By: Nick Nickles – January 26, 2010

Preseason Rankings are always a fun time for us at DP! Often times there is more of a storyline and tons of information that is gathered behind the scenes that only you – the player, parent, coach etc. – view as a number with a team listed beside it. We take a lot of pride in providing you the best baseball content possible at this level. One of my personal goals for DP in 2010 is to provide more inside content to reader’s about what really goes on inside true baseball circles whether it’s team rankings, players, player rankings, or recruiting.

In this series of articles, we are going to select and breakdown a few of these conferences that could get interesting in 2010 and give you a few reasons why things may not go according to our predictions: Let’s start with Region I-4A!

Here is how we stacked them up:

-Easley

-TL Hanna

-Wren

-Laurens

-Greenwood

-Westside

X-Factor Team: Wren Hurricanes

Why? Jeff Tate moved over from Byrnes to coach Football at Wren. The weight training program changed to focus on speed and agility. The speed has shown in the Cane’s quickly and from a physical standpoint as well. They had a few players show up at our Fall Showcase that dropped half a second on their 60-times. They were young last year but still solid. If Austin McKaskill, L.J. Newman and Elliot Caldwell have good seasons offensively and Wren gets key contributions on the mound out of Jon Rosenburger and Tyler Jackson they should win this conference.

Sleeper Team: Greenwood Eagles

Why not to sleep on the Eagles… Greenwood has a proven starter in Wofford Commitment (that you’ve never heard about) Nathan Bridges. Ty Wimmer and Davis Behrendt have played on the Varsity since the 8th grade and will bring valuable experience. Erskine commit Cody Dysart has emerged as mid-80’s arm that give the Eagles all the makings of a sleeper in this region. Last but not least, Japanese transfer Tasuku Kaneko (right) will play his senior season as a two-way guy that had some success in his first season in America in ’09.           

Why they should win it: Easley Greenwave

Head Coach Roger Finley has continued to keep the Greenwave near the front of the pack every year since he took the helm at Easley. Through years of thicker and thinner talent, he’s kept the Greenwave consistently near the top of the pecking order. The conference is down this year missing the dominant arms of the past few years giving Easley its best shot at taking the crown.  

Other Notables…

–Laurens streak of winning the conference in all likelihood will end this season at three straight years

-Hanna’s Jake Long (left) is the X-factor player in this region. He’s the best arm and could easily go undefeated. His battery mate Clemson commit Garrett Boulware is the best player in the state that you likely haven’t seen play. Long could easily be the only constant factor in the Region. Other contributions from younger players will ultimately make or break the Jackets.