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| Jarrett Taylor (10) is finalist for 4A Player of the Year |
Big congratulations are in order this week for Hillcrest
High School senior basketball player Jarrett Taylor. Those of you who have seen
Taylor, a 6-foot-2 guard, play will know that he’ll shoot your eyes out,
especially from behind the three-point arc.
The Alabama Sports Writers Association named him late on
Tuesday night as one of three finalists for the Class 4A boys player of the
year award. The other two finalists are Talladega junior Kobe Simmons and Headland
senior K’shun Stokes.
The Class 4A boys player of the year will be announced
during an awards banquet on March 26 at the Montgomery Renaissance.
If memory serves me correctly, it’s been a long time since
Hillcrest has had a player in the player of the year discussion. I might be
wrong, but the last one I can think of was Chris Hines, who went on to play at
Alabama.
Here’s hoping that Taylor brings home the Class 4A player of
the year award. Taylor already has a lot of awards in his trophy case, but this
one will be icing on the cake.
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As of today (Thursday), the Atlanta Braves are just two
weeks away from their season-opener against the Phillies in Philadelphia.
The Braves have had an interesting spring training so far,
and one of the big questions now is who will be their opening-day pitcher.
Julio Teheran has been the opening-day pitcher for the Braves for the past five
or six years, but his stock has dropped slightly during the past year.
Many believed that Mike Foltynewicz would be this year’s
opening-day starter, but nagging injuries will likely keep him from being the
top dog this year.
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Josh Donaldson also made his spring training debut with the Braves
this week. Donaldson, a product of Faith Academy in Mobile, joined the team
last week and is getting in a few at bats as he prepares for the start of the
regular season.
Donaldson has also experienced some nagging injuries and
he’s getting a little age on him, but I hope he does well with the Braves. Even
though he grew up a hundred miles away in Mobile, he still feels like a local
guy to me. It’ll be interesting to see if he starts against the Phillies on
March 28.
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Speaking of baseball, as of Monday, the University of
Alabama’s baseball team had won 11 games in a row, the longest such streak
since 1999. The Tide was scheduled to play Middle Tennessee on Tuesday before
beginning their conference schedule with a three-game series against Ole Miss
in Oxford, beginning tomorrow (Friday).
It’ll be interesting to see if the Tide can navigate through
their tough SEC schedule and keep their impressive winning streak going. The
reality is that they’ll likely drop a few games here and there, but as long as
they continue to improve, they should make a strong run in the post-season.
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As I do every year around this time, I’m kicking around the
idea of starting a fantasy baseball league. I’ve played in these leagues over
the years, but have never been able to win my league, which is something I aim
to do before I kick the bucket. If you’re setting up a league and need an extra
player, shoot me an e-mail.
Be forewarned, I’ll be in it to win it, but based on my past
track record, you probably have little to worry about.
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