Well, this is interesting- today we have a Sweet Sixteen matchup between two of the best players from the 2018 Valley League season- Andrew Eyster (New Market) and JD Mundy (Covington).

  • Eyster got here by smacking Jerry Downs (Winchester), 85.5-14.5%. His writeup: “Andrew Eyster (New Market 2018) was not only Valley League MVP two summers ago, but he helped New Market to the town’s first title since 2002. A rising senior at South Carolina, Eyster hit .421/.511/.781 in 114 regular season at-bats, with 14 doubles, nine home runs, 35 RBIs, and a 18/21 BB/K ratio. (He hit .345/.355/.690 in 29 playoff at-bats, too.) He finished 1st in the league in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (obviously), and doubles, while finishing 3rd in total bases (89), 4th in RBIs, 2nd in home runs, tied for 6th in hits, tied for 4th in runs, and 8th in walks. He was named 1st team All-Valley in the outfield, and as mentioned, he was also the Most Valuable Player. Every single person ATVL spoke to about top prospects from the summer said that Eyster was the best player in the league, and it wasn’t particularly close.”
  • Mundy defeated Joseph Odom (Winchester, and who just made his major league debut) 63.2-36.8%. “JD Mundy came to Covington in 2018 in between schools; he was transferring from Virginia Tech to Radford. He had an excellent summer in the VBL, putting up a slashline of .353/.474/.705 in 139 at-bats, with 36 runs scored, seven doubles, 14 home runs, 48 RBIs, and a 29/37 BB/K ratio. In the league, Mundy finished tied for 9th in batting average, 2nd in OPS, 6th in on-base percentage, 2nd in slugging percentage, 4th in walks, 1st in total bases (98), 1st in RBIs, 1st in home runs, 5th in hits, and 1st in runs. He was the league’s 2nd best hitter. At Radford this spring, he hit .385/.468/.662 in 65 at-bats, with six doubles, four home runs, 19 RBIs, and a 9/4 BB/K ratio. The most exciting thing, though? He signed a free agent contract with the Baltimore Orioles just about ten days ago. So assuming that baseball will start sometime again, he’ll make his pro debut then.”

So who ya got?

Vote by going to twitter.com/JohnATVL.

And by the way, if you want to read a ton about either the 2015 or 2019 VBL season, be sure to check out this post on the 2019 Valley League Annual!

Also, please check out and subscribe to the Valley Baseball League youtube channel– some awesome stuff is released almost every day!

Eyster
Mundy