The CSL Varsity Newsletter: High Praise for Maine East Grad Antoine Kelly Following Trade
Maine East graduate goes from Milwaukee Brewers organization to Texas Rangers org.
Park Ridge’s own tall, lanky lefty Antoine Kelly, a former Maine East standout, is on the move in professional baseball.
Kelly, most recently in the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization with the High-A ball Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, will move on to the Texas Rangers’ Double-A Frisco Roughriders after a Monday, Aug. 1 trade. The Brewers received Matt Bush in the swap. The Rangers received Kelly and infielder Mark Mathias.
The Brewers had recently elected to move Kelly up to Double-A.
My pal Dion Martorano, who writes for Journal & Topics Media Group (based out of Des Plaines), took a few brief questions from me to talk about the Maine East graduate.
“Antoine was one of the bright spots on a Maine East team that struggled a lot during his four seasons,” Martarano said. “He was able to keep his team in games they otherwise wouldn't have been. He elevated his team and made the Blue Demons a lot more competitive. He worked at his craft over his four years to get better. Antoine was able to break through and get drafted twice. That is not something that happens at Maine East.
You could just tell he was special. Maine East isn't known for having star athletes. You could tell he was a star.”
Martorano told me Kelly’s fastball improved noticeably every year of high school. For a Blue Demons program that struggled in his time there, Kelly managed to strike out 309 batters over 180 innings in his career (per Martarano).
As someone who has covered over 20 schools for a decade, Martarano has seen what excellence in the CSL looks like.
“It is great to see all this praise for Antoine, who is working hard to prove his doubters wrong,” Martorano said. “He is a good kid, with a soft-spoken demeanor. He has overcome the odds a lot in his life, so it is nice to see all the work he has put in start to pay off and get noticed by other people. Not only is it well deserved for him, but it is great for Maine East as well. I know he has some more work to do, but it is nice to see a national audience starting to see the talent that I saw when he was finding his way at Maine East.”
Joseph Hoyt is a sportswriter for the Dallas Morning News who does a great job covering the Texas Rangers. If you want to follow Kelly’s travels, Hoyt and fellow Morning News Rangers writer Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant on Twitter) will be great people to follow on Twitter or follow their writing at https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/
*This post was corrected to reflect that the team Kelly previously pitched for was the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.