (Austin Anderson-4A this year, will move up to 5A next year) played Midland in a Round Rock tournament last week. We broke down in one inning letting in six runs, but battled back somewhat and only lost 8-3. They are solid, but we had a chance at beating them. Anywhoo, I forget which one Paulson was...was he the big guy, 6'4 230...ish?? They're team was average height, but this guy stood above the rest, although he didn't play in our game cause he had just pitched, is that the guy I'm thinking of???

*Edit*-nevermind, I just checked it out, he's the guy who hit a leadoff double off the wall against us. I cant' remember if he was the starter or not, but if he was the starter, he didn't throw anywhere close to mid 90's...proly mid 80's.

[This message has been edited by Austin_Aggie15 (edited 3/7/2004 10:57a).]

Jordan Chambless pitched against my school this weekend (Boerne) and he was throwing smoke 92 and 93 but still got the L

Speaking of Boerne, doesn't Alice off the Brady Bunch live there? That's what my cousins told me.

I have also seen Evan Gerald pitch before for the Dallas Knights, he's good.

yeah jordan also threw against us in playoffs last year, he got the loss to our pitcher(Patrick Colgan-southpaw at Texas State) in a 1-0 game...he threw a 1 hitter but some errors gave my team the victory in game 1...although they took the next 2 in one of the most controversial games I have ever seen, it was still cool to see such a baseball stud throwing up close and personal...see how good they really are.

trader jorge--

you obviously havent been around much high school baseball in the houston area...most of the teams in our district had a guy who topped out in the low 90s and one team (cy falls) had 2 that were consistently in the mid to upper 90s and both were picked in the first round. as far as mid 80s being enough to blow people away...we looked at it as a blessing from god when we faced a pitcher who threw below 90. i think you would be very suprised if you looked at high school teams around the houston area. thank you

Austin Aggie,
You may be thinking of Josh Wilson. He's big, usually plays first base. He can hit too.
Signed to play for tech next year.

I agree with Kramerica....I played ball in Houston in HS and in our 30 games/year we probably saw 5 or 6 guys who could get it into the low to mid-90s....we even had a couple on our own squad that could....

Kramerica, if you don't mind me asking, which HS did you play at? I played at Westfield from 96-00....wow, 96 seems like it was so long ago....

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[This message has been edited by AgRyan04 (edited 3/9/2004 3:25p).]

Trader_Jorge is correct. Mid 80's with a good curve ball will take you a real long way in high school. Pitching speeds are consistently exaggerated big time.

ag ryan04--

i went to a&m consolidated here in CS, but we always played in the jersey village/cypress districts or the klein, klein oak...and buckhorn...how do you figure that pitching speeds are exaggerated? this is not just heresay, this is actual radar gun readings...yeah some guns are faster/slower than others, but there are alot of high school pitchers that are throwing just as hard as the mlb flame throwers...they dont have the movement or the command, but they are throwing just as hard.

pitching speeds are exaggerated just like 40 times. I played ball with #6 pick in '83 MLB draft. And let me say I'm pretty sure we never saw any pitchers anywhere close to his speed.

Buckhorn and Trader, you have a right to your opinion. I know what I saw while watching Eric Paulson the other night. I didn't have a radar gun to check his speed, but this kid was really bringing it. Amarillo hitters could not hit his fast ball, they were way behind the pitch. I have read in our paper this year that Paulson has been clocked at 93-94 mph. I believe he was throwing it that hard Saturday based on how much trouble the Amarillo hitters were having.
My whole point was to give you guys (fellow Aggie baseball lovers) some good knews about a couple of kids who have already signed letters of intent to play for the Ags next year.
I wasn't expecting anyone to claim that I am exagerating about our recruits.

Thanks for the report Gray Dog, please excuse Trader Jorge, he is a Rice fan (alumn?) who must post his negativity for all things Aggie baseball.

RossG - I'm from Boerne as well, but have never heard the Alice from Brady Bunch rumor. I'll have to check that one out. I know Stone Cold has a ranch around there though.

dp

[This message has been edited by AgRyan04 (edited 3/9/2004 6:51p).]

I'm sure that some pitching speeds are exadurated, but the guys I played against (Beckett, Kazmir, Everts, Danny Zell, B.J. Simmons, some guy from Tomball, Brad Knox) they were all legit. I don't know how hard any of them actually threw (except Beckett) but I know that most of that list brought it in the 90s....When you're preparing to face a guy and your coach has the L-Screen set up 40 feet away from the plate and has our pitchers throwing full speed you know that you're going to be facing some gas

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Check out "Texas A&M & Baseball In No Particular Order"
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[This message has been edited by AgRyan04 (edited 3/9/2004 6:50p).]

Beckett threw 98 as a sophomore in HS. He would hit the mid 90s with regularity. He is an extreme rarity