Star-Jibber: OK, now I can really get into the season

Great blog!! You should start many more. I love all the info provided. I will stay tuned :)

Excellent post and I’ve bookmarked your blog to come back to again when i have time.

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Realist: Several Monrovia starters didn't play winterball!

Arcadia Elks Tournament should be ran like a "Tournament"! Games and times are set and should be played according to the rules of the tournament. Arcadia and Monrovia should have played on Saturday despite SAT's or any other interuptions. It's a poorly run tournament when schools get to pick their opponents. And that's the bottom line.

No, when Monrovia played Arcadia in winterball, Arcadia took their starter out after 3. Monrovia's starter pitched 5.

Hey, i'm just saying, sounds like Arcadia wanted to play Monrovia, last weekend, in an afternoon or evening game. i know for a fact that several Elks games were postponed to the PM due to SATs. No one has indicated why Monrovia would not move their game to meet Arcadia's request. so one is left to speculate.... Hmm, BigFatIdiot, now thats a good one

Didn't Monrovia beat up on Arcadia when both teams used starters?

BigFatFan, you're a big fat idiot. Maybe you shouldn't flap your gums unless you know what you're talking about.

To clarify, it was 9-1 St. Francis in the Elks Championship game against Alhambra. Tomorrow's DH against a good Saugus team that beat Sylmar 9-1 will be good games. The supporters and the naysayers should come see for themselves.

Enough haters already. Local boys playing baseball and having a great time. Many of these players grew up as teammates or playing against each other and are still close now.

Realist,
Shut up? Really? That's really mature. You and BigFatFan should get together and get your stories straight. Who was it exactly that used the SAT of getting out of playing? I doubt neither one did. It's funny that you would think that one team would be afraid of playing another team. Obviously, you've never coached a team sport. It doesn't happen in preseason, specially in high school sports. If they were afraid, then why would they even play them once?

This is how it plays out in Realist's head.."We've already played them three times. But a fourth time would be really scary ooooooooohh. Let's not play them again. I'm really afraid to play them for the fourth time."

You numbskull(my attempt at being immature like you).

st francis beat alhambra 9 to 3. bramschreiber got the win he dominated

Hahahaha You Monrovia fans are too funny. The Monrovia players were too tired from running around the bases??? THEY BEAT ARCADIA ONE TIME OUT OF 3 IN WINTERBALL GAMES.... WAKE UP... Arcadia gave them MUTLIPLE options of game times and places and Monrovia declined all. So shut up and stop hating.

For those of you who don't know, the Alpha league has at least 3 pitchers who are going to Division 1 schools. There are 4 very respectable teams out of the 5 teams in the league. Maranatha will not have a cake walk in league this year and barely won league last year. Village Christian has a couple of strong pitchers also. While Saint Francis is no doubt in the toughest league, Maranatha's league as at par with any of the other leagues in the area.

Archangel -

You Said -
"A middleweight boxer doesn't challenge a Heavyweight to a boxing match because he will just get pounded and the only thing he'll learn is "Don't Do That Again!"

"I just believe all they learned last week is the pain of losing".

I'm sorry but I was there for most of the games and I have looked at the stats and they don't lie. Maranatha was never "pounded". They beat themselves every time they lost with errors. The truth is, they have moved most of their infielders to new locations and they are getting used to their new positions.

Here are some interesting stats to prove my point.

After 5 games vs. all D1 teams
1) Team Batting Avg. .248 (not bad considering competition)
2) Top 3 pitchers combined ERA is less than 1.00 giving up only 1 earned run in 22 2/3 innings.
3) Top 3 pitchers only gave up 14 hits in 22 2/3 innings (only 3 of which being extra bases)
4) Total Team ERA is 2.33 (pretty good i'd say)
5) 19 Errors (Here is the problem)

Like I said though. 3 Starting infielders have switched places.

All of that said, I think that Maranatha has learned that they CAN play with the top teams but they also learned that you can't make mistakes if you want to win the games.

Hope that helps your perspective.

Isn't most of this just "talk" and speculation. Don't think there is a team out there that has proven much yet...it's just too early to tell. Should be an interesting and exciting season. Good luck to all the teams and players out there! Let baseball season begin!!!

Tom S.

I agree playing better teams from upper divisions can challenge a team to play up to their competition.

However the point I was getting at his how much better?

A middleweight boxer doesn't challenge a Heavyweight to a boxing match because he will just get pounded and the only thing he'll learn is "Don't Do That Again!"

Maranatha has a great team for a school their size and could probably beat some teams from upper Divisions which says alot for their Program.

I just believe all they learned last week is the pain of losing.

Good Luck Saturday!

Archangel:
Glad to see you remember my posts. Needless to say I wish Maranatha would have done better. Having early season problems closing games. Should have won two of the games but couldn’t finish. I left last Friday’s game before the top of the 7th and they had a 3-0 lead and couldn’t hold it. Still sticking to my statement that playing Div 1 teams early like this can’t help but improve the team. I’m looking forward to Sat and the double header with La Salle. Should be interesting for both teams.
See you there??

whomever keeps talking up St. Francis, I agree that they have a good team and a strong program but they have not faced anyone yet. Making the top 25 is great but its kind of like a pre-season prediction due to the fact that they have only played a bunch of teams that they were expected to beat. If you are division 2 then it would be better to play up to Divsion 1 or at least your level. Beating teams at a lower level does not prove anything.
We'll see how long they stay in the top 25 when they finally get challenged against somebody good!

bottom line-

You said:

Anonymous. Let's see: Local teams play in the Mission, Pacific, Del Rey, Rio Hondo Leagues. Other than Covey, Maranatha pitchers are average at best. They could not hang in any league that the local teams play in. Bottom Line!

Wow...are you hearing this Beckwith, Jebbia, Popham, Frakes, Cordero. They don't think you can hang with the "Big Boys" (so funny!!). How many teams in those leagues are Division 1??

BigFatFan,

You know this for a fact? Are you sure? Don't go that route. Monrovia student/athletes care as much about attending college as the next kid. Get off your high South Pasadena horse.

Anybody know what the deal was with St. Francis and Alhambra?

According to the Box Score St.Francis scored 9 to 3 over Alhambra but their Records reflect a Tie?

Just Curious...

Apparently Monrovia was not too concerned with their kids not being involved in last Saturday's SAT exams, so they were happy to play a morning or early afternoon game. While the boys at Aracadia had to schedule the game around the SAT. hmmm. how may monrovia guys are planning to attend four-year colleges next year?

The kids on Marengo are undefeated 2-0 so far this year. I am proud to say they are playing with passion and determination. They won again yesterday at Cantwell 9-0 so tell me, when has Blair won 2 games in a year and scored 21 runs in 2 games ??? Muir 3-Blair 12 GO VIKINGS

Small Softball Lethargist,
Get over your hate for Arcadia and stop slobbering the misinformation you continue to inundate these threads with. Wear the azz kicking the Golden Knights layed on you and learn the game before you elect to opine further. Keep the bromance for the cats in your closet where it belongs and "we" will all be better off. Oh yea, GO TIGERS!

Maranatha, Monrovia, blah...blah...blah...didn't see any of them ranked in the top 25 for the LA Times. Oh wait! There was one team...ST. FRANCIS!!! Gotta love them Golden Knights!

Okay I was wrong 1-4 my bad!
By your way of thinking they must be really good now!

Tom S said:
Archangel,
Maranatha played this tournament last year and finished 4 and 1. Why would you think they’d go 0 and 4?
How can playing upper division teams do anything but make you better

Archangel said:
Tom S.

I don't understand Dehaans' philosophy. How can starting off the season 0 and 4 make them better?

Tom S said:
Guess I’ll head over to Jackie Robinson field at Brookside Park to watch Maranatha take on Div 1 Newbury Park at 7:00 tonight in the So Cal Invitational tournament. Then Maranatha takes on Div 1 Pacifica tomorrow at 11:00 at Occidental College. The Minutemen then play Sylmar, Div 1 on the 10th.
Man, Coach DeHann sure likes to challenge his team by playing Division 1 teams. Only makes them better.

March 5, 2010 12:54 PM

Realist

I was there, and you were not, try that BS somewhere else!

Arcadia frightens No One! So try actually being REAL for a change or get a new handle maybe something like
"Disallusioned"or"Deluded"...

Realist,

Actually, Monrovia didn't want to play Arcadia again because they got enough cardio from running around the bases the last time they played each other. Get it? "Enough cardio." "Running around the bases." Get it? Cause they scored so many runs against Arcadia. I made a funny.

Why wouldn't Monrovia want anything to do with Arcadia? Hitting wise, it was their best game yet.

Anonymous. Let's see: Local teams play in the Mission, Pacific, Del Rey, Rio Hondo Leagues. Other than Covey, Maranatha pitchers are average at best. They could not hang in any league that the local teams play in. Bottom Line!

Big Baseball Fanatic...

You are quite wrong my friend. Arcadia told Monrovia that they would play them at 3:00 p.m at Monrovia, or at 7:00 p.m at Arcadia. Monrovia declined BOTH offers. Sounds pretty soft to me.. Monrovia game some excuse about the SATs. Its all good. Arcadia got 3rd place. Monrovia didn't want anything to do with Arcadia.

In the "rivalry" you forgot to mention that Maranatha won boys tennis along with a smashing in both girls and boys swim. Saturday would mean a sweep for the spring. Should be fun

Maranatha vs. La Salle, the depth clearly goes to Maranatha and that should be evident on Saturday. The fact of the matter is that Maranatha has 3 solid starers so they can pitch 2 of them on Saturday and the other
Start both before and after saturday if they want and they will do well. Furthermore, if Cordero cannot get it done then someone else will. Other than a tournament, you could easily only use 3 pitchers if you want for weekly play. I'm not so sure that Cordero will be used to close a key game during the season when you could use Covey, Beckwith or Jebbia on their off game to pitch one inning.

Careful all of you with your predictions. Both La Salle and Maranatha should be playing these games with all intentions of preparing for league. I'm sure each coach is not going to pitch any starter into the ground. The double header will be interesting only for the fact of seeing how deep each team is. I give that depth to La Salle.

RE: La Salle vs. Maranatha -

I have to believe the Covey will pitch against La Salle, even though league is starting soon after - So far this year La Salle varsity teams have defeated Maranatha in football, boys basketball, girls basketball, boys soccer, girls soccer, and girls tennis. Maranatha has only defeated La Salle in girls volleyball. They do not have bragging rights this year in the "rivalry", so they need to salvage some kind of bragging rights with a win (or two).

i agree with those who say that Maranatha needs to learn to finish the job. Cordero, the supposed closer of the team is 0 for 2 in save oppurtunities. He needs to step it up and actually close out a game for Covey.

I think that the games on Sat. between La Salle and Maranatha will answer alot of questions. Every year Maranatha has a slow start, partly because of the compitition they start against. The division 1 teams are used to seeing 90+ therfore there is a large gap offensively. Also, small schools like Maranatha share athletes with other sports so our depth suffers a little. Not that other schools don't share athletes, but Maranatha shares alot of athletes. I do believe that Maranatha can compete with any school having all players in their #1 positions, but that doesn,t prove a thing. A 3 or 4 game series is a beter measurement and that just won't happen. By the way, Beckwith pitched very well against Taft on Sat. 3 hits 2 runs (at least one unearned)losing 2-1

La Salle vs. Maranatha on saturday!
Believe me, its gonna be a good double header

well jebbia and beckwith did not do so hot against competition that sf faces year after year. and yet maranatha is playin slack teams that cannot even beat normal jv or freshman teams. if maranatha had to play with the big boys such as crespi, loyola, notre dame, alemany and chamminade year after year. they would be competiting for last place with harvard westlake every year. lets see how they do next year without covey. good luck with that. i would put beckwith vs longo or malham any day of the week. bring it. sf has been playing the vibl summer and winter league the past 2 years and play all the teams that u got spanked by in this tourney.

sgv observer -
So let me get this straight. You want to face Jebbia against your number 2, does that mean I get Beckwith vs. your number 3??
I'll take that any day! 3 game series, MHS wins first game with Covey, could win the second with Jebbia but would surely take the 3rd Game with Beckwith. That works for me. Let's get it on!!
To your second point, you are comparing the offense of St. Francis playing in the moderately talented Elks tourney to the Maranatha offense against the higher division So Cal invitational against 5 D1 Schools. Not a fair comparison at all. Keep that in mind Miguel when you do your top 10. Competition is everything!

Maranatha was not very good until Popham and Covey got there. Unfortunately they will return to that status once Covey graduates. Enjoy your year.

Miguel, how come it seems like you never did a "star-jibber" for basketball... maybe i'm wrong and i missed it, but it seems like you do a lot more stuff for football and baseball than you do for basketball. anyway, just wanted to get your thoughts on the all-area basketball team. i think two locks for first team should be george toyama of phs and tommy jordan of st. francis. they were better than any other guards in the area this year.

ya i agree i would wanna see bramschreiber vs jebbia the supposed number 2 pitchers on each team. but sf has significant better offense than the minutemen as shown in the elks tourney

If you put the best players from each team in their best position, there is no question in my mind who would win a head to head game from the top teams in the area.
The key is having the best number 1 pitcher and there is no question that Dylan Covey is far and away the best pitcher in the area. The supporting cast is much better than they showed in the Royal Tourney to. We'll see how SF and Maranatha do now that they sort of trade places on competition. This time the Minutemen will play teams closer to their level and SF will play teams in their league that are at least close to the level of competition the minutemen have faced already. It's not an apples to apples comparison yet but we'll clearly know more in a couple of weeks. It's so unfortunate that the two teams don't play each other this year.

St. Francis does have a lot of talented, big physical players as usual.

Now take away any players that do not reside in LaCanada

and play the kids that are left.

Can you imagine the team you could get if you had a

private School in Arcadia that could get athletes from

Pasadena,Monrovia,SanMarino,Arcadia?

Of course SF has talent!

Alhambra showed they can play. They have a pretty good shortstop, Peko. He was making some great plays and throws in the Elk Tourny. They have a young team and should get better as the season goes on. Pitching is be good with Beltran, Saldate, Hakuna and Wright. They should be six time league champs after this season.

Lots of good teams, plenty of talent. All you critics just need to give credit where credit is due. SF is good and full of talent. Just admit it!

Crystal Ball: if the only reason you put SM in second place in the RHL is because the coach works hard, that speaks volumes for the apparent lack of talent at SM this season. as for AP being too young: their roster is loaded with juniors. This is their year to shine in the RHL and show people if they actually have the talent to compete. while SP went 4-1 in Elks tourney, one has to wonder how good the competition was in the teams they played. Sierra Vista and Mt. View were not so great, and neither was Western Christian. Obviously Gabby got off to a rough start, so one could say that all of SP's tourney wins were against weak teams. However, they did give Pasadena a fight, losing 1-0 on an unearned run. So with the first two games of league against Monrovia, it will be a tough start, a real gut check for the SP squad.

Bottom Line:

I definitely agree that the Del Rey is head and shoulders above the Alpha and in my opinion every local league other than the Mission. St. Paul and Amat are loaded and much like the Mission league a slip up against anyone can equal a loss. The Alpha is top heavy with Maranatha, Calvary Chapel Downey, and Paraclete, but Village Christian is much improved. Much like the Del Rey and the Mission the Alpha's top 3 teams all have seniors who have committed to pitch at the Division I level in college. The problem is that because each of these 3 leagues feature teams from out of the area no one knows about them so they say they are weak.

Really?

SF is obviously the best team in the SGV. All this talk about Monrovia and Alhambra. Who dominated in head-to-head competition....SFHS! They put up 45 runs and only allowed 11 in the Elks. Maranatha number one, I disagree. They are struggling against the big boys. Who do you think SF faces week in and week out? The Knights are loaded with big arms and big bats. They face the toughest competition and are loaded with talent. The reality is...SFHS deserves to be ranked #1.

To SF:

We'll see after you play against Saugus, CV, and Crespi. All worthy opponents....are you up to the challenge?

Check back in a week.

To Baseball fan...

Come on...PHS deserves some respect? Who did you play besides SF and everyone said that was a sloppy game for them? Was it for PHS too? I guess we'll see more as you get into your League play.

Bottom Line-
I sort of agree with you. La Salle IS in a tougher league and frankly has no business being there.
Good luck against Bishop Amat! Maranatha certainly knows what it feels like after starting the year against 5 Division 1 schools. At least Bishop is only D3. A good D3 though.
After what I've seen of La Salle so far, I think Maranatha could throw their 3 and 4 pitchers and still win both games. I'm not saying it would happen but that would even things out a bit.
I agree that St.Francis is very good but they have not faced the level of competition that Maranatha has yet.
I agree with the previous blogger. The Elks has too many week teams for easy wins. I would compare it to the lower level of the Royal Tournament that La Canada was in.

Time for a spring football preview?

SF showing their domination once again in another sport and yet people still feel the need to criticize and say ignorant comments. What is it going to take for St. Francis to get the respect that they deserve?

Goldenarm said:

Nice to see the RHL will have some good battles this year.

Is Monrovia truly head and shoulders above the rest?

Answer: Yes

No offense to "you know" regarding the pitchers La Salle and Maranatha throw on Saturday, but preparing for the Del Rey League and preparing for the Alpha League are two different animals. Maranatha should showcase all their pitching and still be able to beat Brentwood on the following Tuesday. La Salle needs to be more caucious since they face a tougher league opponent.

Arcadia had a great performance against pasadena poly beating them 9 to 1.The game against alhambra was a tough game to lose they hill the ball really well just right at people,nothing you can do thats just baseball.Would have liked to see Beltran go against st francis, it sucks he pitched against arcadia.

Correction after looking, Maranatha was winning game 1 into the 7th, 3-2 and lost 6-3. La Canada plays in the same tournament but in the "small school division" rather than the "big school division" that Maranatha plays in. Why do they do that? Playing in the Rio I would think they would want to see the best possible competition to prepare for league? Saturday should be great at La Salle but both Maranatha and La Salle play league games and probably will throw their #2's-5's in the double header.

Maranatha got beat up by the big boys but should have won more than 1 game in the first week. Winning game 1 in the 6th 3-2 and lost 6-3, won game 2, horrible game 3, winning game 4 in the 7th 3-0 and lost 8-3 , and tied 1-1 in game 5 in the 6th and lost 2-1. Just going off of box scores and the 2 games I was at but they need to figure out how to finish games to be considered a top team. St. Francis should be #1 no doubt, and many others impressed but what about competition? The Elk's is a great local tournament but too many weak teams that equal easy wins. It's just the first week but this should be a great year of baseball.

Nice to see the RHL will have some good battles this year.
Is Monrovia truly head and shoulders above the rest?

GA did get out and saw 6 innings of TC versus Beverly Hills.
I thought the Rams showed some serious promise toward having a good year. They were up 5-4 when I had to bail.
Jummy Britt hit a monster long ball, high and with distance. Brandon Pultz looks scary good with a bat in his hand at the plate, and drove every ball with authority. Dusty had an off game for him, but you know that won't last. Jara played a sweet defensive game and had a key hit.
Rams would have dominated except for two costly errors...that resulted in runs for the 90210 boys.

One of the Copping twins was throwing, and was rarely out of the strike zone. Maybe too much over the center of the plate...but looked like his heat mixed with off speed was creating some confusion in batters box.
Go Rams

gabe

Monrovia was more than ready to take on Arcadia but they would only accept if the game was played at their field @ 5:00 p.m. for the night lights.

Cats were ready to play at the original place and time but Arcadia declined.

1st of all Monrovia should of played Arcadia for 3rd place. Never heard of a tourny that the two semi loser didn't face each other. Monrovia decided that game. And Monrovia is stacked. Im sure they got a lot out of Western Christian. San Marino is awful this year, PHS has come along way with 2 crazy coaches who no what they are doing. Bianca 122 is the best bunt defense Arcadia has.

Here are the Rio Hondo League standings that you will see at the end of the season.

Monrovia 12-3 best program in league year after year
San Marino 10-5 coach puts in too much time with team to lose
Temple City 9-6 will find a way to get it done
So Pas 7-6 too young to compete this year
La Canada 7-6 coach will find a way to lose
Blair 0-15 enough said

La Salle bounced back with with an easy win over Duarte, ok so Duarte is weak this year but then even a more impressive 8-4 win over good hitting Temple City team. Now on to face #1 Bishop Amat - should be fun.

Pasadena deserves a lot of credit, they went 4-1 in the tourny, only losing to St. Francis 6-3 which is the closest any team got to them.

haram park was a great player. blazing fast, hit one off the wall, and was dangerous every time he was at the plate against pasadena poly

South Pas looks to be a real contender this year in the RHL.

Monrovia finished 4-1 defeating Western Christian 19-3
on 19 hits.

Cats have 2 more games to get some playing time before meeting the Tigers on Friday.

Looking forward to a great season in League play and beyond into the Play-Offs.

One person that suprised me was Haram Park. 7-7 in the last two games with 2HR off alhambra and hit one off the wall against Poly.

PHS 4-1

arcadia beats pasadena poly 9-1

SP knocks off Mt. View 8-4 to finish tourney 4-1. the real work starts friday against Monrovia