Illinois Baseball Report

Good news for former Illini firstbaseman Mike Rohde.  The Gary Southshore Railcats have signed him for the 2010 season.  Rohde, who was the league’s 2008 Rookie of the Year, moved to thirdbase last year. 
And go figure, Rohde got a blogging gig for the Northwest Indiana Times last summer.  If we’re lucky, we’ll see [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on February 1st, 2010 | Leave a Comment! »

Catching up on some long overdue news regarding Illini players who’ve gone on to the wild blue yonder otherwise known as the minor leagues:
Scott Shaw, who was drafted by the New York Mets in the 2008 draft, had a pretty awesome 2009 for the Port St Lucie Mets.  Shaw led the Mets in many [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on November 14th, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »

This is a digital replica of former Illini Dominic Altobelli’s official baseball card this year when he played for the Casper Ghosts.  His father Mike, who sent me the card, is very positive about how Dom’s first season progressed saying that he began “driving some balls toward the end of the season”.  They like [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on September 17th, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »

There’s a first time for everything and no one knows that more than former Illini infielder Shawn Roof.  Last night in the very last game of the Erie Seawolves’ regular season, Roof hit his very first home run in professional and college play.  His homerun came against the Akron Aeros in the 2nd inning.  [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on September 8th, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »

Mike Altobelli sends this photo along of his son Dominic Altobelli.  Dom, a former Illini thirdbaseman who was picked this year’s MLB draft has been playing for the Casper (Wyo.) Ghosts all year.  The Ghosts are an Advanced Rookie affiliate of the Rockies in the Pioneer League.
Dom’s parents took some time off and [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 18th, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »

Mlive.com has a good piece on Casey Crosby.  For those Illini fans who tried to forget, Crosby was the Illini baseball recruit who got drafted in the fifth round in 2007 and took the money and ran.  Not that blame him… it was a whopping $750,000 signing bonus that lured him to Detroit.
Essentially, 6’5” [...]

Filed under: Recruits on August 9th, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »

Former UI catcher Chris Robinson will be at Wrigley Field tomorrow.  His AAA Iowa Cubs will be taking on the Las Vegas 51s 1:20pm Sunday in Chicago as a special promotion. 
Iowa (56-57) and Las Vegas (57-57) have almost identical won-loss records so it should be an excellent game. 
Robinson made the Pacific Coast League [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 8th, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »

Former University of Illinois catcher Lars Davis has had rough second half with the Modesto Nuts at the Advanced A level but Wednesday night it looks like he’s beginning to make amends. 
In front of a home crowd against the Bakersfield Blaze, he went 2 for 4 with 2 doubles.  Davis also drove home a [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 6th, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »

Former Illini Scott Shaw gave his St Lucie Mets a needed boost Saturday.  Not only are the his Class A Affiliate Mets languishing in last place in the Florida State League but they were coming off a five game losing streak. 
Shaw responded by pitching a complete game win over the Lakeland Flying Tigers (FYI.. [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 2nd, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »

My friend Sue who I met at Illinois Field this year, called the other day and we caught up on Illinois Baseball news.  She gently prodded me to write something about Brandon Wikoff.  She’s totally right… Brandon deserves some coverage for what he’s doing in the minors right now. 
First of all, Wikoff has been [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 1st, 2009 | Leave a Comment! »