Jacob Steinmetz
Familiar Faces Prepare to Represent their Nation on the World Stage
by Andy Smith Long Islanders will certainly recognize many of the players in the World Baseball Classic next month. These are the MLB superstars or international sensations. However, a few names may be locally familiar. Jacob Steinmetz, currently in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, is a member of the Israel pitching staff. The Woodmere native started seven games in the Arizona Complex League in 2022 after being drafted in the third round (pick 77) of the 2021 MLB Draft. He will play alongside outfielder Joc Pederson (San Francisco Giants) and pitcher Dean Kremer (Baltimore Orioles) under manager Ian Kinsler. Amazing moment as Long Island native Jacob Steinmetz becomes the first Orthodox Jewish athlete to get selected in the MLB Draft pic.twitter.com/giZgs8GELh — Axcess Baseba...
Arizona Diamondbacks Select RHP Jacob Steinmetz in the Third Round
Amazing moment as Long Island native Jacob Steinmetz becomes the first Orthodox Jewish athlete to get selected in the MLB Draft pic.twitter.com/giZgs8GELh — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 12, 2021 It’s one thing to get drafted in the third round as a Long Island native, it’s another when your high school doesn’t have a spring season, but what Jacob Steinmetz did was become a trailblazer. The 6’6 Woodmere-native became the first Orthodox Jewish athlete to get selected in the MLB Draft. To say it was against all odds would be an understatement – especially considering less than two years ago he was a virtual unknown that was looking to pitch at the collegiate level. Over the past year, his stock has soared meteorically as his fastball has increased an...
Observations From Friday Night’s Bullpen at Prospect
The high school season might be more than two months away but the preparation is in full swing. Last night, I went to Prospect Sports in Farmingdale to watch two of the brightest young stars on Long Island get a bullpen in, as well as one college arm that has worked extremely hard to reclaim his status as a phenom. Prospect is the home of many of the top players in the region. On any given day, you can see players that will likely compete for the Diamond Award and Carl Yastrzemski Award as well as college players that will compete for All-Conference selections. Rafe Schlesinger (Sachem East 2021) has been a recognizable name for the past two years. Since that time, he has only continued to progress and since then, committed to Miami, appeared in the Area Code Games, East Coast Pro and has ...
Who Is JT Raab?
Raab topping at 88 MPH today pic.twitter.com/PVdE6H91mx — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 18, 2020 When you are pitching on the same staff as other established arms like Rafe Schlesinger, Tommy Ventimiglia, Dylan Johnson and Jacob Steinmetz, it can be hard to garner all the attention. But 6’5 RHP J.T. Raab (MacArthur 2021) has certainly turned heads with his performance this summer and fall for the Long Island Titans-Quattrini. The No. 1 ranked 2021 team in the region had an outstanding summer, and finished off with a bang at the Northeast Elite Tournament. For the year, Raab posted an unblemished record of 9-0 with a 0.49 ERA. As if that’s not impressive enough, his peripheral numbers were even more astounding. He struck out 12.7 batters per 9, allowed 2.6 hits pe...
Who Are The Top Pitchers in the 2021 Class?
It feels like we should still be getting ready for the 2020 season rather than tying a ribbon on it. It feels like yesterday I was at Stony Brook covering their game against Iona. The next week was supposed to kick off the high school baseball season. As we know, that never happened. The next several months we were forced to watch old highlights and hope for better days. July 5 finally featured real live baseball games and since that time, it’s been a sprint to the finish line of the season. Last night was the Northeast Elite 18U tournament which is an annual tournament at Baseball Heaven hosted by Phillies Director of International Scouting, Sal Agostinelli, which features the top teams from the region and it’s always a treat. This tournament began in 2007 when I was just a ju...
