Summer Travel Teams - Who's playing for whom?

The Wisconsin Blazers don't have a summer team.

One hundred veiws and no responses?????

Smokey, looks like all looky and no talky, Yet....

Illinois Orioles 18u team is taking shape. A few new faces so far, Joey Dispensa from Rita, Cedric Redmond from Joliet Township,Seth Blair Rock Falls, Lennel Mcgee from Mt Carmel, Louie Johanns from Naperville Central, Andrew Hagins from OPRF, and a couple guys making decisions. Couple old Orioles back, David Reynolds from Sandburg, Brian Lambert from Pontiac, Steve Crnkovich from Downers South. Few more pitchers and a few more positionals coming soon...
We will start Winter workouts next month and go every week untill end of Feb . We will play at ND, SIU, Purdue, ISU, UofI, and a couple Perfect Game events.
13 yr MLB (White Sox, Pirates, Marlins) Vet John Cangelosi will work exclusivly with our positional players and the pitchers will work with former Pirate Bill Copp. The instruction in the winter will be position specific and we will work hard.
We will have teams for 07- 08, 09 and younger for anyone interested in getting involved.(PM ME, email duecedoc24@aol.com or go to Cangelosibaseball.com email John at CBA10@comcast.net) Top exposure, professional coaching, great college coach to Summer coach relationships, great facility, and just as important , the competition level played will be second to none.
Good luck to all prospective players looking to continue your playing careers at the next level, and remember if your not working at your classwork as hard as your game , your missing the big picture....

I'll take a shot since I don't believe there are any other Bloomington/Normal posters on here.

B/N essentially has a Legion type of set up, though no longer affiliated with American Legion. New organization run by a Board made up of players' parents. Last summer had 3 18u teams and 4 16u teams. Made up of players from B/N's five high schools: Bloomington, Central Catholic, Normal, Normal West and University High. I assume tryouts will be in April, as they were in 2005. Head coach of Bloomington Gold, the top 18u team, has been Steve Clapp the last two years. He is the Bloomington High coach.

Players lost to graduation from the 2005 team:
Alex Berta - Normal West - Edgewood College
Eric Birky - Normal West - Lincoln Land C.C.
Cory McCullick - Normal West - Edgewood College
Mike McMillan - U-High - Bradley
Ben Reeser - U-High - Illinois
Drew Stephens - Normal West - Lincoln Land C.C.

Players I would assume will be returning to the Gold:
Scott Evans - Normal
Louie Joseph - Central Catholic
Craig Lutes - Normal - Illinois
Tyler McNeely - U-High
Brett Moore - Bloomington
Jonathan Moore - Normal
Michael Reu - Bloomington
Jason Solberg - Bloomington
Luke Stewart - Normal West - Georgia
Zach Williams - Normal West
Zach Zwaga - Normal West - UIC

Since I'm not an expert, I won't even try to name who may take the spots of the departed players. Quite a bit of talent in town though, so I would expect the Gold will continue to be fairly competitive with most of the travel teams named and with Legion competition.

deucedoc you have a pm. Thanks

Here is our roster so far. Still looking for outfielders, 2b, 1b, and Lhp. We should add another rhp soon.

Tyler Bullock C DuQuoin (Austin Peay)
Tyler Choate RHP-IF Carmi (SIUC)
Spencer Clifft RHP Huntingdon TN 07
Tim Dunn SS-RHP Bardwell KY 07
Brandon Gass LHP O'Fallon 08
Bryant George RHP DuQuoin (SIUC)
Lucas O' Rear RHP Nashville 07
Spencer Patton RHP South Central (Parkland CC)
Dillon Roark RHP Wilmington
Matt Weeks RHP West Frankfort (Missouri St.)
Lyle Winter RHP Pinckneyville 05
Daniel Palombi C Lexington KY 07

SI Bullets, WOW, what an assembly of talent. Very impressive. You're going to have a lot of fun. Most of these young men (All the ones I know) are as good of people as they are players. Good Luck!

Thanks Coach. They are a bunch of great guys and players. Hopefully we can get a few more metro east guys on our roster. By the way speaking of the subject you have a pm on ihss.

Thanks ducedoc, CentralIl, and SIBullets. Just trying to get the baseball juices flowing again as we approach the winter/holiday baseball doldrums. Looks like great representation from the best teams from the south, central, and north east Illinois. SIBullets you had one heck of a team last year! Looks like you have a great foundation going into the summer of 06. CentralIl, watched Gold in a close one against ducedoc’s Orioles last summer at SIU. You guys can bring it! ducedoc you have a great eye for talent as usual.

What about the Blues, TT, and the Lightning? TT was loaded with talent last year, how are you guys shaping up for this year? How about the Cardinals and Humboldt? You guys have solid programs that never let up. Represent?

“There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them work.” ~ Charlie Lau

i am sure several players are making their decision where to play next year. There is a lot of talent to go after...did the blues pick up any new players?

Making proclamations about who is playing where is a bit premature right now. Teenages can be rather capricious. With that said, I would think Top Tier has a good working nucleus from last year's juniors: Joe Benson, Conner Powers, Wade Kapteyn.

Lombard Lightning should have the bulk of it's players returning from our 17U team last year. It's still a little early and we should have a better idea once winter workouts start up in about a month or so.

PBR,


Of course Top Teir will field a strong team. As will Norwood, Siu, Illinois Orioles, Bloomington, White Sox, Lombards, Mattingly Baseball, Illinois Northstars, Sparks 17's, Lakeside Cards. Has the making for a nice tourny right up here.
I can't speak for SIU, Central and the others
but my proclamations are from only parents of the kids and the kids telling me they are in. I wouldnt consider putting a name on this site without the peoples permission to do so.

Definitly right on about kids being unpredictable though.... Good luck to all the Summer teams out there. The competition level in this area is picking up again, like it used to be in the old days. Smokey, I liked the post and judging by the 600 veiws in a day , people want to know too..

Deuce

Thanks smokey. Maybe the Orioles(Cangelosi) and us can meet up again down here for another championship trophy. I'm ready to start now. I have only put up names with permission. There is a long way to go till summer, most will be there a few may not. Who knows. Either way we will be playing baseball next summer. There are a few rated highly on the PBR lists and baseball america lists that I havent added yet just in case something happens.

SIU,
you had to bring that game up did'nt you..lol
Look forward to seeing you guys this Summer. Summer means the work starts for the guys and ends (for the most part ) for us. Anytime I can put my team in a situation to play against talent like yours and the others mentioned, that to me is what its about. You want to be the best you got beat the best. Smokeys post got my juices flowing and here we are stuck talking about it. Smokey, you did this on purpose! Look forward to seeing you guys soon and say hi to Coach Halstead and Todd for me. Good club, ran professionally and it was our pleasure to have met up with you guys.

Thanks coach. Sorry to mention that game. It was last year and I know the score was'nt an indicator of your teams talent or coaching. Looking at some of your guys now makes me think you might pound us. The feeling is mutual as far how we feel about your organization. There should be more teams like you guys out there.

What a difference 3 years makes!
3 years ago it was the Norwood Blues with a weak schedule and virtually no competition.
Now there are enough top programs for all the players in Illinois and the surrounding area.

Alphabetically listed.

Illinois Orioles with Bill Copp
Indiana Yankees with Buddy Swift
Lombard Lightning with Bill O'Brien
Southern Illinois Bullets
Top Tier with Todd Fine
Wisconsin Blazer's with Andy Stack

That's some Big Time opportunity for our kids!

Imo, the next big thing would be for a couple of these solid program's to combine for Jupiter
and East Cobb type tournaments.

How good (for example) would the Blazer's be if they were to get pitching help from the Oriole's!?
I'd be inclined to think that team would win or come very close in Jupiter.

PBR....For the record. The proud Irish name of Connor is spelled with an "O".

as an ex-coach and now a fan of high school baseball, I was just wondering if any local kids such as Livermore, Herrera, Allen and Reid are part of the above mentioned organizations. I have seen all play and would believe they would be valuable to any of these organizations.

Breaker, what is local to you and I is not for some others. As far as those kids are concerned. I know of them all as well as all the coaches do or should. I worked with Allen when he was young and may again very soon. Herrera played for me last year and I love the kid to death. Cole is happy playing with Rich and Norwood. I live in Aurora , my guys are from everywhere though. Local , Northern Ill.

deucedoc,

You are correct, I should have mentioned kids around the St Charles and Geneva area. I saw some of their high school games last year and were impressed by each. Just wondered if they were part of teams mentioned. It appears there is a good pool of talent which is a pleasure coach. Good thread....

Looks like duecedoc has the juices flowing. Sounds like Illinois should have some very competitive games next summer.

Soxnole,

That is the way it should be in a perfect world. Although the Blazers pitching is pretty dang good without anyones help, but i realize you just made an example . I totally agree with you , I think everyones vision is similar in some respect or another. More importantly then who is where, is it spreads out the talent and it spreads out the guys who are committed to teaching and running these teams. Your program is only as good as the people who surrounds it.
In the end maybe one of these programs will build that. We plan on doing Jupiter every Fall because it is one of the best things out there for exposure. Plus Cangelosi and the Perfect Game guys are good friends.
Teach the game, exposose the kids to the next level, and make some life long memories , that pretty much our plan.
Hope your son gets off to a great start down there. Good luck to you both.

deucedoc,

you are right on..besides the kids comittment, having the right people in place to coach and provide the training required to help them move to the next level is an important factor that is some times forgotten

I just love the fact that these teams are going strong with really solid coaching. I wish this many options were available to my 4 sons at the time.

Good luck to all the kids, parents and coaches out there. Make Illinois proud.

deucedoc,

There is no argument here about the level of exposure associated with the tournament in Jupiter. However, people on these boards have said over and over that if you're not in TOP baseball shape you can hurt yourself by attending such a high profile event. With many of our state's top baseball players being 2 or 3 sport athletes and just finishing their football seasons and already in basketball mode, how can they believe that they're ready to compete against the country's best in Jupiter and show their skills to all the scouts and college coaches?

It might be great marketing to promote a team that "goes to Jupiter" but you better be sure that the players are ready physically and mentally. I'd be especially wary of the pitchers and whether or not their arms are in game shape. November for northern players can be cruel. JMO.

Rosy,

Thanks for the advise, I will keep it in mind when we go next Fall. A) I wouldnt consider taking a football guy who hasnt thrown. B) I wouldnt go down with unrealistic ideas of winning a National Championship , yet. C)The tourny is usally in Oct not Nov, D) I am not promoting anything, or anyone. E) I played in two Connie Mack World series , won one, played on a # 1 Nationally ranked JC team, played in the Big Eight, have a single A ring a Double AA ring , played in a couple all-star games professionally and I dont' need advise on taking care of my pitchers arms in Nov.

I have done this a time or two ,and if it is your intent to make me look inferrior with this ridiculous post,nice try, its kind of funny. If you think I work for PG you are wrong, if you think I would go to a Jupiter Tourny without a team that is competitive you are wrong, and if you think my team is going this Fall , you are wrong. I am a coach answering a post on what the Summer teams plan on and with who. Nothing more.

By the way, my pitchers shut it down in November and the better part of December.
But again thanks for the advise, Its like I tell my guys, get as much advise from as many coaches as you can..
Pretty bush return post Rosy. Good luck to you guys too.
Deuce

rosy, your a little out on a limb here.

There is no finer pitching coach, imo, in Illinois than the deucedoc, unless he works for the White Sox.

My son and 2 of his HS teamates played in Jupiter in 2003...in October. Tim Dennehy was spectacular with the Indiana Yankees. Ruairi and Matt McFolling benefitted from the experience as well.

I think the vast majority of the players ...certainly on top teams....like deucedoc's...are 1 sport players...at least they are not football players as a rule. In our case, all 3 were playing fall league for OPRF and traveling with the Yankees.

Jordan would benefit greatly by being seen and competing in Jupiter. Maybe deucedoc will find a spot for him!

The Springfield Statesmen usually have very good teams also. I think they had 7 D1 signees this year.

deucedoc,

Whoa! I never intended to cast any dispersions on you or your organization. I was just pointing out a few things that I've learned by reading some great posts on this website. I apologize if my comments were offensive. Again, they were not intended to be so.

Obviously I respect your background and should have been more careful in choosing my words.

I'm a parent of a HS junior and just love this game. I applaud all coaches and teachers who give of themselves to help any and all Illinois HS ballplayers.

SIU,

Good call on the Statesman, we played that team at 15 and met them in the CABA 17u state championship as 16's. Greg is a guy you can only like. Good man doing good things down there. I remember a real good LHP .

Prairie Gravel will not be fielding a 17 year old team next Summer. This particular PG team has been together a long time and achieved quite a bit as a team. Thank you to Sam Sorce for all he has done to help these boys learn the game of baseball.

Sam is such a good teacher of the game. I have heard nothing but great things about that team. Good luck to those guys and Sam will always have a top notch program. He is a lifer like the rest of us.

Corky,

You know that Jordan's year with the Gravel taught him more about the game than all other years combined. I am proud that he had the opportunity to play for Sam and with such an outstanding bunch of young men. He still says that he doubt's he'll ever play for a better coach and teacher than Sam Sorce.

Our best to Kyle.

rosy,

I accept your apology and I hope you accept mine as well. I too will watch what post I respond to and the words I use. Kind of felt ganged up on there between you and PBR. I have respect for what the guys with your organazation are doing for the kids in this area. Todd, Jeff, Sean S, Sean D, all good guys working hard for your team. That is all good.
I took offense to the part of your post that implied that I am using perfect game to "market my team." My team will market my team. Perfect game is just an option, a very good one in my opinion, but we will be doing other things as well.
I would like nothing more then to have all the top teams in the area get together with some of the Schools in this area and do a nice Tourny in our back yard for a change.
I guess PBR got me going when he talked about my proclaimations, blame him for the outburst. I am under a lot of pressure here, 41 and hitting the alter in 3 days.

Smokey, your the real blame... sitting back with a big stogey enjoying this arent you?

deucedoc,

No problem here and my son's experiences with Perfect Game showcases have been all positive.

You're a man after my own heart. I didn't get married until I was 40 so I know what your giving up. Hopefully, what lies ahead is even better. Best of luck and congratulations.

rosy,

Will road trips ever be the same????
Thank you, and good luck to your son.

Lakeside Cardinals

Kevin Manson- Maine South 06
Charlie Capozzoli- Maine South 07
Mike Bradley- Maine South 07
Tim Barry- Loyola 06
Andy Parsill- Niles West 07
Jake Ehrenberg- Niles West 06
Matt Shimonavsky- Niles West 06
Tyler Ladendorf- Maine West 06
Matt Wietlispach- Notre Dame 06
Mike Kloss- Notre Dame 06
Mike Pagano- Notre Dame 06
Brian Cusack- Notre Dame 06
Mort Hart- Notre Dame 06
Nate Pierce- Notre Dame 06
Nick Robinson- Notre Dame 06
John Creely- Notre Dame 06
Joe Crespo- Notre Dame 07
Nick Pagano- Notre Dame 07

We may not get kids from all over the state, but we finished third at the NABF World Series and we are looking good for next year. We may get Chris Friedrich (Eastern Kentucky) and Couri Benz (Oakton) back next summer if they want to play when they come home from college. Bill Palmer always picks up a good player or two for the summer (Benz and Miles Clauss).

Couri Benz from Oakton is an over rated pitcher. But, im going to give him the credit that he can hit. We faced him twice in two years in the regional finals and our team just light him up. I found it odd to hear that he was one of the top pitchers in the state and the best in the public league. We just loved to hit off him. Instead of him being in the game he was to busy yelling at all his players, swearing at them for no reason and showing bad sportsmanship and he was also to busy turning his head around after all those home runs he gave up with in those two years.