On Tuesday, I hosted a mock draft using players that played Long Island high school baseball between 2010-2020. It was a fun project and I solicited the help of three trusted baseball people that have watched Long Island baseball for the entire decade
Tom Downey – Area Scout, Philadelphia Phillies/ Blue Chip Prospects
Jon Mauchan – Area Scout, Minnesota Twins/Northeast Regional Sales, Rawlings
Alex Brosnan – Pitching Coach, Molloy College
Team Messana
Manager: Steve DeCaro
Assistant Coach: Mike Ninivaggi
Bench Coach: Ryan McSherry
Breaking It Down: I may be a little bias here but this is clearly the best team. It’s very simple: Whether you want to argue that ‘pitching wins championships’, ‘you need to score to win games’ or ‘defense is paramount’, this team has it all. I have the 2012 Gatorade Player of the Year in Alex Robinson who would be my ace. He went on to play at Maryland and get drafted by the Minnesota Twins. Or I could come at you with James Varela, who led Division to the Long Island Championship in 2015 and went on to re-write the record books at LIU Post and won the 2018 Axcess Cy Young Award with an 11-1 record. Then you have Chris Pike who went 10-0 for Southampton in 2010 to capture their second straight Class B Long Island Championship. He went on to play at Fordham and Oklahoma City before getting drafted by Tampa Bay and having a nice minor league career. Or you can face Brian Morrell, who led Shoreham-Wading River to the Class A Suffolk Championship in 2017, a year in which he won a second straight Yaz Award and was a force of nature at the plate and on the mound. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies and is currently at St. John’s University. Is that all the pro arms on my staff? Not a chance. We also have Steven Ascher, who was drafted by Tampa Bay following a career at SUNY Oneonta and leading Mattituck to a Long Island Championship in 2011. There’s also Reiss Knehr, who is with my San Diego Padres and has a chance to be a big leaguer. He was lights-out at Fordham University and St. Dominic before that. Andrew Misiaszek is a flame-throwing southpaw for the Cleveland Indians and was drafted out of Northeastern following a standout career at South Side HS. Chris Cappas was the CHSAA Player of the Year in 2017 and is at the University of Pittsburgh, Ray Weber is at Albany. He helped West Islip win the Long Island Championship in 2016 with a 10-0 record on the mound. Rounding out the rotation is Boston College LHP Jake Krzemienski who was a stud at Commack – somebody that nobody wanted to face in a big spot. He struck out the final batter to deliver Commack their first County Championship since 1997 in 2017. Last but not least, 6’5 flame thrower Adam Heidenfelder was a two-time Diamond Award winner and would be the perfect closer on this staff.
Offensively I don’t even know where to start. I guess we’ll start with a player that had the most decorated high school career of the decade and that would be Jimmy Joyce, who delivered Wantagh its state championship in 2016 and won the Player of the Year. Jon McGibbon, somebody that doesn’t get nearly enough credit would be the cleanup hitter on this team. He was drafted by Seattle out of Lindenhurst HS in 2010 when they won the NY State Title and he went on to have a nice career at Clemson. Nick Grande and Thomas Roulis are two pro players that would make the DP combination absolutely lights-out and they wouldn’t exactly be automatic outs at the plate. E.J. Cumbo, who was a .500 hitter during his career at Clarke would be the perfect leadoff hitter in any lineup. David Leiderman hit .609 during his senior season at Bellmore JFK and would probably hit second or third.
Behind the dish, I have Straton Podaras, who was probably the second best defensive catcher of the decade on Long Island behind Logan O’Hoppe. I’ll take my chances with him. I also went with Matt Reistetter who had an amazing five-year career at Hauppauge, played at Hofstra University and has been in the Washington Nationals system since 2014. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better duo.
Team Downey
Manager: Bill Batewell
Assistant Coach: Eric Brown
Bench Coach: Buddy Corr
I can’t hate on this team. Tom obviously went heavy on the pro guys. He has four big leaguers on his staff – Anthony Kay, Kevin McCarthy, Kyle McGowin and Joe Palumbo, not to mention another two minor leaguers in Sam Kessler and Mike O’Reilly. Just a star-studded pitching staff. Chris Cepeda is the consummate winner, somebody you feel comfortable having on the mound in any situation. He was tasked with handling Massapequa in the 2013 Long Island Championship at Dowling College. While everyone was expecting to see Anthony Kay start, it was the sideslinging righty that got the ball. All he did was fire a 64-pitch complete game to win 1-0. He then went to Dowling where he helped them win the 2016 ECC Championship during their final season and then he transferred to STAC where he led them to the Division-II College World Series in 2017. He also has Diamond Award winner and Hofstra RHP Mark Faello on his staff as well as Diamond Award winner Anthony Papa and two-time State Championship Jack Piekos, who posted one of the best individual pitching seasons in Long Island history in 2014.
Offensively, they certainly have pop with guys like Michael Donadio, who was drafted by Miami out of St. John’s University and was outstanding at Mount Sinai HS. Ramon Laureano is a big leaguer and has the best outfield arm in the Major Leagues, so I would be pretty comfortable with the outfield defense. Vanderbilt OF Matt Hogan was the Yaz winner in 2018 and I would be interested to see if him or Dan Hetzel gets the final spot in the outfield. Hetzel was a slugger for Sachem East and played at New Mexico State. He has Jesse Berardi and Bobby Honeyman manning the left side of the infield so I’m confident in saying that’s the best left infield of the four teams. Kevin Courtney is the ultimate winner, and had an amazing career at St. John the Baptist and helped lead Stony Brook to the College World Series in 2012. Anthony D’Onofrio and Anthony Fontana proved their mettle in leading Wantagh to back-to-back-to-back Long Island Championships from 2016-2018. Johnny Castagnozzi is another winner with three Long Island Championships and a 102 exit velocity. Joe Flynn probably should’ve won the Yaz Award in 2015 but did win the Paul Gibson Award so you could add him to the pitching staff as well as third base. Nick Nunziato I never watched play but posted gaudy numbers for Ward Melville in the early part of the decade.
Behind the dish, I’ll admit this is nasty. Logan O’Hoppe is the best defensive catcher on Long Island in the past decade and probably second to Patrick Cantwell for the best this century. Mitch Calandra was the top Nassau Catcher in 2014 and two-time All-Long Island and is now with the Atlanta Braves.
Team Mauchan
Manager: Lou Petrucci
Assistant Coach: Bob Hirschfield
Bench Coach: Bryan Bonin
This team certainly leans a bit younger. Players like Diaz, Falco, Koester, Nielsen, Pulsipher, Savino, Exposito, Lazzaro, Murtha and McHugh are all freshly out of high school – so their stories still remain unwritten. He does have some establish minor leaguers such as Tyler Badamo, Greg Weissert, Matt Vogel and Kyle Young on the pitching staff, Charles Galiano behind the dish and Vito Friscia, Alec Sole on offense. Overall, a very good team but I would say the strength is the offensive punch.
Team Brosnan
Manager: Paul Parsolano
Assistant Coach: Dan Luisi
Bench Coach: Josh Gutes
Breaking It Down: Team Brosnan went with the drafting strategy leaning towards players that graduated in the early part of the decade. The pitching staff features plenty of minor league pedigree namely Kyle Martin – with the Baltimore Orioles, Nick Fanti – currently with the Philadelphia Phillies, Stephen Woods – now with the Kansas City Royals and Matt Seelinger – with the San Francisco Giants. They also have three former minor leaguers in Jonathon Mulford, Ryan McCormick and Max Watt. Matt Crohan has an interesting story. He was the flame throwing southpaw out of Riverhead in 2013. He began the season with two no-hitters and almost threw a third one. He wound up choosing to attend Winthrop University and played for Team USA. He was on the verge of being a first round pick but injured his arm and lost some of that velocity. Had he not injured that shoulder pitching for Team USA there’s a very good chance he’s in the big leagues along with names like Anthony Kay and Marcus Stroman and Steven Matz. I really like the team speed that he chose to go with. Guys like Matt Demitroff, Jack Parenty, Ryan Sliwak, Will Cheshire and Jon Cruz would’ve caused chaos for the opposition, fortunately I have a great defensive catcher back there. He went with 2011 Diamond Award winner and former Blue Jays prospect Jake Thomas. No backup would put them in a predicament, but Tyler Osik, now a catcher in the White Sox system could shift back there if needed. Nick Bottari, now entering his seventh season of college would provide pop and veteran leadership along with former Padres prospect Bryan Verbitsky and former Orioles prospect Steve Laurino.
