Player Name: Dave Brehm
School: Connetquot ’15, LIU Post ’19
Position: CF
Dave is a 2015 graduate of Connetquot HS. He has had a terrific senior year in which he led the Thunderbirds to the Suffolk County AA title for the second time in four seasons.
Offensively: He is a real threat at the plate. He bats with a very crouched stance, with his legs about shoulder width apart. He keeps his bat almost parallel to the ground, he employs a bat wag and he keeps his back elbow way up. He has a very short stride, he simply lifts his up and puts it down. He has very quick wrists, he stays closed well and gets into a strong Power L position. He finishes with both hands on the bat and stays on top of the ball.
Brehm has showed the ability to hit the elite fastballs. In game two of this series he smacked a long opposite field double against the No. 1 ranked pitcher in the class on a high fastball. Here’s a breakdown of his at bats in this game.
1st AB: He fouled back a high fastball (strike 1). Took a high fastball (ball 1). Smacked a high fastball (pictured above) for a single through the 5.5 hole.
2nd AB:Took fastball inside (ball 1). One-hopper off pitcher’s glove to the SS for a single.
3rd AB: Foul, Foul (curveball, strike 2), Foul (fastball, strike 2), Popup to first base on curveball away.
4th AB: F8 on fastball away
He had two hits in this game. He swung the bat well. He showed he is aggressive. He swung at the first pitch on three of the four at bats, he took very comfortable swings.
Brehm showed he hangs in on right-handed curves, he simply missed it and popped it up. He is an all-around good hitter and will eventually be a middle-of-the-order hitter in college.
Defensively: He runs very fluidly in center field. Brehm can track the ball with the best of them. His hat falls off almost every time (perhaps for show), but he is effective and gets good reads on the ball. On the few fly balls hit in front of him, he showed the instincts to hustle in immediately and not break back.
Base Running: Not a speed burner, but he is instinctive and gets good jumps on the base paths.
Overall, Brehm is one of those “winning players” that teams love to have. He gets clutch hits, plays good defense and doesn’t hurt you on the bases. Definitely will be an impact player at LIU Post and probably an All-Conference caliber player. His line drives can turn into home runs with a little more work in the weight room.
