With the calendar turning to January, all eyes are on 2017 and baseball players are preparing to get back on the diamond.
7. What does West Islip do for an encore?
They are coming off their second Long Island championship in three years. They return Jake Guercio (Fordham-commit), Greg Tsouprakos (Pace-commit), Joe Valentino along with a talented crop of freshman and sophomores such as Anthony Cinquemani. Still, it will be difficult for them to replace the production and consistency that Lou Antos, Ray Weber, Nick Valenti and James Kory provided over the past three seasons.
There’s no doubt that they will be a playoff team, but it will be too tall of an order to expect another 20-win season. What Coach Shawn Rush has built has been pretty spectacular, but losing all those high-caliber seniors will most likely open the door for another team in the Class AA of Suffolk.
6. Can Brian Morrell become the next Marcus Stroman?
Stroman made himself a celebrity in the Long Island baseball community when he won the Carl Yastrzemski Award as a junior at Pat-Med in 2008. He followed that up by playing in the Area Code games that summer and committing to Duke University. So far, Morrell has followed in those footsteps.
Now, there’s still a lot of work to do–Stroman did play in Class AA and dominate against a superior level of talent. There’s no debating, however, that Morrell has dominated his peers. Last year, he had 94 K’s in only 49 IP with a 1.13 ERA. He does have more power (12 HR last year) than Stroman ever did, who was more of a stolen base threat.
While it is far from a lock to expect Morrell to accomplish what Stroman has already at 25-year-old, he has put himself on that path and has a chance to get drafted as a pitcher or hitter on June 12.
5. Can anyone stop Wantagh from another Class A championship?
It was a fairy tale season for Wantagh, who was carried by four (!) All-Star players in Jimmy Joyce, Bobby Hegarty, Trevor Fagan and Will O’Brien. They also got great seasons from Anthony Fontana and Anthony D’Onofrio at the plate.
It would be very difficult to pick against them with the talent and experience they are returning.
There are still plenty of teams that can give them a run for their money; notably Division, but Wantagh is the favorite to repeat at the moment.
4. How will the 105-pitch max factor into the decision-making for coaches?
It will have a huge impact, in my opinion. Most high school programs do not have the benefit of bullpen depth. They typically have their horses at the top of the rotation and maybe one reliable reliever. If that reliever is unavailable, they also cannot use their ace in relief later in the week. This will make for some shaky seventh innings. Those are the toughest outs to get. A lot of coaches like to say “I would rather my ace at 70% than my reliever at 100%.”
Well, with the new rule that’s not an option.
There’s still going to be blowouts games and aces that throw 75-pitch complete games but the vast majority of games that are within reach in the late innings will become nail biters.
There are a few high school coaches that have garnered reputations for abusing arms and this rule will help injury prevention.
3. How does St. Joseph’s perform with the target on their back?
It was a landmark season for the Golden Eagles–who won their first Skyline Conference title since 2004 thanks to a heroic effort in the championship game by Nick Girardi (5-for-5), and a tremendous outing by Ryan Aloise to win their first regional game in program history.
Both of them were named to the All-Long Island team by Baseball on the Island.
Now, they will be without many of the players that led them last year such as Girardi, Joe Calabrese, Joe Lynn and Brendan Sullivan but they will have Aloise and Brandon Lubrano back in the rotation along with P.J. Martino and Nick Clemente.
They have a strong incoming class of freshman coming in and we’ll get more into that during their season preview.
It will be a dog fight once again in the Skyline Conference, and that’s before we even mention how legitimate Maritime looks with the addition of Travis Bruinsma, Matt Buckshaw as transfers and a handful of freshman. They could throw a wrench into the plans.
2. How does Dowling’s departure shape the ECC?
At one point last year, Dowling looked minimally interested in being competitive. By the end of the year, they were making the ECC very glad that the program was about the cease to exist. Thanks to strong performances by Michael Rizzitello, Chris Cepeda and Cody McPartland, they won the ECC and also defeated Southern New Hampshire in a regional game. They got hot at the perfect time.
- Who’s going to get drafted?
Last year featured not one–but two first-round picks with Long Island ties. Justin Dunn (19) and Anthony Kay (31) were both selected by the New York Mets. There were many others after that. There will most likely not be a first-rounder but there should be a number of others that are either from here or play here now.
From the high school side, there is Chris Cappas (Kellenberg), Brian Morrell (Shoreham-Wading River), Michael Palazzolo (Hills East) and Brian Morrissey (Commack) that are garnering interest. From the college side, there is Jesse Berardi (St. John’s), Casey Baker (Stony Brook), Kyle Brennan (Buffalo), Louis Mele (NYIT), Chris Weiss (Hofstra), Dan Jagiello (LIU Post), T. J. Santiago (Adelphi), Angelo Navetta (Molloy), Tommy Ziegen (Old Westbury) and Matt Seelinger (Farmingdale).