What a tremendous experience it was for the 20 players who were a part of Sal Agostinelli‘s All-Star team this past week in the Dominican Republic. The competition was top-notch. All players were either already signed and playing on the Dominican Summer League teams of their respective organizations or very worthy of being signed.
In fact, a number of Dominican players were signed right on the spot after their performances on the field. All five of the games were played in front of several MLB area scouts.
Here are some notes from the five games.
- There were 2 teams–one from the class of ’17 and ’18 and one from ’19 and ’20.
- Each team played the Dominican Summer League teams from the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins.
- All of the pitchers from the Dominican teams threw above 86 MPH. The highest fastball was recorded at 98 MPH. Kyle Johnson (Newfield ’18) ripped a single off a 96 MPH fastball.
- Brian Morrell (SWR ’17), Peter Theodorellis (Commack ’17), Kyle Johnson and Joe Wozny (Stony Brook ’20) all had impressive showings on the mound. Wozny, only a freshman, topped at 88 MPH and will undoubtedly garner lots of interest because of his ability. Morrell’s outing was watched very closely by the Philadelphia Phillies–three of their top five ranking scouts in their organization were on hand to watch him pitch. He worked mainly in the upper 80s. They were discussing his draft stock–which could be as high as the third round. He also had three hits in four games.
- Theodorellis, Chris Peralta (Valley Stream South ’18) and Logan O’Hoppe (St. John the Baptist ’17) got the best reviews from the scouts. Theodorellis was lauded for his bat control. Despite being 5’7, scouts noted that he would have been signed if he was a native of the D.R. Same was said about O’Hoppe, who grew 12 inches in the past year and was considered among the best receiving catchers that was there.
- Matt Hogan (Hills East ’18) played a tremendous center field. He converted a double play by making an incredible throw from deep center field to double off the runner at second. He also smoked an RBI triple down the right field line on Sunday and displayed his speed around the bases.
- Ken Gordon (Babylon ’17) showed his 6.38 speed off with a stolen base and infield single. He has been getting looked at by the Pittsburgh Pirates scouts and has a chance to get drafted. If he doesn’t, he will be attending Flagler University in the fall.
- Andrew Ciufo (Pat-Med ’18) had three hits and played flawless defensively.
- Matty Tempone (Smithtown East ’19) did a superb job behind the plate and Sal stated he is a sure-fire Div-I backstop. He showed some real potential with the bat, with a swing that should generate lots of line drives at the varsity level.
- Mike Sepe (Ward Melville ’17) showed he is one of the underrated players on Long Island. He showed great balance at the plate, squared up a bunch of balls and played a terrific third base.
- The Dominican pitchers did not attempt many pickoff moves but the running game was essentially negated by the catchers who all had sub-2.0 pop times and had incredibly strong arms.
- Their infielders did not commit an error all week and showed incredible arm strength.
The players all spoke glowingly of their experiences against elite competition, which will prepare them for their varsity seasons. They played on professional-caliber fields in perfect weather conditions every day.
Aside from baseball, the players all were able to enjoy free time at the luxurious Coral Costa Caribe resort for six nights and dined at the finest restaurants in the city.
If you would like to request an invite to participate in the tournament next year, contact Sal Agostinelli at info@salsbaseball.com .
