Content: Every spring, after a couple of months of winter workouts and conditioning, the same cliche rings throughout baseball: “I’m in the best shape of my life.”

It’s easy to scoff at the comment as a player likely wouldn’t offer the opposite, but for Addison Russell, there is a lot of truth to it. A shortstop at Pace (Fla.) High, Russell has dropped almost 30 pounds since last summer and is reaping the benefits.

“I feel good,” he said. “Probably the best I have in my high school career.”

Russell has been on the radar for a couple of years now, having been the starting shortstop at Pace since he was a freshman. He bulked up to add power and was curious about how he could carry the weight as a power-hitting shortstop. With Team USA last summer, however, he was moved to third base—partly in deference to the slick-fielding Gavin Cecchini, but also because coaches and scouts felt he had become too big for shortstop.

Wanting to prove he was still capable of playing up the middle, Russell started conditioning between the USA trials and the 18-and-under team’s trip to Colombia for the Pan Am Championships. He started running more, . . .

Content: Southern states have started playoffs and the lack of upsets early means there is very little movement in the latest Baseball America/National High School Baseball Coaches Association Top 25. The most notable change is arguably Mater Dei High (Santa Ana, Calif.) dropping four spots to No. 6. The Monarchs recently split two games with Orange (Calif.) Lutheran High, but ultimately lost the season series.

North High of Riverside, Calif., returns to the Top 25 while riding a 10-game winning streak since a tough showing at the Anaheim Lions Tournament. Arizona teams are mercilessly beating each other up, but with a state champion to be crowned in the next couple of weeks, Scottsdale’s Chaparral looks like a strong favorite.

The staffs of Baseball America and the NHSBCA compile the Top 25 rankings. In-season polls will be conducted every two weeks and released every other Tuesday throughout the season. Records indicated are as of May 8 and do not include ties. . . .

Content: Growing up in South Florida, it was Lewis Brinson’s dream to continue his baseball career in Coral Gables for the University of Miami. He visited the campus, met the coaching staff and was ready to make his decision. But Brinson’s mother, Susie, urged her son to keep his options open and check out other schools. The two ventured north to Gainesville and things changed.

“I had a visit with Florida,” Brinson said. “As soon as I walked on campus it was done. It was Gators this and Gators that. There was a Gators gas station right when we got off the interstate. I fell in love with the school. Coach (Kevin) O’Sullivan is the nicest guy I know. He’s serious about winning and that was my main goal in finding a school.”

While Miami may be heartbroken over Brinson committing to Florida, he’s still far from a sure bet to make it to campus. A long-legged, physical specimen, Brinson has excellent athleticism and looks like a big leaguer when he steps on the field. At 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, he looks like Cameron Maybin or Dexter Fowler with a tapered frame and plenty of room to add strength. Given his . . .

Content: Florida’s regular season ended last week and Orlando’s Olympia High accomplished the improbable by finishing undefeated. District tournaments start this week and the single elimination format should provide plenty of drama in the Sunshine State.

It was a wild week in Corpus Christi, Texas, with Calallen High falling to rival Moody High, but bouncing back with a win over No. 10 Carroll High. Calallen’s small drop opened the door for Mater Dei High (Santa Ana, Calif.) to move up to No. 2 and Olympia to No. 3.

The staffs of Baseball America and the NHSBCA compile the Top 25
rankings. In-season polls will be conducted every two weeks and released
every other Tuesday throughout the season. Records indicated are as of April 22 and do not include ties. . . .

Content: The staff of Baseball America and the National High School Baseball Coaches Association compile the Top 50 rankings. In-season polls of the Top 25 will be conducted every two weeks and released every other Tuesday during the season. The first in-season poll will be released on March 13. The final poll, a Top 50, will be released in June. . . .

Content: The 2012 high school class is loaded with depth and the All-America Teams give a glimpse of what names will be followed closely as the draft approaches. All five pitchers have aspirations of being picked in the first round as do most of the position players. It’s also a strong year for teammates with two schools landing a duo of All-Americans. Harvard-Westlake High (Studio City, Calif.) will have a wicked rotation with righthander Lucas Giolito and lefthander Max Fried making the first team. Olympia High in Orlando will see plenty of scouts with first-team righthander Walker Weickel and second-team outfielder Jesse Winker. Ballots were sent to all 30 Major League scouting directors. Fried transferred to Harvard-Westlake so his stats are from his junior season with Montclair Prep, Van Nuys, Calif.

LHP Max Fried
Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif.

Fried has prototypical projection in his lanky 6-foot-4, 170-pound frame. He has long arms and a free and easy delivery. He fills up the strike zone with all of his pitches—a fastball in the 88-92 mph range, a very good 73-75 mph curveball and a changeup.

RHP Lucas Giolito
Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif.

The ace of a vicious one-two punch at . . .

Content: At Baseball America, it’s obvious we pride ourselves on our coverage of prospects, and for those of us who write about the draft, we work hard to know about as many as players as possible. We are human, and with 50 rounds of selections there have always been plenty of players who we’re unfamiliar with who were picked. For it to happen in the first 10 rounds, however, is a surprise.

Once the televised portion of the draft is finished, teams fly through their picks. The ninth round was barely under way last year when a selection caughts all of us off guard. With the 273rd pick, the Mariners took Cavan Cohoes. Shortstop. Patch High School in Stuttgart, Germany.

Who?

Where?

After we made some phone calls, a very interesting story began to develop. Cohoes wasn’t a German prospect somehow eligible for the draft. He was indeed an American citizen—an athletic and quick shortstop in fact—living on a military base in southwestern Germany.

The Program

The Patch Barracks house all four branches of the military, including a special forces group and two Navy SEAL teams, as well as the Coast Guard. Cohoes’ father, Chris, was a Navy pilot for 14 . . .

Content: It would probably take just two hands to count the number of high school teams in the country that can reload and compete on a national level every season. But make sure to reserve a digit for Archbishop McCarthy High of Southwest Ranches, Fla.

The back-to-back defending state champions in Florida finished atop the rankings for Baseball America in 2011 and start there again in 2012. Now the Mavericks will try to accomplish two things that have been done only once before: a three-peat in Florida and a second straight national title. The only school to win three consecutive Florida state titles is Rich Hofman’s Westminster Christian School (Palmetto Bay, Fla.) from 1996-98. Chatsworth (Calif.) High is the only school to finish No. 1 in consecutive seasons for BA. The Chancellors accomplished that in 2003-04 under Tom Meusborn.

Archbishop McCarthy head coach Rich Bielski is excited to defend the title, but was already expecting a challenging season.

“We’re going to have to focus on the here and now,” he said. “We play every week as if it’s a tournament. Come playoff time, that’s what it is. You have to win every game and every inning. We have to stay focused.” . . .

Content: For those of us that cover the amateur ranks at Baseball America, we’re especially excited about the 2012 season.

For starters, the draft class is exceptionally deep and we know the next few months won’t be short of surprises, big performances and excitement. The level of talent directly affects the Preseason Top 50 as we see several teams that are clear contenders to finish at the top, starting with defending national champion Archbishop McCarthy High out of Southwest Ranches, Fla.

Stacking high school teams against each other is a difficult task since few of the top teams square off on a regular basis. While a few of those in the Top 50 will have to face a ranked foe to get through the playoffs, national tournaments are good indicators when judging competition faced.

Making its debut in 2012 will be the USA Baseball National High School Invitational. The event will be held at Team USA’s National Training Complex in Cary, N.C., from March 28-31. Competition will be fierce with 10 teams from the Top 25 and 11 in the Top 50 participating. Schools making the trek include: No. 2 Bishop Gorman High (Las Vegas), No. 3 Carroll High (Corpus Christi), . . .

Content: . . .