Pa. talent pool shallow for MLB draft?
A few things that fell off my laptop
*** The Major League Baseball draft is next week, and don't look for any Pennylvania high school players to be selected extremely early on the first day.
Although there are players in the state who will undoubtedly get drafted, there is no stud player. It seems it would be a surprise if a Pa. high school player was taken in the first couple rounds.
The players who seem to be getting the most interest for the draft are from eastern Pennsylvania. Third baseman Joe DeCarlo of Garnet Valley and pitcher Karl Keglovits of Nazareth are two players who get the highest marks, but I've seen some mock drafts that don't have them going in the first five rounds.
But the baseball draft is the hardest one to predict where players will be taken. So we'll see.
*** Hampton and New Castle played in the WPIAL Class AAA basketball championship this past season, both are moving up to Class AAAA next season, and they will very likely be ranked 1-2 in AAAA. If you want to know what might happen if they played each other, you can find out tomorrow night.
New Castle and Hampton are two of 24 teams in the North Hills Tournament that has been played over the past two weeks. They will meet in a quarterfinal playoff game at North Hills tomorrow at 7 p.m. It should be interesting. I've seen both teams play a few times this spring and both have been impressive, pretty much clobbering most opponents.
North Hills will use two gyms (they are next to each other) for the quarterfinal games tomorrow, and the semifinals and championship are Monday. In the quarterfinals tomorrow night at 6, Beaver plays Central Catholic, and Montour plays Seneca Valley. Tomorrow at 7, New Castle plays Hampton and North Allegheny plays South Fayette.
The semifinals are Monday at 6 and the championship at 7.
Also, the Pittsburgh Basketball Club has started its summer league at various sites in the area. Schedules are on the Pittsburgh Basketball Club web site.
*** The WPIAL Hall of Fame banquet is Friday night in Greentree. But if you wanted to go and don't have a ticket, forget it. The event is actually sold out at the Greentree Doubletree Hotel. More than 500 people will attend. Sean Miller and John Miller are two of the inductees this year and both will be in attendance. Neil Walker also will be inducted, but he has a game with the Pirates. Neil's father, Tom, will accept for his son.
*** It was a memorable baseball game a week ago when Blackhawk beat Thomas Jefferson, 1-0, in nine innings. Could we see a rematch soon? It's possible. If Thomas Jefferson would beat Hopewell in the WPIAL consolation game today, Thomas Jefferson would qualify for the PIAA playoffs. If Blackhawk beats Belle Vernon in the WPIAL title game, Blackhawk gets the No. 1 PIAA seed from the WPIAL. If both Blackhawk and Thomas Jefferson would then win their first-round PIAA games, they would play in the quarterfinals Thursday, June 7.