Player Name: Sal Fradella
Position: RHP
School: Chaminade ’15, Villanova ’19
Sal is the ace pitcher at Chaminade HS. He is coming off an 8-win season. He will be headed to Villanova in the Fall.
From the wind up he pitches with good pace. He steps back pretty far as he prepares for his delivery. He keeps his hands down around the belt and stays locked in on his target. At his balance point, his hands are head-high and his leg kick is shoulder height and his back leg is firm. He us a drop-and-drop pitcher that gets significant push off from his back leg. He has a pretty long arm circle and he points the ball deep behind him. The arm angle is directly over the top, he has a long stride for his height. He lands flat on his foot and gets decent, but not great follow through.
In his one inning outing in the Grand Slam Challenge, he threw only eight pitches and allowed one unearned run. He induced an infield popup to the shortstop on a well placed 85-MPH first pitch fastball. The following batter smacked a first-pitch fastball to left field for a single. The third-place batter watched a 73 MPH curve for ball one, an 86 MPH fastball for ball two and then hit a ground ball to third base for the second out of the inning but the base runner made a heads up play to advance to third. Fradella sprinted to third to cover the bag but he didn’t get there in time and the ball got past him to allow the runner to score. He then induced a weak ground out back to him for the third out of the inning on a fastball after throwing a wicked 72 MPH curve for strike one.
Fradella has great stuff and he has a bright future at Villanova. He spots the ball well and has a competitive demeanor on the mound. He was lights out in 2015.
