As many people in and around the baseball world know, there are two or three main areas where the vast majority of professional baseball talent comes from. This includes the southwest, southeast, and, if you want to include it, the Dominican Republic. These are the three main places where a large portion of all baseball players come from. However, there is a new spot that has taken the baseball world by storm, and that is Long Island. In particular, over the last three years Long Island has produced over 15 baseball players who now find themselves inside of a professional organization. After the class of 2020 graduated, it became clear that the class of 2021 has some stellar talent across the board, some even claiming that it has the potential to produce over ten professionals even before those athletes have entered college.

Blue Chip Prospects, a baseball prospect facilitator out of Suffolk County, has ranked the top 65 baseball players on Long Island in the class of 2021 and 2022. Out of those 65 for the class of 2021, the first nine players listed are projected to get drafted, and will all be attending high level Division I schools. Take for example the consensus #1 player on the island, Rafe Schlesinger, who is attending the University of Miami. Rafe is a left handed pitcher who is up to 94mph with no history of major injury. He will for sure be taken within the first three rounds of whichever draft he decides to declare for. The #4 ranked player, Tyler Cox from Clarke HS is committed to West Virginia and despite being ranked below a hitter, most believe that he is the best pure hitter on the island.

Some could even argue that the top 19 players will all get drafted from the 2021 class as they are all going to Division I schools except for the tenth best player, the 17th best, and the 18th best, who are attending top Division II schools and SUNY-Cortland, a top Division III. As far as solid talent in the northeast is concerned, Long Island has produced about 90% of it. It can be attributed to the fact that travel baseball is taking over school baseball in terms of importance, and also the fact that some schools run their baseball programs poorly, which, in turn, gives the right-away for these programs to swoop in and develop these guys to a point where they can succeed at any level.

The major travel baseball programs include, but aren’t limited to:

• The Long Island Titans (EST. 2003, Over 840 College-Bound Players, 70 Professionals & 4 First Round Picks)
• The East Coast Lumberjacks (EST. 2015, 113 College-Bound Players Already)
• Team Beast (EST. 2010, Over 300 College-Bound Players)
• Team Steel (EST. around 2000, 400 College-Bound Players)

This, however, is just accurate until January 23rd, 2021. All of these organizations have studs who will play at the Division I and II levels in the classes of 2022, 2023 and 2024, only adding to their totals. With the amount of quality coaching that will help develop these players toward and past the collegiate level, Long Island is in very good hands for the future of their baseball players and organizations.