Player Name: Damien Fanduiz
School: Bay Shore
Position: RHP
Damien is a 2017 graduate of Bay Shore HS. He is currently uncommitted to a college.
He begins his delivery by rocking back and lowering his hands as he prepares to get into his balance position. At his apex, he has some movement, which is most likely the cause for his spotty fastball command. It is difficult to have the same release point when you have extra movement as he does. His leg kick is about letter height, his front foot is not tight–it is kicked out similar to that off Trevor Hoffman and his front foot is parallel to the ground. He gets good drive from his back leg, and he has an extremely long arm circle–pointing it to the ground before cocking it into throwing position. He has a decent stride length for his height and his front foot lands on line with home plate. For a delivery with as many moving parts as he has, he is remarkably in sync. His arm angle is directly over-the-top. he gets great extension on his pitches and finishes ready to field his position.
In his April 19 start at Northport, there was a lot on the line. He threw 6+ innings, allowing only one hit, while hitting two batters and walking four with nine strikeouts. He sat in the 80-83 MPH range but hit 85 on one occasion. He threw a curve at 75 MPH, and it was a 12-6 break. It is unclear whether he was throwing a change up or simply taking off some velocity on his fastball. His fastball has significant cut on it. Many pitchers have natural tail but he has movement that many hitters have’t seen. This is probably why hitters have had such problems squaring up his pitches despite not possessing plus velocity.
He showed some nerves initially by walking the first batter and hitting the third batter. He allowed a run on a sacrifice fly, but eluded any more damage by inducing a fly out to left.
From that point on, he settled in and threw five consecutive scoreless innings. He did walk four batters, but worked ahead for the most part. He often started batters out with curveballs and did not get predictable with his patterns. He did know to challenge the bottom of the lineup with his fastballs, with the exception of mixing one in later in the count after a foul ball.
He threw 114 pitches, 64 of those for strikes. That is a surprisingly low percentage considering the success he had this afternoon. It is clear that hitters have trouble squaring up his fastball regardless of the count so the normal guidelines for pitching ahead need not apply to him.
He did display a good pickoff move, having quick feet and throwing the ball with effort and accuracy to first base. On the downside, he did field one bunt in front of the mound and threw it away–forcing the first baseman to reach into the runner.
There were no issues with body language, or poor sportsmanship on the mound. He remained even-keeled in all situations.
If he can iron out his command and also develop a change up he is a Division-II pitcher. There is spot for him on just about any Div-III team, but fastball command is certainly important.
