is rowan the real deal?

[RO/CO]

I'm from Rowan County and used to go to most all the games but this year I have not made it out to many of their games but read about them in the Salisbury Post...and they seem to be having a phenominal year and was just wondering how good they really are???

[aintbaseballgreat9]

rowan is definitely the real deal....they have great starting pitching, play unbelievable defense, and always seem to get the clutch hit...33-2 is no fluke

[tj21]

Let me put it this way,,,, I believe Kannapolis had "one" of the better local teams in recent years last year (2006) and Rowan County took us to the limit in our series, and actually was only one out from beating us. While we lost most of our team (aging out), Rowan County returned a good nucleus of their team and also gained some key players who were not on the 2006 team. I won't say this Rowan team is the best Rowan team ever (don't think so), in fact I'm not even sure if they are as good as we were last year especially in terms of hitting (and we had 2 pitching studs also), but Rowan is good, in fact they are very good. As others have pointed out, hitting is not their strongpoint and because of that a good pitcher could shut them down and they can be beat if another team plays well. But don't underestimate Rowan's hitting, because they have very good ballplayers and they know how to move runners well. Obviously Rowans' strengths are they just don't beat themselves, they are very solid on defense, very quick, Coach Gantt has simply been successful for so many years that he can outcoach people in his sleep, and of course the one thing that sticks out is that Rowan can send out a different college-caliber pitcher every night about 5 nights in a row. And that don't count the several great relievers they have. Bottomline, they are very good, maybe not the best ever, maybe not state championship good, but certainly close. And 33-2 is no fluke.

[JM15]

How will they respond to some post-season losses (if it happens)?

[west boy]

that's a good question, it looked like that might happen the other night (1st game) against K-ville, but they fought back. They could easily be undefeated this year, but if they do lose, I think they would respond pretty well. After losing to Randolph earlier in the year, they haven't looked back. This team gels really well.

[RaleighDevil]

If this coach is so good, maybe he would care to move to the worst program in the league and lead it to the title.

Point being that nobody is that good. Joe Torre is going to the HOf as a manager because he has great players.

[tj21]

RaleighDevil,,,,,,,, I beg to differ,,,,,,,,, Rowan Legion Coach Jim Gantt is also the head coach at Catawba College (a college), he's not some high school teacher who's just coaching baseball for a little extra money. I have watched Coach Gantt for years now, and his teams always execute the little things well, he always has his bullpen ready, his teams ALWAYS get better as the summer goes along and he just seems to do the things during the course of a game that makes good sense. How many times have you sat and watched a coach and said "man, they should've done such and such",,,,,,, well you don't say that much with Rowan teams, because in obvious situations they make the plays, always have. And hustle,,,,,,, just watch what happens when one of his players don't run out a flyball or popup.

Trust me,,,,,, I have seen other coaches stumble around out there not bunting when they need to, their teams not getting bunts down when it is in fact called, and teams getting slacker or picking up bad habits as the season progresses.

No, Coach Gantt may in fact have the luxury of drawing good baseball players most of the years from his feeder schools, but its pretty obvious (at least to me) when you see good coaches because of how their players play. He's definitely an advantage to them.

Btw, check out his record at Catawba College,,,, he wins there too. Also, I'm not a Rowan supporter,,, for those of us around here, we've just seen it so much.

[legionfan]

no question on gantt as tj21 stated and btw david wright and the south coaching staff very strong as well...no accident that both rowan county teams are where they are right now. managers don't execute plays but they sure can put their players in positions where they can succeed, can teach the game, can maintain a team-first, always-improve type culture, and can keep a steady hand at the helm...Gantt and Wright do all of the above...

[tj21]

Legionfan,,, agreed about David Wright, he's done an excellent job too.