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Recap of the Blue Chip Prospects Long Island Showcase

There was an army of talented baseball players on Thursday at Medford Athletic Complex for the Blue Chip Prospects’ Long Island Showcase. While the event always garners a big turnout, this was especially large considering all the prior events had been postponed due to the pandemic and players understand there is a finite amount of time to find their future college.

I was there all day taking videos and notes on the top performers. Understand that it’s possible I missed a couple kids as there was multiple games going on simultaneously, but here is my best attempt at highlighting the very best.

A.J. Joya (Central Islip 2021)

The first time I watched Joya, it was on the small fields at Baseball Heaven around this time of year. He put on a clinic in a showdown against Coltrane Calloway  – who is now entering his senior season at Bay Shore and is committed to Seton Hall. It’s a classic ‘time flies’ scenario, as these two talented players are now entering their 12th grade year. Joya was a stud then, and it’s good to see he’s continued to progress at that level. In my estimation, he was the player with the highest ceiling at the event. He is well-built at 6’1 195 lbs. He told me has put on 10 lbs this year, but it doesn’t appear to have effected his athleticism as he still ran a 6.8 60. In the outfield, he showed agility and a very strong arm at 79 MPH. His best attribute is certainly his bat. During batting practice, he was the only player to hit multiple home runs. During the game, I saw two of his at bats. One was a rocket single to left and the other was a HR to left center. The ball explodes off his bat. He will definitely garner plenty of interest after the performance he put on today.

Palmer O’Beirne (Huntington 2022)

I watched Palmer at the TOB Varsity Tournament in July and I came away very impressed with his performance against a tough Commack team. He’s one of the reasons Huntington was so confident entering the 2020 season, as they have a pretty strong crop of rising seniors with players like Aidan Bender, Kyle Colleluori and Chris Segreti. Palmer won four games as a sophomore and would’ve likely won even more this year if his performance today was any indication. He fits the mold of a power pitcher. He is a notch above his peers in terms of velocity at his age. Typically you see 78-79 but he was comfortably above that at 83-84 and even touched 85. He certainly has the look of a Division-I pitcher. He pounded the strike zone and also mixed in a really slow hook that befuddled hitters. Here’s a kid that will become one of the top left-handed pitchers on the island.

Matt Hannon (Massapequa 2022)

Hannon had the highest velocity of any of the pitchers. He was sitting 85-86 and topped at 87. He was definitely a little amped up as he also hit a couple batters but was untouchable either way. Massapequa has a way of replenishing their program even after they graduate a particularly strong crop of players – which they did (Travis Honeyman, Johnny Castagnozzi, Wade Kelly). All the coaches were locked in on him during his inning. It wasn’t just the velocity either, the arm action was clean and he worked down in the strike zone. I’m sure we will be hearing much more about him in the future.

Nick Ungania (Chaminade 2022)

If you like throwback players, this is your guy. I watched Ungania in July at a tournament and he hit an inside-the-park home run. He has outstanding speed and bats lefty, so he’s the perfect leadoff batter at the high school and college level. He consistently barreled the ball up in batting practice and had a well-struck single through the right side in the game. He plays a very strong center field and I was impressed by how on-line his throws were to third and home. Many kids were throwing max effort and it came at the expense of their accuracy, but he threw seeds on line line drives that are what you want to prevent runners from taking extra bases. He has plenty of arm strength too at 79 MPH. I think he is a high-end Div-II player or potentially Div-I.

Zach Ganca (Bellmore JFK 2022)

Ganca has that controlled aggression at the plate that you love from a middle-of-the-order hitter. He crushed one out in BP and I think his swings lends itself to much more of that in the future. He generates good lift in his swing. Defensively, he plays a strong outfield and had a 75 MPH throw to third base. He’s raw but has a ton of potential and I’ll take that in a rising junior with two years of high school ball left.

Niko Sorice (Rocky Point 2022)

Sorice was the catcher with the strongest throwing arm. He had a pop time of 2.05 and arm strength of 75 behind the dish. He certainly looked the part too as he wasn’t sacrificing mechanics to sell out for the time. At the plate, he put on some good swings in BP and I came away very impressed with his balanced approach and extension after contact. I think he will be an impact player in 2021 and 2022.

Brendan Duffy (Southold 2022)

I was unfamiliar with Duffy before today so that’s why I like attending these events. When you are from Southold, sometimes exposure is hard to come by. Duffy had the best velocity of any outfielder with 81 MPH to third base. He also had a pretty sweet left-handed hitting swing that produced some well-struck line drives to the pull side. I did not get to see his at bats during the game but I think the combination of his arm strength and bat speed was enough to get on this list.

Vincent Mallon (Massapequa 2021)

I did not get to see his at bats during the game but defensively, he’s good enough to be on the list. He registered the best arm strength of any infielder at 86 MPH and looked very smooth turning double plays. Very athletic movements, and ran a sub 7 60 as well. Perfect Game has his exit velo listed at 88.

Jack Vallario (St. Anthony’s 2022)

Vallario was a spark plug for St. Anthony’s during their 2019 playoff run. He looks like a Division-I player and was very smooth defensively. He was retired on a ground out to short during his plate appearance, but from my memory of 2019 he handled the bat very well during the playoffs. He will be the starting SS for St. Anthony’s next year.

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Vinny is the President of Axcess Baseball. He is a 2013 graduate of Adelphi University and he is currently the Long Island area scout for the San Diego Padres

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