(Useless blog information: this is my 700th post!)<\/p>\n
USA Today just came out with their pre-season 2014 top -25 High School Baseball rankings<\/a> (to go along with Baseball America’s pre-season top 50<\/a> and Maxpreps.com’s top 100 pre-season rankings<\/a>), and a number of familiar national High Schools are on the various lists.\u00a0 I thought it was a good time to publish the review of Local and National high school baseball powers that I’ve had in draft status for a while.<\/p>\n I touched on the topic of High Schools who consistently generate talent briefly in January 2013<\/a>, when I penned a post delving into the best players the State of Virginia has produced.\u00a0 If you’re interested in the best producing Virginia High Schools there’s a section in that January 2013 post on the topic. \u00a0Despite having some significant talent come out of the state recently, there is no high school in our area that comes close to producing what some of these schools in Florida, California and Texas do.\u00a0 At the bottom here I’ll talk briefly about significant local schools.<\/p>\n Lets take a look at some of these baseball factories and look at some of the big-time talent they’ve produced lately. \u00a0I’ll freely admit that this is mostly analysis of teams that have been good lately … but i’ve tried not to fall into the habit of picking a team that just happens to be good now by looking at the performances of these teams over the past 4-5 years. \u00a0Suffice it to say; one class of great players can make a team very highly ranked for a year or two, but you need to consistently develop players to constantly be considered among the best programs in the country.<\/p>\n Here we go.\u00a0 In each case if they’re pre-season ranked I’ll use a quick short-hand so as not to repeat typing the same things over and over.\u00a0 (X,Y,Z) after each high school mean’s the team is pre-season ranked by in order by USA Today, Baseball America and Max Preps.<\/p>\n Some of the all-time great producing High Schools not already mentioned:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n DC Area Local<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Its hard to say if there’s a local “baseball factory” school; certainly one does not exist like the Florida and California schools mentioned here.\u00a0 But there are a couple of programs in the DC area who play significant schedules and who recruit heavily in the baseball circles:<\/p>\n Past these two schools, it does seem like certain local public programs are always doing well.\u00a0 Dematha is getting some national ranking mentions pre-season but doesn’t have the baseball pedigree that they have in Football and Basketball.\u00a0 Vienna programs Oakton and Madison HS are constantly in the mix locally and state-wide, a product of a fabulous youth program that feeds into both those schools.\u00a0 Finally, the two largest schools in the area (Lake Braddock and Robinson) routinely advance far in the regional tournaments, thanks in part to an enrollment that rivals some colleges.\u00a0 But they’re hardly “factories” like the above school, nor do they put out the kind of upper-end players that Florida and California schools can.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For some historical perspective, here’s a slew of links to pre- and post-season rankings that i’ve collected for the past few years, with #1 national team and any local schools noted.<\/p>\n Other useful links for High School baseball analysis;<\/p>\n Did I miss any?\u00a0 Please discuss.<\/p>\n\n
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