Latest news with #Summerhill
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
2025 MLB draft: Meet the players with Illinois connections who were selected
Several baseball players with Illinois connections were selected in Major League Baseball's 2025 amateur draft. Here's a look at which teams drafted them through the complete 20 rounds of the draft and where they were picked relative to their predraft MLB Pipeline top 250 ranking. Summerhill tops the list after being chosen in Competitive Balance Round A, making him the highest draft pick in Young history. The slot value for this pick, which indicates MLB's predetermined signing-bonus estimate, is $2.33 million. But Summerhill slid from first-round projections; ranked him No. 16. There were concerns about his power after he missed a month this season with a fractured right hand. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound outfielder slashed .323/.424/.535 with a .978 fielding percentage in three seasons with the Wildcats. Fauske improved on his predraft projection of No. 58. The 6-3, 200-pound outfielder, who grew up a Sox fan, earned 2025 Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year honors after hitting .461 with 29 stolen bases as a senior. With a slot value of $2.22 million at No. 44, it's likely Fauske will sign instead of heading to LSU. Episcope's selection, with a $447,400 slot value, makes him the highest draft pick from the Latin School. The 6-foot, 210-pound right-hander has had two major elbow surgeries and has seen limited playing time as a result. But he was twice named Ivy League Pitcher of the Week in 2025. Essenburg greatly improved on his predraft ranking, jumping from No. 221 to a $438,600 slot value. The 6-2, 200-pound two-way player was drafted as an outfielder and told the Daily Southtown he plans to forgo his commitment to Kentucky. As a senior, Essenburg batted .464 with 42 runs, 11 doubles, 19 stolen bases, 10 home runs and 49 RBIs. Wheeler, a 6-5, 205-pound third baseman, starred in three sports at Morris and is committed to Illinois. His selection has a $374,100 slot value. Robinson is a 6-1, 195-pound shortstop who starred at Homewood-Flossmoor and was part of the White Sox ACE program before three seasons at Illinois State. In 2025, he posted career highs in home runs (10), RBIs (45), walks (48) and OPS (.869) for the Redbirds. His selection has a $190,900 slot value. While he didn't attend an Illinois school, Counsell has a connection through his father: Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell. Both Counsells attended Whitefish Bay in Wisconsin, and Brady played three seasons at Minnesota before transferring to Kansas. The 6-3, 210-pound shortstop was drafted ($189,800 slot value) by the team his father won a World Series with as a player in 2001. Bilecki, a 6-2, 205-pound outfielder, played three seasons at Lewis after his high school career at Marist and is the Division II school's first MLB draft pick in 25 years. He told The Beverly Review he will be transferring to Arizona State for the 2026 season. Storm, a 6-3, 214-pound right-hander, has played two seasons at Rock Valley with a redshirt year in between. Brock is a 6-3, 200-pound catcher. The Brewers reported he slashed .462/.565/.870 with 23 doubles, 20 home runs and 75 RBIs in his third season of junior college. Mensik is a 6-2, 195-pound right-hander who helped Lincoln-Way Central to a Class 4A regional title. He's committed to Xavier, where his brother Landon Mensik currently plays. Nowak, a 5-10, 190-pound outfielder, spent three years at East Carolina before transferring to UIC for the 2025 season. He led the Flames in four offensive categories as a senior and was named first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference. Nowak is from Menomonee Falls, Wis. Schmitt is a 6-3, 200-pound right-hander who played two seasons at Wisconsin-La Crosse before transferring to Illinois for the 2025 season. The Madison, Wis., native led the Illini in innings pitched (80 2/3) and strikeouts (58). Chadwick follows his father as an MLB draft pick — Ray Chadwick was drafted by the California Angels in 1983 and made seven major-league starts in 1986. The younger Chadwick is a 6-4, 220-pound right-hander who attended high school in Canada before three years at Illinois State. Moore is a switch-hitting middle infielder who caught the attention of scouts who showed up to watch other players. Projected at No. 100 by he dropped to the 18th round after concerns about signability. He told the Knoxville News Sentinel he will attend Tennessee. Sanchez was a first-team all-state selection at LaSalle-Peru before three seasons with the Illini. The 6-foot, 211-pound right-hander was drafted after a junior season in which he went 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in three starts. Appenzeller, a 6-6 left-hander, was projected at No. 58 but dropped to the 19th round when signability became an issue. He confirmed to the Knoxville News Sentinel that he will attend Tennessee. Anderson is a 6-1, 195-pound shortstop. In his one year at junior college — which qualified him for the draft — he slashed .439/.520/.706 with 10 home runs, 63 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Young is a 6-2, 180-pound right-hander who was taken with one of the final 20 picks in the draft. He told The News-Gazette he intends to honor his commitment to Illinois. Four Illinois high school prospects were ranked fairly high on MLB Pipeline's top 250 before the draft but were picked in much later rounds or went unselected. Ethan Moore (Oak Park-River Forest, ranked No. 100) and Cameron Appenzeller (Chatham Glenwood, No. 58) were picked in the 18th and 19th rounds, respectively, far below their projections. Jack Bauer (Lincoln-Way East, No. 44) and Brandon Shannon (McHenry, No. 129) went undrafted. It's worth noting all four are committed to big-time college baseball programs: Moore and Appenzeller to Tennessee, Bauer to Mississippi State and Shannon to Louisville. Name, image and likeness (NIL) money available for players in top programs can be a deterrent from signing when drafted out of high school — and MLB teams won't use high draft picks on players who are unlikely to sign. Bauer, Shannon and Appenzeller are also members of the riskiest group of players: high school pitchers. Some players opt to build strength and get reps in college to increase their draft stock (and bonus money) in a few years. Players who attend a four-year college are eligible for the draft once they complete their junior year or turn 21. College players who were drafted but retain NCAA eligibility can choose to return to school instead of signing with the MLB team that drafted them. Each pick in the first 10 rounds is assigned a bonus value, but those numbers are estimations — it's up to the team and player to reach an agreement on the amount of a bonus. And teams can offer signing bonuses to players in subsequent rounds, even with no assigned value. Teams are restricted to their assigned bonus pool, with penalties for exceeding the total amount.
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%2FTAL-talat-market-spread-ATLANTASUMMERHILL0825-c38b1e87fde94d31b75e0a6bcad1a6df.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Travel + Leisure
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Travel + Leisure
This Once-forgotten Atlanta Neighborhood Now Has the City's Most Exciting (and Diverse) Food Scene
I have lived in Atlanta for more than a decade, and for much of that time I drove past Summerhill—a neighborhood just south of Downtown—without stopping. It felt like a forgotten place. Then a couple of years ago, I began to notice buzzy new restaurants appearing, and my interest in the area was ignited. Summerhill, it turns out, was a place for formerly enslaved people to live; it was also home to a large community of Jewish immigrants. Back then Georgia Avenue, its commercial corridor, was filled with general stores and a theater. But social unrest in the 1960s led to a decades-long decline; homes were boarded up and stores shut down. Summerhill's rebirth started in 2017, after the Braves moved out of Turner Field and Georgia State University took over the stadium, which anchors the area's northwestern corner. Then the Atlanta-based developer Carter purchased 35 nearby acres, including much of Georgia Avenue. Summerhill is now a case study in community regeneration. These days when I drive through, I see bakeries, barbecue joints, and beer gardens—not to mention restored bungalows on tree-lined streets. I also see a steady stream of visitors, not just on game days but year-round, especially at the trendier restaurants. Here are four of my favorite places to sample the scene. This feels like the quintessential Summerhill spot. A cheerful neighborhood restaurant, Little Bear serves dishes made with hyperlocal ingredients and craft cocktails with a clever twist. The chef-owner, Jarrett Stieber, draws on his Jewish heritage and Atlanta roots to update classic Southern dishes, like chicken meatballs with congee drizzled with a Manischewitz glaze and a turnip-green soup with kimchi, pickled carrots, and matzo. The menu changes often, according to what's in season. 'Everything is based on the farms we work with,' said Stieber, who received the Michelin Guide's award for Young Atlanta Chef in 2023. 'We try to make fine dining a little more playful, approachable, and affordable.' The décor reflects Stieber's sense of whimsy. Housed in an old brick building, the restaurant has exposed wooden rafters, string lights, and a hand-painted pink bar. Cartoonish drawings of Stieber's dearly-departed dog Fernando are everywhere. 'We didn't want a dark, romantic sort of fine-dining restaurant,' Stieber told me. On a late-summer visit, I had an heirloom-tomato-and-peach salad, with a vinaigrette made with coffee and tahini. On another evening, I stopped in for a pre-dinner drink (a watermelon-infused charanda ). The dining room was teeming with young, happy patrons. I couldn't resist ordering the golden-curry custard: a spiced pudding with crunchy bits of gherkin, an herb coulis, and a dollop of torched meringue. Vegetables in a dessert sounded odd at first, but they added texture and a delightful touch of saltiness. Little Bear. Dominique White/Grub Freaks/Courtesy of Asana The first thing you notice is the hand-painted mural along the back wall. It is a colorful homage to chef Parnass Savang's family, whose parents immigrated from Thailand and ran a traditional Thai restaurant in suburban Atlanta—now owned by Savang's aunt. The second thing you notice is that the food melds classic Thai recipes with Southern cuisine in dishes like green curry with catfish, broccoli, and turnips. Or hamachi crudo in a piquant blend of fish sauce, lime juice, and peach. 'I wanted to trust my gut using Georgia ingredients,' Savang told me. Talat Market is tucked on a quiet residential block of Summerhill, but there was nothing quiet about my visit on a cold night in December. Over a playlist of American 80s and Thai pop, the vintage industrial space was filled with thirtysomething couples and friends catching up over tropical cocktails. It was fun to watch the action in the open kitchen; Savang is often there behind the stove, along with his co-owner and fellow chef, Rod Lassiter. But it's even more fun to take another bite of the crispy rice salad with red-chile jam and crunchy Georgia peanuts. From left: Seasonal dishes at Little Bear, in Atlanta; chef Duane Nutter, right, and restaurateur Reggie Washington of Southern National. From left: Gabriella Valladares/Stills; Rebecca Carmen/Courtesy of Southern National While not the first destination-worthy restaurant in Summerhill, Southern National seemed to confirm the neighborhood's arrival when it opened in 2023. Run by chef Duane Nutter, who gained recognition for his Southern-sushi restaurant at the Atlanta airport, it brought a sophisticated vibe to the district. Dishes like Berber-spiced fried chicken, pimento-cheese spread, and mussels with collard greens have since won Southern National numerous accolades. Foodies flock to its loftlike space with polished concrete floors, garage-style glass doors, and an underlit, U-shaped bar. When I dined there on a recent weekend, the effortlessly cool crowd made the place feel like an extension of Atlanta's film industry. Opening in Summerhill was also a full-circle moment for Nutter. Born in Louisiana and raised in Seattle, he lived nearby when he first moved to Atlanta in the 1990s. 'Who would've known, 30 years later, that I'd move back and open a restaurant on the same block I used to ride my bike to work along,' Nutter said. A good breakfast was hard to find in Summerhill until this spot came along. Brian Mitchell moved to Atlanta from Florida nine years ago, and saw how the neighborhood was changing. Raised in a family of restaurateurs, he wanted to create a healthy spin on Southern cooking that catered to the area's diverse population. Opened in 2021, Poach Social is known for brunch items like avocado toast on brioche, jerk-chicken egg rolls, and an 'SLT' (with pan-seared salmon subbing for the bacon). It's all served in a bright space with barnwood planters, potted fig trees, and big windows. When I visited last summer (after it reopened following a big kitchen fire), the tables were filled with customers of different ages and races, sipping coffees and strawberry lemonades. This is what a neighborhood joint should be, I thought to myself. I was in the mood for something hearty, so I ordered the shrimp and grits, served with a sauce of spicy sausage and red peppers. 'We just want to offer great food, a great mood, and be very inclusive,' Mitchell said. A version of this story first appeared in the August 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline 'Hot Plates .'
The 42
11-07-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Meath name unchanged side for semi-final against Donegal
MEATH HAVE NAMED the same starting side that defeated Galway in the All-Ireland quarter final, as they face Donegal in Croke Park on Sunday at 4pm (RTÉ 2). The only change is a positional one, with Matthew Costello starting at full forward, and Keith Curtis going to wing forward. Meath's bench is also unchanged. The Royals come into this game on the back of a 2-16 to 2-15 quarter-final win over Galway. This is their first All-Ireland semi-final since their loss to Cork at the same stage in 2009. Meath 1. Billy Hogan (Longwood) Advertisement 2. Seamus Lavin (St Peter's, Dunboyne), 3. Seán Rafferty (Na Fianna), 4. Ronan Ryan (Summerhill) 5. Donal Keogan (Rathkenny), 6. Seán Coffey (Ballinabrackey), 7. Ciaran Caulfield (Trim) 8. Bryan Menton (Donaghmore-Ashbourne),9. Adam O'Neill (Wolfe Tones) 10. Conor Duke (Dunshaughlin), 11. Ruairi Kinsella (Dunshaughlin), 12 Keith Curtis (Rathkenny) 13. Jordan Morris (Kingscourt Stars – Cavan), 14. Matthew Costello (Dunshaughlin), 15. Eoghan Frayne (Summerhill – captain) Subs:
Chicago Tribune
11-07-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
2025 MLB draft: White Sox pick at No. 10, the Cubs at No. 17. Here's what else to know about the 2-day event.
Young High School in Chicago never has produced a first-round pick in the MLB draft. That could change Sunday if outfielder Brendan Summerhill is picked, as projected, after three seasons at Arizona. Summerhill is No. 16 in the top 250 prospect rankings heading into the first-year player draft. While the Minnesota Twins have the No. 16 pick, anything can happen once the Washington Nationals start the selections. The White Sox own the No. 10 pick, and the Cubs will pick at No. 17. The Sox used the No. 10 pick in 1988 to select Robin Ventura, who had a 16-year career before managing the Sox from 2012-16. Here's what else to know about the two-day draft and how recent Sox and Cubs draft picks have panned out. The MLB draft once again coincides with All-Star Week. The event will take place at the Coca-Cola Roxy in The Battery Atlanta, which is adjacent to Truist Park. The draft features 20 rounds over two days. The first three rounds — including the prospect promotion incentive, compensation and two competitive-balance rounds — will be held Sunday beginning at 5 p.m. ESPN and MLB Network will each broadcast the first 43 picks, then MLB Network will switch to a simulcast with for the remainder of the selections through Round 3. Rounds 4-20 will be held Monday starting at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday Monday The Cubs and White Sox each have 20 selections, one in each round. Neither team has incentive, compensatory or competitive-balance picks this year. Given how the draft order shakes out, the White Sox will have the first pick of Round 2 and each subsequent round. White Sox Cubs For the third year, MLB utilized a draft lottery to determine the selection order of the first six picks. The lottery was held during the winter meetings in December. The Nationals landed the No. 1 pick for the third time. They previously selected All-Stars Stephen Strasburg (2009) and Bryce Harper (2010) with the top selection. The 2024 White Sox, who had the most losses (121) of any major-league club since 1900, were not eligible for the draft lottery because they had one of the top-six picks last year (No. 5) and are a team that pays into the revenue-sharing plan. The New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees all had their first-round picks dropped 10 slots for exceeding a luxury-tax threshold. Back for the third year are the prospect promotion incentive picks, which were part of the latest collective bargaining agreement and designed to discourage service-time manipulation. The Kansas City Royals pick at No. 28 after Bobby Witt Jr. finished in the top three of MVP voting last season. MLB reported the total bonus pool for all 30 teams now tops $350 million and said the assigned pool values are up 4.8% over 2024. Last year's actual bonus spending — teams face penalties for exceeding their pools — broke a record at more than $374 million. Based on the value of their draft-pick slots, the White Sox are looking at a bonus pool of $12,169,100 — a 16.6% decrease from 2024. The Cubs' pool is $9,636,800, a 1.6% decrease. Those decreases reflect lower draft-order positions from last year. MLB Pipeline ranks the top 250 draft-eligible prospects, and atop the list is 18-year-old Ethan Holliday, son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday and brother of current Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday. Older brother Jackson was the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, and if Ethan follows, they would be the first brothers to be top selections. Kade Anderson, a left-handed pitcher who recently helped lead LSU to a College World Series title, is listed as the No. 2 prospect. He is one of 11 college players in the top 20, down from 15 last year. A storyline to watch: The Witherspoon twins, a pair of right-handers who played for Oklahoma, have seen their draft stock flip in the last few years. Coming out of their Florida high school, Malachi Witherspoon was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks but chose not to sign. Brother Kyson went undrafted in 2022 but is projected as a top-10 pick this year. Malachi is listed at No. 121. In recent years, the White Sox have alternated between a pitcher and shortstop in the first round. If that pattern holds, it's the year for a shortstop, and they could choose Mississippi high schooler JoJo Parker or Alabama high schooler Steele Hall at No. 10. If he's still on the board, California high schooler Billy Carlson once was projected as a two-way player at pitcher and shortstop. Only once in the last 13 years have the Cubs selected a high school player in the first round: Mount Carmel's Ed Howard in 2020. Presuming that trend holds, the college talent projected to be on the board at No. 17 includes Arkansas shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, right-hander Tyler Bremner from UC Santa Barbara and outfielder Jace LaViolette from Texas A&M. Gavin Kilen, an outfielder out of Tennessee who hails from Milton, Wis., also could attract the Cubs' attention. mock draft from July 3 has the White Sox taking Parker and the Cubs looking at Aloy, Kilen or local product Summerhill. Unlike 2024, when York's Ryan Sloan was projected in the top 20 and went to the Seattle Mariners at No. 55 with a large over-slot bonus of $3 million, there are no 2025 graduates of Chicago-area high schools ranked in MLB Pipeline's top 40. This year's list does feature six Illinois high school players — up from two last year — and two college players who attended Chicago high schools. All eight players were invited to the MLB draft combine in June, and seven participated; Summerhill was busy with the Wildcats at the College World Series. 16. Summerhill is a 6-foot-3 outfielder who set program records at Young before slashing .323/.424/.535 with a .978 fielding percentage in three seasons with the Wildcats. A perennial powerhouse, Arizona went to the postseason each year Summerhill was there and won the Big 12 title this year. He was also a 2024 all-star in the Cape Cod League. His brother Colin, a Loyola Academy alumnus, went undrafted out of Northern Illinois in 2024 but signed with the Los Angeles Angels and is playing for the Inland Empire 76ers in the Class A California League. 44. Jack Bauer is a 6-foot-3 left-hander from Lincoln-Way East who wears No. 24, a nod to the television show based on a character with his same name. He had a major uptick in his velocity this season, but control is a challenge. Originally looking at Virginia, he followed coach Brian O'Connor to Mississippi State. 57. Jaden Fauske from Nazareth was the 2025 Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year. A left-handed hitter who can play outfield and catcher, he hit .461 and stole 29 bases as a senior. He also won two Class 5A football titles. Fauske is committed to reigning national champion LSU. 58. Cameron Appenzeller is a 6-foot-6 left-hander from Chatham Glenwood who is committed to Tennessee. He could become the most recent Illinois high school pitcher to sign for first-round bonus money, joining the likes of Sloan and White Sox 2022 pick Noah Schultz. 100. Ethan Moore is a switch-hitting middle infielder from Oak Park-River Forest. He caught the attention of scouts who showed up to watch other players. At last summer's Area Code Games, he hit .357 with no strikeouts in 16 plate appearances. Moore originally committed to Louisville but switched in the fall to Tennessee. 129. Brandon Shannon is a 6-foot-4 right-hander who helped McHenry to the Class 4A title game with a dominant semifinal performance. The Louisville commit has a fastball that sits mid-90s. 215. Sean Episcope pitched for Princeton following his prep career at the Latin School. The right-hander has had two major elbow surgeries and has seen limited playing time as a result. But he struck out 70 in 64 innings of starting work for the Tigers across two seasons. 221. Conor Essenburg of Lincoln-Way West was named the Daily Southtown player of the year after he batted .464 with 10 home runs and 19 stolen bases — and went 5-0 with a 0.94 ERA and a whopping 94 strikeouts in 44 2/3 innings. He's 6-foot-2, bats right, pitches left and is committed to Kentucky. Two Cubs first-round picks made their major-league debuts this season: Matt Shaw (2023) and Cade Horton (2022). Shaw broke camp with the team and made his debut in Japan during the Tokyo Series. Horton made his debut in May and has started 10 games. Horton recently faced 2024 Cubs first-round pick Cam Smith — who is with the Houston Astros, a key piece in the offseason trade that brought Kyle Tucker to Chicago. Smith hit a three-run home run off Horton. Owen Caissie, acquired in the December 2020 Yu Darvish trade, is representing the Cubs at the MLB All-Star Futures Game on Saturday. Howard, the Cubs' pick at No. 16 in the truncated 2020 draft, spent most of the 2024 season at Class A South Bend but was sent up in September for 10 games at Triple-A Iowa. He started the 2025 season with Double-A Knoxville but went on the injured list in late April. Last year's White Sox first-round pick, Hagen Smith, has started 10 games for Double-A Birmingham and has a 2.91 ERA. His Barons teammate and 2023 first-rounder Jacob Gonzalez is slashing .247/.316/.696 with five home runs. Colson Montgomery, a 2021 first-round pick, made his major-league debut July 4, following 2023 second-rounder Grant Taylor's June 10 debut. They could be joined this season by Schultz, an Oswego East alumnus who is rated as the organization's top prospect by MLB Pipeline. Schultz and Braden Montgomery (acquired via trade) will represent the White Sox in the Futures Game. Three of the White Sox's later-round picks from 2022 have spent time on the big-league roster this season: Jonathan Cannon (Round 3), Tim Elko (Round 10) and Brooks Baldwin (Round 12). The Sox have twice had the No. 10 pick, selecting Ventura in 1988 and Zack Collins in 2016. It will be the club's 22nd top-10 pick. The Cubs have had the No. 17 pick twice, selecting Tony Woods in 1982 and Todd Noel in 1996. Neither player reached the major leagues.
Irish Independent
09-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Meath GAA Football League Round-up – Divisions 1 & 2
Title holders Summerhill lost further ground on the leading pack in the race for a semi-final spot in Division One of the Meath Football League when held to a draw by visitors Dunshaughlin in a Round 8 match at the weekend. It was a game the 'Hill needed to win to have a chance of a top four spot and they put themselves in a great position when leading 0-15 to 0-8 at the three quarter way stage. However, their challenge faltered after that as Dunshaughlin came storming into contention and the county champions preserved their unbeaten run with a last-gasp goal from Sean O'Neill to draw the sides' level 2-11 to 0-17.
