Player Name: Brian Kavanagh
School: LIU Post
Position: RHP
Brian is a 6’0″ RHP for LIU Post. He won seven games for East Meadow during his senior season in 2015.
He begins his windup with a slight step along the rubber with his hands held high. He has a leg kick that is a bit unique in the sense that his leg kicks out as opposed to being tucked closer to his body. He has a slightly bent back leg, and his eyes fixed on his target. The good thing about his delivery is that he gets good drive from his back leg. He gets good direction towards home plate as well, wasting no movement. His stride is sufficient for his height and he lands with his front foot pointed towards home. His arm angle is high 3/4 and he gets good extension. He does fall off to the first base side.
In his March 28 start, he recorded his first college victory and it was on a three-hit shutout. His fastball was in the 81-84 MPH range, but he located it extremely well and he has good movement on his two-seam. He also threw a devastating 11-5 curveball with two-plane break at 71-75 MPH that he commanded very well. He mixed in a few change ups in the mid-70s.
He works very quick, often getting back onto the mound immediately. He very rarely shook off the catcher, and when he did, it appeared it was just to throw off the hitter’s mindset.
He threw 113 pitches, and threw 60 percent for strikes. He also threw a high percentage of his curves for strikes.
Head Coach Gaffney noted that he loves his bulldog mentality, never backing down from a hitter. While his fastball is often not hard enough to overpower, he does have the ability to vary the location with his fastball at will. He often followed a breaking ball with a high fastball. That ability is often enough to confuse hitters at this level who will be thrown off with the alteration in eye level. His fastball appears much faster in that situation and is tougher to square. He also nailed the inside corner very well. Most young pitchers avoid the inner half, either in fear of hitting the batter or missing the spot and allowing an extra-base hit. Kavanagh is mature beyond his years and a great example of how you can get away with less than overwhelming fastball velocity.
He also showed that he was a complete pitcher by his ability to curtail the running game. While it helps to have a catcher like Thomas Asbaty that can nail down almost any runner, he also did three things very well. First, he varied how long he held onto the ball for. Some pitchers find that to be distracting to their tempo. He was not afraid to hold the ball for a few extra seconds to freeze the runner and then deliver a strike. Also, he was adept at throwing strikes from the slide step. Many pitchers lose their release point with a modified leg kick. He had no such issues. He also had quick feet on pickoffs and made accurate throws.
With all that being said, he is a complete pitcher. Despite a fastball in the mid 80s, he’s the type of pitcher that can win at this level because of his ability to do everything else at a high level. He’s a big-time pitcher for LIU and will have plenty of time to add some life to his fastball.
