Team Preview: Adrean Post 625

Manager Mike Macchione, Coach Joe Milazzo, Coach Gene Leuthauser.

Losses: Jason Simone.
Returning Players: Steve Campbell (P/OF), Rafaele Cordero (IF), Jack Lottermoser (C/3B), Luke Manolescu (C), Cesar Pujals (P/IF), Matthew Rotundo (IF), Kevin Rowlands (P/IF), Steve Sarcone (P/C/IF), Craig Warncke (P/1B/OF).
Newcomers: Ryan Andrews (P/IF/OF), Thomas Appleton (Util.), Michael Gaetano (P/1B), Mike Hill (P/Util.), Collier Maddox (P/Util.), David Morgan (C/OF).

Adrean manager Mike Macchione and I met up at the Patio Drive-In last week to discuss the upcoming legion season. Macchione has been a staple of Oneida County legion baseball for more than 30 years, spending all of his time with Adrean. Below are some of his thoughts on his team’s outlook for the 2008 season. For the complete audio interview, which includes more on Adrean, a look at the Blue & Gold tournament in July, and Macchione’s thoughts on the state of legion baseball today, click here: http://www.uticaod.com/sports/legionbaseball/x765550528/Legion-Baseball-Audio

AD: Losing a kid like Jason (Simone), what does that mean to your team?
MM: Every year you lose somebody. It’s not one of those situations where you keep a player forever. We turn over players all the time. Who wouldn’t like to have him? We would all like to think that there’s someone behind him, but it’s hard to find anybody that’s going to come close to what Jason did in high school and what he’s done hitting-wise over the course of his career with us. You just move forward. You try to fill the holes the best you can. You certainly have to understand that you have to develop a different profile for your team.

AD: Who do you look to step up from the younger guys?
MM: We have one young player in his second year, which is (Steve) Sarcone. He’s going to be very important performance-wise. He’s a pitcher; he can catch and play the infield. Potentially, he can be a dominant pitcher even at a young age. He threw a no-hitter for us last year as a fourteen-year-old. He’s fifteen this year and he’s done very well in high school. He’s going to be a big time player for us. His performance will be important to us on the mound. He’s still young in the other positions, but he’s a hard worker. He’s more of a throwback player. He’s worked all winter long…Other young players that we have are totally untested.

AD: What is a potential weakness of this team?
MM: The biggest question mark is our pitching, the depth of our pitching. We’re usually eight, nine, 10 pitchers deep, but that doesn’t mean that we have 10 frontline starters. This year we’re lean with our pitching, we’re short on pitching. We’re at about eight and we like to carry nine or 10, so we’re going to be short on pitching this year.

AD: How about the strengths of your team?
MM: I don’t know. I’d like to think that the college players are going to make us a good hitting team. We’re not going to be a great hitting team. If we’re going to have anything that’s going to end up being positive it’s going to be how we practice; if we practice hard and we pay attention to details. You know, we’re not going to scare anybody coming out onto the field, that’s for sure. But we’re going to have to do things well. We’re going to have to make routine plays. If we don’t make routine plays, we’ll be in trouble…It’s really going to come down to how much fundamental baseball we can play.

AD: What do look at in terms of a goal this year?
MM: Just improving, improving every game. Seeing improvement; seeing desire to play. Certainly the most important thing that we need is to have 18 players going in the same direction.

AD: You’re picking from a few different schools, which could be seen as an advantage. But at the same time, you could have chemistry issues. How do you hash out any little rivalry issue that might be there and make sure they all come together for the summer?
MM: Everybody continues working on their game. It’s hard not to have clicks. But everybody’s wearing the same uniform and it’s the responsibility, really, of the coaches to break down the barriers.

On whom he thinks will be the league’s major contenders:
MM: It should, on paper, be a race between Whitestown and Smith. And at least in my mind, a dark horse in there, and I’m not sure they’re a dark horse, is New Hartford. New Hartford’s capable of beating anyone on any given day. But with the acquisition of (Joe) Melioris and (Jake) Ross and the second baseman, that really kind of puts them up over the top at least I think talent-wise. Maturity-wise, obviously I think the edge has to go to Whitestown. Those guys are older. They’ve got the college players in there.