By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

The Winter Meetings certainly breathed some life into baseball news last week with a flurry of trades and free agent signings. As a side note, if you want a little bit of a baseball fix during these winter months, check out the feature MLB Network did called The Third Team. It goes through the World Series from the perspective of the umpires. I found it fascinating to get an inside look at a part of the game that is generally panned by fans.

Now, how about some questions…

How many draft picks are coming out of Illinois this year? Who? And which state is going to have the most draftees?
Illinois has averaged about 10 high school selections since the draft was reduced to 40 rounds. It remains to be seen whether or not that number will be reached in 2015, but it should at least come close. Several players have a good chance of being drafted including, but not limited to C/RHP Nick Dalesandro (Joliet Catholic Academy, IL), LHP Kyle Ostrowski (Lincoln-Way North HS, IL), SS Charlie Donovan (Westmont HS, IL), LHP Bryan Hudson (Alton HS, IL), RHP Fitz Stadler (Glenbrook South HS, IL), SS Ethan Skender (Metamora HS, IL), RHP Liam Jenkins (Lincoln-Way North HS, IL) and OF Josh Stowers (Mount Carmel HS, IL).