Player Name: Anthony Bonilla
School: St. Joseph’s
Position: OF
Anthony is a 5’9″ CF that is a 2013 graduate of Farmingdale HS.
Offensively: He stands crouched at the plate, with his feet about shoulder width apart, his back elbow up and a bat wag as the pitcher prepares in the stretch. As the pitcher gets set, he cocks the bat back and get into his hitting position. He has a small toe tap and not much of a leg kick. He has quick hands and he follows through with both hands. It was somewhat reminiscent of Nelson Cruz’s swing.
In the April 1 game, he had three hits in five plate appearances. We’ll break down each at bat.
1st At Bat: Fouled off first pitch, swung-and-missed at fastball at the knees, took fastball outside, smacked a single to CF on a fastball.
2nd At Bat: Took curve for a strike, fly out to right field on a fastball.
3rd At Bat: Ripped single to LF on fastball up in the zone.
4th At Bat: Strike swing, strike swinging, foul, strike swinging on soft change up away.
5th At Bat: Strike swinging, single to CF
He hits the ball very hard because of his quick hands, which resulted in three hits. He did look bad on his strikeout. It was a left-handed pitcher throwing 70 MPH and he appeared very uncomfortable.
Defensively: His speed is perfectly suited for CF. He ran down a few fly balls. He did almost over-run one that was hit directly over his head, but A) he still made a nice basket catch and B) those are the most difficult plays. He also hustled everytime a ball was hit to RF.
Base Running: He likes to get big leads and dance on the base paths. He stole one base and was thrown out once, but it took a perfect throw. He is a very fast runner and he is a weapon on balls hit in the gap. He scored on a double from first, where there was not even a play. The pitcher never attempted to pick him off, but he did get their attention.
