Player Name: Brandon Bonanno
School: Mount Sinai
Position: RHP
Brandon is a pitcher for Mount Sinai HS. He has a very deceptive delivery with a heavy fastball that is tough to square up.
He looks down at his feet as a timing mechanism but refocuses as he gets to his balance point. His leg kick is not very high, he may be able to add a tick to his velocity if he does lift it a bit higher. His stride is good for his height and he lands with his front foot on line with home plate. His arm angle is a low 3/4, which enables him to get the nasty tailing action on his fastball.
In his May 11 start, he worked mainly in the 81-83 MPH range with his fastball and also a slurve that was about 10 MPH slower.
In the second inning, he ran into trouble by allowing four hits that led to two runs. This all occurred with two outs, after he struck out the first batter on a nice breaking ball and induced a ground ball to second base. The third batter had a long at bat and smacked a single to CF. Bonanno threw only fastballs in that at bat (7 pitches). It would’ve been a time to mix in a curve.The next batter bounced a grounder up the middle but it took a bad hop and went for a single. The next two batters both hit singles on fastballs as well.
After that, he settled in. He did allow a hit and a walk in the third inning, but benefited from a caught stealing and avoided damage. He threw more curves in that inning.
In the fourth inning, he lost his command a little and walked two batters but avoided any trouble thanks to two comebackers and a grounder to first. He threw only two of 24 pitches as curveballs and showed he clearly trusts the fastball more when he needs an out.
After a quick fifth inning that he threw 14 pitches (9 strikes), he ran into big trouble in the sixth. He got the first batter to ground out on a 2-1 fastball but allowed an infield single on 1-2, a single to center on 2-1 and a two-run double on a 1-1 fastball. After the cleanup batter singled to led, he benefited from an “at-him” ball to the shortstop that resulted in an inning-ending 6-5 double play.
In the seventh, he walked the first to batters to put the tying run at the plate. After an error by the shortstop to put the go-ahead run at the plate, he struck out the No. 9 hitter on a curveball on the outside corner (borderline) and then got a game-ending double play to the shortstop.
Overall, he showed he is a workhorse. He threw 150 pitches and did not lose any velocity as the game went on. He is very aggressive and didn’t show any nerves, despite occasionally losing the strike zone.
I would’ve liked to see the curveball more often in certain spots. He definitely shied away from it with runners on base, favoring the fastball.
He is very adept at holding runners on. His pickoff move is dangerous–he has quick feet and a lightning quick arm and he throws it accurate. He also fielded his position well on the two opportunities he had.
Bonanno can definitely pitch in college, but he will need to show he can throw offspeed pitches on any count. Also, 150 pitches is way too much for a high schoolers, but the coach clearly wanted to go with his best.
