#2 - Jason Barber
Among his list of accomplishments: USA Baseball Tournament of Stars selection, Louisville Slugger High School All-American, ABCA/Rawlings Second Team All-American, Maxpreps First-Team All-American, Maxpreps Junior National Player of the Year, Clarion Ledger's Mr. Baseball, MAC 5A Player of the Year, Team Mississippi selection, USA Today All-American Second Team, Mississippi's Gatorade Player of the Year in Baseball, Daily Journal's Player of the Year, Oxford Eagle's Player of the Year (twice), and of course the Oxford Citizen Player of the Year. That's just to name a few things that he's accomplished, and I haven't named them all.
Jason Barber is just now approaching his senior year.
You can call him Iceman or J-Bird as those are his normal nicknames, but also call him perfect with the season he had last year. Barber finished the season with a 0.00 ERA - which is a new Mississippi Record in high school that will never be broken as no one can obtain an ERA in the negatives and prior to this year no one has accomplished this feat - and has not allowed an earned run in his last 79-2/3 innings (including the last 1-2/3 during his Sophomore year). It was a year very few pitchers in high school get to experience.
Among his stats in the past year for Barber besides his ERA: He pitched 78 innings, gave up three unearned runs on 28 hits, 110 strikeouts and walked just 14, hit seven batters, had a quality start in all 11 starts this year, went 12-0 on the mound and also had a save. Barber also did not give up an extra base hit until the North Half series. Of his 78 innings pitched, 37 were 1-2-3 innings. Barber induced a groundball 62 percent of the balls put in play (highest percentage on the team) and a line drive on just 12 percent (lowest on the team). Seventy percent of his pitches were strikes (highest on the team by 5.4 percentage points) and threw a first-pitch strike 71.6 percent of the time (highest by 4.3 percentage points). Barber only faced a 3-0 count eight times during the year (third on the team behind Roth and Dalton who each had faced nine 3-0 counts - and Barber faced more batters than either of them). Barber also had the highest "Game Score" average on the team at 74.6 (highest by 7.5 points).
To just show off, Barber only threw 86 first-pitch balls in 78 innings. Roth threw 108 of those in 61 innings. The 14 walks allowed was just the third most on the team (Roth - 17, Markle - 15). The 207 first-pitch strikes Barber threw this year was more than Roth (130) and Markle (73) threw combined. Let's also not forget his two no-hitters, one of which was a Perfect Game against Itawamba in early March this past year.
Barber isn't just good on the mound, he could also stand a chance at the plate. He led the team in Home Runs with eight last year, the most by a Charger since 2005 who had multiple players achieve and surpass that number. His batting average finished at .337 last year, so batting isn't out of the question either no matter where he goes. If he ever makes it to the big leagues, he wouldn't be a bad player to have on any NL team since that league makes the pitchers bat.
As it stands right now, Barber is committed to Ole Miss to play baseball and was the second player in the 2016 class to commit to the Rebels behind teammate Grae Kessinger who committed first. If Barber decides to head to college despite possibly getting drafted, the rest of the SEC better watch out. He could even pinch-hit or like one player did for Kentucky a couple years ago, bat and pitch in the lineup.