Player Name: Frankie Moscatiello
School: St. Thomas Aquinas
Position: RHP
Frankie is a 5’8″ freshman RHP for St. Thomas Aquinas, that is a 2014 graduate of Rocky Point HS. He pitched exclusively from the stretch in his relief appearance on April 2. When he gets set his hands are relax, waist high and his feet are very close together. His motion is extremely similar to another 5’8″ RHP from Long Island–Marcus Stroman. As he lifts his leg, he looks down at his feet as a timing mechanism, and his hands are head-high. His back leg is virtually locked and his foot is parallel to the ground. He has a violent, yet controlled delivery. He explodes towards home plate, has a very long stride and lands with his foot lined up with home plate. His front foot is extremely bent, but comes back upon release. His arm action is directly over the top, and he is a max-effort pitcher. He get very good extension and he finishes square to home plate.
Moscatiello was incredibly impressive in his 3.2 innings of relief on April 2. He came in with the bases loaded and shut the door. In fact, it is my belief that if he would’ve started the game, the Spartans may have won the game rather than losing 9-3. He was that effective.
He worked with a three-pitch mix–rare for a middle reliever. He worked mainly 83-87 MPH with the fastball, 75 MPH with the curve and 70 MPH with the change. He displayed command of all three pitches, worked to all quadrants of the strike zone and walked only one batter while striking out six.
Moscatiello was especially effective at mixing up his pitches. He threw any pitch on any count. He threw high fastballs that hitters couldn’t catch up too, he threw curves that buckled their knees and he threw changeups to lefties that flailed. He was very sharp and showed no nerves when he entered with men on base.
He allowed four hits but no runs. He worked with an abbreviated slide step, and it did not affect his command or velocity at all. He also possesses a plus-pickoff move, nearly picking off the same runner twice in one at bat. It was similar to James Shields–it was incredibly quick and the throws were right where they needed to be.
He should be a starting pitcher or closer. Pitchers like this should not be wasted in long relief, even as a freshman.
