By Sean Duncan
Executive Director

I’ve been to five states over the course of seven weeks scouting a dizzying amount of players. In effort to synthesize my thoughts for a Digging In notebook or whatever, I tried to come up with a catchy name. You know, put a bow tie on a turd type of thing. Some ideas I had were: Brain Dump, Brain Leak, Brain Seepage, and Drain the Main Brain, to name a few.

Although I’ve always wanted to incorporate the word seepage into a headline, I needed something more specific. Then it occurred to me. In the course of my travels, I saw some things. Some of these things, when stitched together with other things, became somewhat interesting items. But not everything could be neatly classified as things and items. There was other stuff, too – seemingly random other stuff floating around my dome-piece like a SnowGlobe, or the actual snow that followed me from state to state, other than Florida.

Yahtzee!

Things, Items and Other Stuff was born …

Things

+ The 2016 class is extremely strong throughout the country, but the Midwest is particularly strong. Especially at the catcher position. Between Cooper Johnson (Camel Catholic HS, IL), T.J. Collett (Terre Haute North Vigo HS, IN), Ben Rortvedt (Verona Area HS, WI), Sam Ferri (Niles Notre Dame HS, IL) and A.J. Lewis (Mount Carmel HS, IL), there’s a dearth of high-level catching prospects in the Midwest – which is seldom the case. I had the opportunity to see all five catchers in a three-week span, and I was amazed by the level of talent.

Johnson, a 6-foot, 200-pound Ole Miss recruit, looks to be one of the top catch-and-throw prospects in the country. In fact, he very well may be the best defensive catcher I’ve seen in Illinois in the last 10 years ...