Player Name: Mat Anunziata
School: Hofstra
Position: LF
Offensively: Mat is a power hitter that happens to hit leadoff due to the composition of the lineup. He is a rhythmic hitter that bats with an open stance, a high back elbow and slightly bent knees. He has quite a bit of movement with his hands and sways to lock himself into hitting position. None of this has any effect on his swing, he is able to get into a consistent hitting position when the pitcher is set. He has a short stride but has a very aggressive swing that produces some tremendous power. He has a strong base, and gets himself into a good power L position. He finishes with both hands on the bat.
He put on some performances during batting practice. His power is definitely best when he hooks it down the right field line. His quick bat speed is conducive to hitting some screaming line drives to right field.
During the weekend series in Texas A & M, he compiled only two hits in 13 bats, but had some really good swings. In the above video, he smoked the ball to start the game off Kyle Simonds to deep left field. As can be seen, he took a strong cut on a two-seam fastball on the outside corner. Rather than roll over, he kept his front shoulder in, threw his hands and dropped the bat head on the ball and generated lift. It certainly had the exit velocity to be a hit but hit it to the wrong spot. In the next game, he smacked a one hopper off the pitcher’s back and the pitcher recovered to record the 1-3 putout. He easily could’ve had four hits instead. To be fair, one of his hits was a dribbler down the third base line on a 90 MPH fastball that he barely got a piece of.
He did appear to overswing on a few at bats and tried to do a bit too much in the situations. That left him vulnerable to high fastballs and low-and-away change ups. He saw only 11 pitches in his five at bats in the first game, but that was more of a product of the pitchers getting ahead (they walked one in the game). He is not afraid to swing at a first pitch regardless of being a fastball, change up or breaking ball. He swung at all three of those through out the series.
He is not a prototypical leadoff hitter, in most other lineups he would be a middle-of-the-order hitter but the Pride have other hitters that profile as that type.
Defensively: Anunziata will not hurt a team on defense. In his limited chances, he displayed very good instincts right off the bat. A couple balls were hit in front of him and he reacted immediately and broke in. His arm is above-average. He was only tested once, and the runner was way too quick to throw out but he threw a strike to the cut off man who was set up very deep. The only downside defensively that he showed was a tendency to not hustle to singles hit in front of him. On that play which scored the run, he did not charge hard and that made the play uncontested.
Base Running: He was caught stealing in his lone opportunity. He looked back, so it was most likely a blown hit-and-run. He is thick, and not a green-light base stealer, but with his feel for the game he will steal bases from getting good leads off pitchers that struggle holding on runners and catchers that are mediocre.
Overall, he’s clearly a very good player. Hofstra ran into great arms all weekend. His at bats were inconsistent, but with his pop, he will be a difference maker. He’s also only a sophomore as of 2016.
