My pre-season prediction:

1. Mountain View - Kyle Haynes has to be the top pitcher in the district. Nick Kime is also a top prospect.

2. Colonial Forge - Lost a lot of talent, but strong coaching will keep them competitive.

3. Riverbend - Travis Thomas and Dustin Sparks should shine.

4. Brooke Point - Young talent that could surprise.

5. Albemarle - Always strong.

6. North Stafford - Young team which improves each year.

7. Stafford - New Head Coach. Should be competitive.

8. Massaponax - Young team.

Who are the stud frosh in the Commonwealth District this year?

B-Hawks08

I agree, Mt. View will be tough, most of their current seniors are 4 year letter winners, so they are experienced and should be ready. They lost some pitching in Brennan Huelse, but I do like the Jr. Jake VanHutton to go along with Haynes. I'm sure Coach Lopez has been developing his pitchers....

Colonial Forge lost a ton of talent, but I agree Coach Szakelyhidi always seems to replace graduates with top players. I also really, really like Garrett Marin (George Mason Early Sign), not sure what they have to go along with Garrett. You know Colonial Forge will hit.....

Riverbend - fairly young team, may only have 2-3 seniors on the team. But they do have some capable Jr.'s in Dustin Sparks and Nick Lacik. Travis Thomas should be tough. Coach Stimmel's a competitor.

Brooke Point - I know they were young last year, but I don't know about 4th in the Commonwealth... That would be a huge jump... Maybe you can elaborate a little more on their current talent? I'm assuming you are Black Hawks08 for a reason -

Albemarle - I agree, always strong...

North Stafford - lost Miller to graduation, that'll hurt.... Not sure who they have to fill his spot. They do have Casey Johns (Gardner Webb Early Signee) and Patrick Kuhn behind the dish. I like the coaching staff at North Stafford, they always seem to compete.

Stafford - as you've noted, new coaches. Lost Adam Lopez to VMI, who will replace him?...

Massaponax - I like Massaponax. Most of their key players are Juniors that have played at the varsity level since they were freshman, so while they maybe a little light on Seniors I think their Juniors have enough experience to compete. Not sure if they have the pitching to place higher than 3-4, but I don't think they will end up on the bottom this year.

I think there is some outstading pitching in this district, especially the first three team's that you list -- Mt. View (Kyle Haynes), Colonial Forge (Garrett Marin) and Riverbend (Travis Thomas). Honestly I'm not sure who will be the top pitcher, could be any of the three or could be someone that we are not aware of that has really committed themselves to improving over the last year.....

One thing is for sure, this is going to be a very exciting district to watch.

My Pre-season picks:

1.) Mountain View
2.) Riverbend
3.) Colonial Forge
4.) Albemarle
5.) Massaponax
6.) North Stafford
7.) Brook Point (Sorry)
8.) Stafford

Just like RedBird... I'm curious to know who the stud Frosh are, as well as even the sophomores. Every year, in every district, there's always one or two freshmen and a couple of sophomores that surprise everyone!

North Stafford has 2 stud Frosh, left handed pitchers that pitch in the 80's so assuming they are on varsity. They will probably finish season better than 6th with the talent and coaching.

BP team is young. They have 4 sophomores on team, 3 of them varsity last year. They did pull out a win against Mountain View last spring at Mountain View.
BP had very strong pitching that game with that pitcher returning this year. New pitcher at BP is Leo Sanchez. He will make a difference.

Stafford will NOT finish last as they are loaded with talent and have a new coach loaded with experience but good question, how's the pitching? Who can replace the pitching and bat of Adam Lopez?

All the teams in this district have their studs, some more than others like Mountain View, so it's going to come down to who has the most guts, team chemistry, good coaching and coaching decisions come game time.

Pat, thanks for the IM. I look forward to hearing from you guys soon!

North Stafford? What about the other sophomores at BP?

B-hawks - Thanks for the followup. I have never seen Leo Sanchez, but I've heard the name and I'm told he is a hard thrower who's capable of retiring batters. Was he at BP last year?

Pat - I TOTALLY agree that guts, team chemistry and good coaching will determine the final rankings. You may also be correct that Stafford will not finish last... I like Jordan Tackett and absolutely love watching Ryan Brown play, he can mash and has super speed... Is he committed? I still think pitching maybe an issue even with Tommy Harrison at the helm, but looking back at my picks, I agree Stafford will probably not finish in last.

I reserve the right to change my picks up until the first regular season game -

What are your pre-season picks?

I have no clue but since you asked...
1. Abermarle
2. Mountain View
3. Stafford
4. Colonial Forge
5. Brooke Point
6. North Stafford
7. Riverbend
8. Massaponax (sp?)

I chose Abermarle to win because I don't know anything about them, strengths or weaknesses. They proved to be s****** in their championship "fall ball" win against MV but both teams probably didn't have all their best players in the fall.
You would think they'd be tired from the long bus ride to Stafford but they don't seem to be.
All my picks may be way off but we'll see who came closest at the end of the season.
Anyone else out there who wants to put in their two cents?

The s****** was S******. I don't know why
it came out like that with all the ***.
Still getting used to the message board but I guess that was my computer acting up.

Nevermind..this word comes up in asterisks for some reason. It was a compliment to Abermarle to describe a team that never gives up!

Pat,

There are certain words that are edited out. s****** = s c r a p p y, right?

The best on the site is s****r = s o c c e r.

Pat,

MV lost all three to Albemarle last Spring. Regular season 7-6, 12-11 and in the last District game 13-3.
No doubt MV has to figure out what it will take to even the field against a tough Albemarle team.
I'm assuming the "fall ball" reference was to the District loss. MV does field a team in the Rappahannock Fall league, but I have yet to see any team from C'ville show up for those games.

Red Bird,
You guessed it correctly. I finally figured out the word was being bleeped (the part after the S)
GEEZ...

Mountain View scrimmaged Potomac High School in Woodbridge yesterday afternoon in a cold steady rain. All pitchers got some work
I had to go sit in the car sometime during the 6th inning, and they ended during the eighth, I think.
I'm too old and bloods too thin to take these cold rain games.
Mountain View opens the season at home in a non-district game against Woodbridge High School on Tuesday, 5 PM.

I should be warmed up by then.

Does anyone want to re-look at how the Commonwealth District is starting to shape up. Alot of people thought Stafford did not have a chance, guess what!! 7-1 overall and 5-1 District, not a bad start for Stafford. They have 3 GOOD starting pitchers in Daniel King (3-0), Josh Mellet (2-1) and Thomas Fowler (2-0). Awesome defense and GREAT new Coaches and a brand new ATTITUDE!!!

Stafford is off to a good start. I don't know if I would say no one gave them a chance though. I think what is more telling is that they are doing it without their best player, who is lost to injury.

Also not sure if I am ready to crown them District champs. Started out 7-0, then lost to Riverbend, who lost to Massaponax. The District is shaping up as anyone can beat anyone on a given night.

And, each team plays each other twice.....

I'm not crowning them either, not in this Conference!
I was just making an observation on their start. Loosing a pitcher of Adam Lopez's ability to graduation are tall shoes to fill, but he was about the only pitcher they had last year. Even Adam didn't win all his games due to a serious rash of errors by the defense. Daniel King was injured all last season along with a couple other pitchers with sore arms.
They have a new coach in Tommy Harrison, who has put the life back into this team!
It is a long season and all of these teams can beat each other at any given time!

Stafford indeed is off to a stellar start.

I'm not sure many people would have projected Stafford to do this well, but everyone knows pre-season picks are all for fun and mean nothing. You have to play the game......

I've seen Stafford play a couple of times and I really like the way they play the game - very fundamentally sound baseball with GREAT coaching... The games I saw they executed the hit and run really well and their defense is solid. They didn't try and do too much, just solid fundamentals.

The pitchers I've seen were lefty's that kept their team in the game and got the strike outs when they needed them the most... At this point, imho, they have filled the shoes of Adam Lopez, maybe not with one pitcher but three and that's what you need to win.

A lot of wins in the Commonwealth this year have been 1 run wins, not just for Stafford but other teams as well. I think North Stafford lost 3 conference games in a row by one run each. Riverbend beat Stafford by 1 run, Stafford beat Colonial Forge by 1 run, Massaponax beat Riverbend by 1 run Mt View beat Massaponax by 1 run and I'm sure there's more...

Lets not forget about Albemarle either who is tied with Stafford in first with only one loss. Not many people projected them to start off this hot....

The teams are overall very evenly matched, it's still anyones district to win and the second time around should be twice as much fun!....

Kudo's to the Stafford players and coaching staff for the great start.

Daniel has turned into the home run KING too ! Not bad for a guy that can't hit either. lol
Those Stafford seniors certainly paid their dues with the way the program was. The new coach has them believing and I am sure they are having a great time right now. They deserve it. Enjoy!

4/8 Commonwealth Standings

Stafford 5-1, 7-1
Albemarle 4-1, 6-2
Mntain View4-2, 4-5
N Stafford 3-3, 5-3
Riverbend 3-3, 5-4
Massaponax 2-3, 3-4
Col. Forge 2-4, 6-6
Brke Point 0-6, 0-7