Player Name: Matt Pugliese
Position: P
School: Seaford
Matt is a 2016 graduate of Seaford HS. He won three games during the ’15 season. He is 6’1″ 200 lbs.
He has a classic delivery for a southpaw. It is reminiscent to another southpaw that came from Seaford and he happens to be in the big leagues; Sean Nolin. He begins his windup with his arms relaxed at his waist. He takes a long step back along with the rubber before aggressively beginning his leg kick. At the balance position, he has his eyes locked on his target, his leg around letter-height and his back leg firm. He gets decent drive from his back leg, but it could certainly improve. Similar to Scott Kazmir, he kicks his front leg out rather than heading straight towards the plate. While many pitchers employ this technique, it is optimal to have no wasted movement laterally. Also, he lands with his front foot pointing towards the first base dugout as opposed to the plate. This is an easy fix and it could certainly help to take some strain off the shoulder. What he does very well is hide the ball. In the video above, you can not see the ball until he is about to leave his hands. This is one of the overlooked aspects of pitching, because it is not something that’s really quantified but any time you can disrupt the hitter’s timing it is a plus. The arm angle is high 3/4 like many lefties and he finishes prepared to field his position, although I would like to see him get more extension.
Pugliese worked mainly in the 78-80 MPH with the heater. He showed great command with this and also kept the ball down. Regardless of the velocity, that is crucial to pitching and plays at every level. He also showed a 67-69 MPH with substantial drop. That combination alone enables him to be a Division-II starting pitcher. I did recognize that he slowed down his arm speed slightly. High school hitters will not pick that up but college hitters certainly will. I don’t think it will have much of an effect on the pitch aside from being even more deceptive. He also showed a 63 MPH curve and 64 MPH slider but the change up was the most advanced of the off-speed pitches.
He will be very successful this season with his array of pitches and command. I envision him adding 2-3 more MPH when he learns to extend more on his pitch and drop the back leg more. He can be a valuable asset to the Division-II teams here on the island.
