Player Name: Anthony Jacabacci
School: Bellport
Position: LHP
Anthony is one of the top prospects in the 2018 class.
He has a very clean and repeatable delivery. He begins his wind up with his hands around the belt. Sometimes, pitchers that begin like this ti[p their pitches. Generally, they will throw a fastball when the glove is tilted towards home and an offspeed pitch when it is not. He does not fall into this pattern, simply his preferred position. He has a very high and tight leg kick–with his front foot pointed down and back leg firm. Prior to beginning his falling action towards the plate, he hesitates for just a split second. This is something not many pitchers do, because in theory it is halting your force towards the plate. One pitcher that does this is Clayton Kershaw, and it clearly works for him so it is not unprecedented. He does get very good push off his back leg and has good direction towards the plate. He has a typical arm circle for a left handed pitcher, a sufficient stride for his height and an over-the-top arm angle. He naturally pronates his arm upon release, which gives him very good tail on his two-seamer. He gets adequate extension and finishes in good position to field.
In his first start of the season on March 30, he had to deal with sub-standard conditions. The wind was whipping around strongly, which generally makes it tougher to maintain feel on offspeed pitches–especially someone that relies on a change up as he does.
Still, he threw a four-hit complete game shutout. He was in control the whole day. He walked four.
He worked in the 79-83 MPH range with his fastball. He also mixed in a curveball, slider and change up. The change up was the most advanced of the pitches, he threw it in the low 70s, with fantastic fade and drop. He threw it behind in the count, ahead in the count and to begin at bats.
Having a former Major League pitcher as your pitching coach is never a bad thing, especially when you are both lefties and profile as similar types of pitchers.
There was no discernible patterns, but he wasn’t calling the pitches so there’s no need to dissect that.
What he did very well was a) worked ahead in the count and b) spotted his fastball on both sides of the plate. Most young pitchers will favor one side of the plate. He tied the lefties in knots with his two-seamer, getting lots of uncomfortable swings. Righties didn’t fare much better, as they waved at his change up and got lots of soft contact on his outside corner two-seamer.
The only really two hard-hit balls was a single up the middle by the No. 3 hitter and a double in the last inning by the No. 8 hitter.
He benefited from some solid infield defense. You can make the argument that he pitched to his defense, but not many pitchers at the high school level have the luxury of a Div-I middle infield.
Now, let’s discuss what he could work on. He did walk four batters. He lost the strike zone on a couple of occasions. That could’ve been chalked up to losing focus or losing a feel for the ball in the wind. He also showed a tentativeness coming off the mound to field a ground ball. He can certainly work on that in practice. He finishes his delivery ready to field, so there’s no reason not to come off hard.
Besides that, he’s a real prospect. He’s touching 83 at his age and he’ll only develop more velocity as he physically matures.
