Paxton Stover- LHP Baseball Commit

[Todd4State]

He's from Dyer County Tennessee. I don't know how tall he is or how hard he throws yet. He was 9-2 for his HS team with 111 K's and 26 BB's and an ERA of around 0.83 in 84 innings, I believe. I also know that he took an official visit to Vanderbilt.

Edit to say as someone said later, he is 5'10 and as far as velocity goes, he is in the mid-upper 80's with his fastball and he throws a slider and a change up in the mid 70's.

Now that I have some more info on him, he sounds like a left handed version of Justin Pigott to me.

[CadaverDawg]

Wow, sounds like a huge get!

I dont suppose you know the level of his HS team? Those are nice stats, especially if it's a high classification of Tenn HS baseball.

[messageboardsuperhero]

He's about 5'10" and plays for the same travel team (Dulin Dodgers) as one of our 2015 commitments, Austin Riley. That's all I've really seen about him.

[Will James]

111 K's and 26 BB's

[Todd4State]

Wow, sounds like a huge get!

I dont suppose you know the level of his HS team? Those are nice stats, especially if it's a high classification of Tenn HS baseball.

I'm not sure- I think they are 4A or 5A. We recruited him out of the Sun Belt Tournament in Oklahoma which is where a lot of the better players in the Southeast play.

[Raytoraid83]

I know baseball recruiting is a complete different animal than the other big 3 sports but how does are past class and this one stack up compared to the rest of the SEC.

[Todd4State]

I know baseball recruiting is a complete different animal than the other big 3 sports but how does are past class and this one stack up compared to the rest of the SEC.

Conservatively- it's a top 15-20 class. It wouldn't shock me if we are rated higher. We had three guys out of our class get drafted and go to MSU- Dakota Hudson, Paul Young, and Reid Humphries. Gavin Collins was rated a top 200 draft prospect by Baseball America.

Young is the guy I'm really excited about. Cohen specializes in late signees- Renfroe, Pollorena, the Canadians- all late signees. Young literally came out of nowhere as a JUCO outfielder who by chance had to pitch in a game and was throwing in the mid 90's. He was drafted in the 21st round by the Indians and had offers from MSU, LSU, Florida State, and Ole Miss. I think he is a weekend starter for us next year. And the good news is he was only a freshman last year.

[AlSwearengen]

just a guess, but this Stover kid sounds like he may be a change of pace type guy that comes in after a harder throwing starter. Similar to the role that Ross Mitchell fills right now.

[Westdawg]

i coached FB for a little bit at Dyersburg, Dyer Co. HS's cross county rival. have several friends and some family that live and work in Newbern and at DCHS. I will be glad to see what kind of kid he is - work ethic, character, etc. may take a couple days, but more than happy to let yall know if there is any issue with him.

[Westdawg]

and Todd, i sent you a DM on twitter saying the same thing, so just disregard.

[Coach34]

i coached FB for a little bit at Dyersburg, Dyer Co. HS's cross county rival. have several friends and some family that live and work in Newbern and at DCHS. I will be glad to see what kind of kid he is - work ethic, character, etc. may take a couple days, but more than happy to let yall know if there is any issue with him.

Appreciate it Westdawg- look forward to that report

[CadaverDawg]

i coached FB for a little bit at Dyersburg, Dyer Co. HS's cross county rival. have several friends and some family that live and work in Newbern and at DCHS. I will be glad to see what kind of kid he is - work ethic, character, etc. may take a couple days, but more than happy to let yall know if there is any issue with him.

Thanks man. By the way, since you coached at a rival school, can you tell us what classification in Tennessee that HS is?

[Westdawg]

Thanks man. By the way, since you coached at a rival school, can you tell us what classification in Tennessee that HS is?

i honestly can't tell you the classification. the TSAA has modified classifications a couple times since i left there about 5 yrs ago. I can tell you the approximate size of the high schools in that classification....enrollment in 9-12 is approx. 800-1100 students. there is some really good ball on all levels played in their classification. Dyer Co. and Dyersburg were in the same district and played each other in all sports, until about a year or two ago, when they had several really, REALLY bad student fights between students, on and off the field, and TSAA jumped in and they are no longer allowed to play one another. Dyer Co HS has dramatically grown in enrollment as many of the city students have left the city district and now go to the county because it is a better option. It may seem that it is a really serious issue with kids in the area given the issues above, but just a really BIG rivalry for decades. For those of you familiar with big time in-county rivalries, it is on par with the Jones County schools, or the Choctaw County schools (ackerman and weir) playing each other a few decades ago and how heated it can get between fans.
I can tell you that those kids compete very hard in all sports, and the district as a whole really pushes their coaches to compete with their teams at a very high level. Without even knowing the kid, i can tell you he is probably hard-nosed, and a strong competitor, just in knowing the coaches. Really great ppl in Dyer County. And knowing how and who Cohen recruits, you can probably bet the kid is a class act.

[messageboardsuperhero]

His pitches supposedly have a ridiculous amount of movement. It's always good to have a softer throwing lefty out of the pen who has good movement, location, and can change speeds. I'm glad our coaches aren't falling in love with pro prospects exclusively; it's good to have a nice mixture of good prospects and good college players. That's what got us to where we were this past year, but we did need a few more big time stars IMO. Now, our coaches are getting the stars and the grinders, whereas in the past we were mostly blue-collar guys with a few big time players. A more even mixture should help us, as long as we don't get Bianco syndrome and only go after prototypes and recruiting stars.

Also, wasn't Justin Pigott left-handed too? He might have been a righty, but if memory serves me, he was a lefty.

[I seen it dawg]

Lefty

[Will James]

he sounds like a left handed version of Justin Pigott to me.

Department of Redundancy Department.

[Todd4State]

His pitches supposedly have a ridiculous amount of movement. It's always good to have a softer throwing lefty out of the pen who has good movement, location, and can change speeds. I'm glad our coaches aren't falling in love with pro prospects exclusively; it's good to have a nice mixture of good prospects and good college players. That's what got us to where we were this past year, but we did need a few more big time stars IMO. Now, our coaches are getting the stars and the grinders, whereas in the past we were mostly blue-collar guys with a few big time players. A more even mixture should help us, as long as we don't get Bianco syndrome and only go after prototypes and recruiting stars.

Also, wasn't Justin Pigott left-handed too? He might have been a righty, but if memory serves me, he was a lefty.

I looked it up, and you are correct- Pigott is Left handed.

I agree with you about having a good mixture of pro prospects and good college players. I've seen some people on sixpack say that if you have guys that are making it to their senior year in baseball, you aren't recruiting the way you are supposed to. That's just simply not true. Where would we have been without guys like Caleb Reed, Mitch Slauter, Alex Detz, etc.? More specifically, you need guys that are hard workers that know what MSU baseball is all about and a lot of times those players play above their ability because they are living out their dream. The guys with the MLB type talent- that attitude hopefully rubs off on them and it pushes them a little bit too. And you do need the MLB talent to win. But like you said- you have to have a good mix. You need guys that are willing to be a middle reliever and not worry about what that might do to their draft stock, guys like Trey Porter who are OK with coming off the bench and being a pinch hitter, etc.

[Todd4State]

Department of Redundancy Department.

Maybe the Department of Dyslexia too.

[messageboardsuperhero]

I looked it up, and you are correct- Pigott is Left handed.

I agree with you about having a good mixture of pro prospects and good college players. I've seen some people on sixpack say that if you have guys that are making it to their senior year in baseball, you aren't recruiting the way you are supposed to. That's just simply not true. Where would we have been without guys like Caleb Reed, Mitch Slauter, Alex Detz, etc.? More specifically, you need guys that are hard workers that know what MSU baseball is all about and a lot of times those players play above their ability because they are living out their dream. The guys with the MLB type talent- that attitude hopefully rubs off on them and it pushes them a little bit too. And you do need the MLB talent to win. But like you said- you have to have a good mix. You need guys that are willing to be a middle reliever and not worry about what that might do to their draft stock, guys like Trey Porter who are OK with coming off the bench and being a pinch hitter, etc.

Wow, what dumb ass said that? I guess senior leadership and the team cohesion of guys playing together for four years counts for nothing. Cohen must have done something terribly wrong when he recruited Graveman, Pollo, Girodo, etc.