After reading all of these posts, there are some great names, so here is my lisy by college/minors and the big's
College..Grant Johnson..Lafringe Hayes( who will be better then little Bo), Nelson Gord (UIC) Craig Murry (U of M), MIke Santoro and Rob Marconi NIU,also look for d3 transfer Trevor Wolgemuth to make some noise is the MAC. local kids that will make a very big impact in the 04 season
Minors. How can you not love the Justin Olsen story...A college career plauged with injury, a year out of baseball and is throwing harder then he ever had in his life..moves up almost 4 levels in a matter of weeks. Major League arm, major league body. Look out for his old Illini teammmate, Drew Dickinson, for the Kane County Cougers, got out to an unreal start, but had to battle threw injuries in the second half. 2 time big ten pitcher of the year and K leader, this Jamie Moyer like pitcher has a very bright future, overlooked because fastball tops out at about 80, but was drafted because of the sucess he had, oakland took a shot and will pay off. Give Bo Flowers a break, lets not forget he is 19 years old and played private league ball, give him time to adjust and he will develop and be moving up fast, i had the privelage of coaching him in High School, great work ethic unreal athlete. Just some quick local names, Jim Paduch, who threw a no-no in rookie ball playoffs, Joe Mazzuca, Mike Spidale, and the person everyone is sleeping on, Curtis Granderson out of the Tigers organazation.
The Show: Its easy to sit there and drop names like Mulder, Spezio, but lets be different. Tony Fiore, holy cross high school, twins organazation. Life time utility man, Jeff Robelue, boston back up Lou Colleier, and white sox prospect and ISU grad Neal Cotts. I saved the best for last...if you can call morris native spezio "local" how can ANYONE forget the pride of Peoria...Jim Thome...one of the best power hitters of the last decade, resides in peoria and still is a big contributer to ICC.
Its easy to sit there and drop the big names, but all of the names mentioned are all local kids whose names will be very well known, if not allready, over time