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Illinois Mailbag: Top Questions of the Week

March 29, 2014

By Steve Nielsen
Scouting Director - Illinois/Wisconsin

The Mailbag is a feature which allows readers to ask our scouting directors any questions they wish about high school baseball in their state. Whether it's about possible state title contenders, top prospects, recruiting, etc. your questions will get put into our "Mailbag" via the ask.fm app and our scouts will answer your questions through Twitter (@PBRIllinois) and Facebook.

This week's top questions feature spring predictions, committed players, LHP vs. RHP and more.

To submit a question about Illinois high school baseball to the PBR scouting staff simply follow the link HERE. Also if you have a burning question about the national landscape of high school baseball or draft specific questions you can send them to National Supervisor Nathan Rode HERE.

Top Questions of the Week

Kinda surprised you had Marmion in the top 75. Probably will finish 5th in the SCC behind Wheaton Academy, Marian Central, St. Francis, and Chicago Christian. Thoughts?

Typically when a team has two frontline arms (Alex Troop and Jake Esp), considerable pitching depth and a lot of returning starters back, it's usually a solid recipe for success. But I could be wrong. Please make sure you write in at the end of the year to waggle your tongue at me. But I feel pretty good about it currently.

Love reading your articles but it is frustrating when you rank a guy without any stats for us to see. Wouldn't it be nice if you could have us all come to a PBR event and see us all in games?

For sure. Tell you what, if you could help me get the top 200 players in a class at one event, then help coordinate a 32-team tournament with all their travel teams or high school teams in one complex, I will sponsor the event! Deal?

Does being a two-way guy increasing your rank?

Depends on if a two-way guy is actually legitimately a two-way guy. So very few two-way guys in high school actually can do it both ways in college. But if a guy is really, really good both ways, then yes, it increases his value. We always look at the position the player will likely stick at.

Who's your favorite to win the SPC?

The Southwest Prairie should be one of the more competitive conferences in the state this year. I'd say it's a coin-flip between Minooka and Plainfield South this year, but you can never underestimate Plainfield North, which had owned the conference in past years.

If you had to pick right now who wims the CCL blue?

Well, we picked Mount Carmel No. 1 overall in the state, so I guess the logical answer is Mount Carmel. With that said, Mount Carmel won it all last year but didn't win the CCL Blue. Honestly, you can really flip a coin between Mount Carmel, St. Laurence and St. Rita. And Providence is a top 10 caliber club too.

I predicted your top three weeks ago. Everyone said "no" they won't pick three catholic teams. Now I say the real winner of 4A will be a public school with good pitching and defense and small ball offense reminiscent of the '05 White Sox. What do you think?‎ 

I don't disagree that a public school can win the state championship. In 4A, public schools often do win. Mount Carmel was the first Catholic school to win it since the '70s. On paper, at least, you cannot refute the overwhelming talent on their rosters. It is also not an apples-to-apples comparison always. Many of the Catholic schools are podded together in the playoffs and the top teams don't even make it to the state. ... I also like the '05 Sox reference ... but if you remember that team, Ozzie preached the small ball but relied on a lot of three-run homers.

Is it just me or are there much more committed players this year then there have been in the previous years? Or is it just the powerhouse schools that have more commits?

I'd say it is more accelerated than the last couple years, to be sure, with the bulk of them coming first from the "powerhouse schools," as you say. In the Midwest, Illinois always moves at a quicker recruiting pace than the neighboring states, but I think it's even quicker this year. I know several schools that are done with their 2015s, more or less, and moving on to the 2016s. I think some of it has to do with the schools moving quicker, but I think schools are moving quicker because players are getting the itchy trigger finger and want to get the process done sooner rather than later. I think eventually the pace will slow down when both parties continue to get burned; players getting cut in the fall; schools stuck with plateaued prospects, etc.

If you had to pick a 4A state champ right now, who would it be?

You must've missed it. Here is the Preseason Top 75 with linked team previews >> http://www.prepbaseballreport.com/illinois/teams/illinois2014preseasonranking

Who is your pick to bring home a city championship?

Until someone knocks off Simeon, the Wolverines are the team to beat

It seems that LHPs in general have slightly lower velocity than RHP's. Why is that?

Interesting question. Don't think there's anything scientific about it, I just think there are probably 5-6 times more right-handers out there, which raises the chances of right-handers throwing harder than lefties. That's my unscientific answer, but maybe it has something to do with right brain / left-brain.

All I'm saying is don't leave out the Richards Bulldogs , this is the team that won 30 plus games as sophomores. They have extremely good chemistry. They don't have extremely fast pitchers but just watch out for them, they might surprise you?

Never underestimate Richards. Year in year out, always tough. Just missed the top 75 cut, chiefly because as you mentioned - pitching.

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2014 IL Top Prospect Slide