Good afternoon, everyone! Here’s a quick note about some things that have to do with the Valley League:

  • The league website has some navigation issues at the moment. The league leaders for both hitters and pitchers is working on the home page, but the standings aren’t there. However, everything is available through the “Teams” drop-down menu. For example, if you want to see the standings, click on any of the teams and select “stats.” That click will take you to the 2024 hitting stats for that team- outdated by a year, but you can find the 2025 stats for that team by using the drop-down menu in the top left- select “VBL Summer 2025,” and you can see this summer’s stats. From there, you can also click the drop-down menu under “League Menu,” and find league leaders, standings, and even scoreboard there.
  • Speaking of the 2025 standings, well, click here if you want to see them… Woodstock- in Coach Mike Bocock’s announced last season- and Strasburg, traditionally good teams, lead the North. and Harrisonburg and Staunton (barely, at 9-8) are the only two teams with winning records in the South. The elephant in the room may be Charlottesville, the traditional powerhouse, who is languishing in second-to-last place with a 6-10 record. (A warning, though, to anyone who is enjoying some schadenfreude- there may be reinforcements coming at any moment.)
  • Charlotte Varnes, a Philadelphia Phillies beat writer, posted in The Athletic that former Waynesboro General (2017) Gabe Mosser (pictured above) started a game for Triple-A Lehigh Valley, which wouldn’t be such a big deal except for the fact that Lehigh Valley plays in his home town of Allentown, Pennsylvania. So as you might expect, he threw in front of many friends and family that night. Mosser recorded the win by striking out four in his 5 1/3 innings that night. Drafted in 2018 by the San Diego Padres out of Shippensburg University, Mosser is in his ninth year in the minor leagues- he’s gone a total of 28-34, 4.53, with 475 strikeouts in 500 innings pitched over his career.
  • Let’s talk about Strasburg’s Topher Jones (below, right) for a second. The 19-year-old from Pearl River Community College is off to one of the best starts this summer that I’ve ever seen, small sample size notwithstanding. In his first eight games this summer, Jones is a wild 21-39, with 13 runs scored, two doubles, four home runs, 12 RBIs, and a stolen base. He’s slashing .538/.561/.897. He has hit in all eight games, and has a five-hit game, four-hit game, and two three-hit games as well. At Pearl River in 2025, Jones was named First Team All-MACCC, All-Region 23, and a third team All-American for NJCAA. This shouldn’t be terribly surprising, as he hit .358/.459/.608 in 63 games and 212 at-bats, with 62 runs scored, 16 doubles, two triples, 11 home runs, 72 RBIs, and a 29/59 BB/K ratio.
  • Last but certainly not least, let’s take a look at Harrisonburg’s right-handed starter Cannon Feazell, (below, left) a sophomore from Clemson. Feazell has started four games for the Turks so far, and is a ridiculous 2-0, 0.39, with nine hits and seven walks allowed in 22 2/3 innings, along with 21 strikeouts. Feazell did not appear in a game for the Tigers this spring. (But really, with a first name like that, should we be surprised he’s pitching like this?)