It’s still freezing cold out. The ground is hard. Fields haven’t been raked in months.

Clearly, it’s not quite baseball season. But that hasn’t stopped Mamaroneck from generating a little preseason buzz…

The Tigers were ranked No. 30 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, which released its preseason rankings in its magazine last Friday.

As you know, Mamaroneck was the top seed in Class AA last year after going 19-0 vs. Section 1 competition during the regular season. The Tigers lost in the opening round to Carmel, but enter this year having lost just three senior starters (Mike Mezansky, Peter Denyssenko, and John Cunningham) from that team.

I talked to Mike Chiapparelli about today, and he told me he’s already worked on trying to arrange a game against Virginia-bound Steve Proscia and Don Bosco, which was ranked No. 1 in the poll.

Mamaroneck also received an individual honor, as LHP Sean Hagan was selected as a second-team all-american. Hagan, a rising 6-foot-5 ace, went 6-0 last season with a 1.62 ERA and 48 K’s in 39 1/3 IP.

Clearly, I’ve been sleep-walking through the winter. There just hasn’t been much to offer in the way of baseball talk the last two months. Hopefully that’s about to change.

I don’t know what it was — maybe the pending arrival of Johan Santana in Queens — but I’m beginning to feel a little baseball in the air. So I offer you who I think are the top three offseason favorites to win their class:

Class C —
1. Keio: Unicorns are the favorites right now until someone proves otherwise.
2. Tuckahoe: With North Salem and Dobbs up to B, the Tigers slide up the ladder.

Class B —
1. Putnam Valley: Surprised? Last year’s Cinderella only graduated three seniors.
2. Rye Neck: With a budding ace, the Panthers will no longer be the little-team-that-could.
3. Nanuet: The return of its stars should make this one of the best teams in Rockland.
Honorable mentions: Kennedy, Briarcliff.

Class A —
1. Somers: A few reasons why — one, Tracy, two, Zlotnick, three, Battipaglia.
2. Lourdes: Always right there.
3. Pelham: The Pelicans wanted more love last year, so here comes the hype-machine.
Honorable mentions: Eastchester, Nyack, Lakeland.

Class AA —
1. Mamaroneck: Think they’ll be hungry come playoff time?
2. Mahopac: What a staff, anchored by Riefenhauser and Castellitto.
3. Ketcham: All I kept hearing was how this was a good, solid young team. One year later…
Honorable mentions: The rest of League I-C; John Jay; North Rockland.

Bronx/Westchester —
1. Stepinac: I think it’s the Crusaders’ year.
2. Iona Prep: The Gaels always come up with players, but they will miss Salem, Kopec and the Ardinos big time.
3. Mount St. Michael: Noticed that the Mounties have a couple underclassmen who showed up in the previous post.
4. Fordham Prep: Too reliant on seniors last year to not experience at least a little bit of a fall.
5. Salesian: Still up with the big boys.
6. Cardinal Spellman: Tough to compete in this league. No one knows it better than them.

Let me know what you think…if I can drum up some interest, I’ll keep the posts coming.

Just like with the 2008s, Perfect Game published its list of draft prospects who will either graduate high school or be eligible to be drafted from college in the ‘09 MLB Draft. Here’s a look at the locals who made the list…

NEW YORK —
COLLEGE — Rank Player Pos. Class B-T HT WT College Hometown
GROUP 3:
Tom Costigan LHP So. L-L 6-3 200 Manhattan Cold Spring Never drafted

HIGH SCHOOL — Rank Player Pos. Class B-T HT WT High School Hometown Commitment B’date

GROUP 2:
3. Anthony Corona C/1B Jr. R-R 5-9 190 Kennedy Catholic Carmel 6-8-91
6. Tyler Donovan C Jr. R-R 5-10 155 Iona Prep Brewster 5-2-91

GROUP 3:
Sean Hagan LHP Jr. L-L 6-5 200 Mamaroneck Mamaroneck
Michael Mercurio SS Jr. B-R 5-11 160 Kennedy Catholic Brewster
Jose Rivera 2B Jr. 6-1 170 Mt. Saint Michaels Bronx
Steven Rivera SS Jr. R-R 6-0 170 Mount St. Michaels Bronx
Pat Siciliano SS/3B Jr. R-R 5-11 160 Tuckahoe Tuckahoe

Local players from other states are —

Group 3, Virginia: T.J. O’Grady RHP So. R-R 6-1 215 George Mason Congers, N.Y. Never drafted 12-30-87
Group 3, Maine: Myckie Lugbauer 1B/C So. L-R 6-4 215 Maine Mahopac, N.Y. Never drafted 5-25-88
Group 3, Maryland: Mike Hoosier OF So. L-R 5-11 200 Navy Pomona, N.Y. Never drafted 8-15-88

The Section 1 schedules for the ‘08 season are finally up on the Section 1 website.

You can go to the Section 1 website by clicking here. Once there, click on “Games.” Then click on “Game schedules” and search for your school.

If anyone has any troubles navigating the site, let me know.

I’m sitting here this afternoon watching ESPN and they’re talking about how the Congressional hearings have been postponed while Congress gathers depositions.

My question for you is this: If given the opportunity — either as coaches to invite him or players to listen to him — would you want Roger Clemens to speak to your team?

A lot has been said about this in recent weeks. Clemens had a speaking engagement canceled last month because of his potential connection to performance-enhancing drugs. So I wondered what you thought?

I promised this a couple days ago. Thanks to a reader for passing this along.

Here’s the list of local players included, both high school and college.

NOTE: Here’s an explanation of the groups —
1. High-round draft (Rounds 1-3)
2. Mid-round draft (Rounds 4-10)
3. Late-round draft (Rounds 11-25)
4. Chance draft (players listed in alphabetical order)

New York state college players —
GROUP 4: – Tom Davis, RHP, Sr., R-R, 6-2, 195, Fordham, Madison, Conn., Never drafted – Pete Kennelly, RHP, Jr., R-R, 6-3, 185, Fordham, Pearl River, Never drafted, 11-15-87 – Tom Koehler, RHP, Sr., R-R, 6-3, 235, Stony Brook, New Rochelle, Never drafted, 6-26-86 – Gino Matais, SS, Jr., R-R, 5-8, 165, St. John’s, Bronx, Never drafted, 1-7-87

*New York state high school players —
GROUP 3: – 1. Joseph Panik, SS, Sr., L-R, 6-1, 175, John Jay-EF, St. John’s, 10-30-90 – 5. Steven Proscia, 3B, Sr., R-R, 6-1, 200, Don Bosco Prep, (Suffern), 6-26-90 – 8. Alex Maruri, 3B, Sr., R-R, 5-11, 205, Archbishop Stepinac, 2-6-90 – 10. Jerry Battipaglia, RHP, Sr., R-R, 6-6, 220, Somers, Villanova, 2-4-90 – 12. Alex Adami, RHP, Sr., R-R, 5-10, 185, Iona Prep, Binghamton, 7-16-90
GROUP 4: – Dean Dignelli, OF, Sr., R-R, 5-11, 197, Forman (Katonah) – Vinny Ferraro, 1B, Sr., R-R, 6-1, 175, Fox Lane, FDU – Kyle Kalaka, C, Sr., R-R, 5-10, 185, Ketcham, LeMoyne – Tim Panetta, C, Sr.,Fox Lane — NOT SURE ABOUT THIS ONE – Joseph Pedevillano, OF, Sr., L-L, 5-6, 150, Our Lady of Lourdes, Duke – Stephen Prosapio, RHP, Sr., R-R, 6-2, 175, Nanuet

Other college players: – Brent Weiss, 2B, Jr., R-R, 6-0, 180, George Mason (Suffern) — GROUP 4 – Steven Caceres, 1B, So., L-R, 6-3, 225, James Madison (New City) — GROUP 4 – Mike Wanamaker, RHP, Jr., R-R, 6-3, 230, Penn State (Nyack) — GROUP 3 (ranked No. 9 of college players in Pennsylvania)

If I missed someone, please let me know.

I just called BOCES, the organization given the tall task of assigning 35,000 games a year. They said some of the spring schedules have been posted on their website but not all. (Unfortunately for us, baseball is not one of them.) The remaining scheduled should be posted by the end of the month, so expect the baseball sked to drop at some point in the next few weeks.

To anyone interested in checking for the schedules on their own, go to the Section 1 website by clicking here. Once there, click on “Games.” Then click on “Game schedules” and search for your school.

Thanks to reader Schedules, who pointed out that the CHSAA baseball schedules are available. You can find them by clicking on this link. The first big Bronx-Westchester game of the year is Iona at Fordham on April 9, which also happens to be when the big guy turns 28. Will I celebrate on the turf at Jack Coffey Field? It’s possible.

Also, I am late on this, but I do have the ‘08 Perfect Game watch list for the draft. I’ll post it in a separate thread.