Today I was at the Pat-Med vs Hills East game. Below are my observation from a scouting perspective regarding the top players in the game.
Matt Hogan (Hills East ’18, Vanderbilt-commit)
Matt Hogan gets his first start of the year for Hills East pic.twitter.com/hblrAsAWOJ
— aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 19, 2017
Due to the strength of their rotation (Patch Dooley, Joe Litchhult, Kevin Glasser), this was the first start of the season for the Vanderbilt-commit. He will most likely be playing center field in college, but since he started I will also evaluate his performance on the mound.
It was really a tale of two games for him. He fired four shutout innings and looked like an ace. His fastball ranged between 87-89 MPH with a couple 90 MPHs sprinkled in. He has a very smooth delivery, with a long-arm action that is optimal for generating velocity. He worked up in the zone, but it was effective because they were unable to square it up. His best inning was in the third, when he struck out the 1-2-3 hitters in the lineup on 13 pitches. If he came out after that, I would’ve told you he can get drafted next month forgoing his senior year of HS. He had a devastating 12-6 curveball at 76 MPH and he worked all quadrants of the strike zone. It was very impressive.
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Unfortunately, his command began to elude him after that and they also got some more comfortable cuts against him, even on their outs. He did have a strike out in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the sixth, but his fastball command was off. He was unhappy with the mound, falling as he delivered the pitch on two occasions. When he was given the lead entering the sixth, I personally thought it was time for a reliever because he hadn’t started all year. He wound up walking four batters, including the tying run on a pitch well out of the strike zone. After he came out, the reliever walked the next batter so he was tagged with four runs over 5.2 IP with six walks and two hits batsman. It was very surprising to see.
Granted, he hadn’t started all year and his velocity and curveball was there but his command was not. Opposing Coach Frascogna said his team was worried when they noticed his curveball command was sharp in the early innings, because he had seen him struggle with his command of the pitch in the past.
At the plate, he was 1-for-3. He has some of the best exit velocity at the high school level that you will see. He was up 2-0 in his first at bat but gave a half-hearted swing on a pitch down-and-in that he could’ve drove. It was uncharacteristic of him not to smoke it.
In his next at bat, he ripped the ball on a low-line drive to left that just happened to be directly at the left fielder. It would’ve been an extra-base hit had he hit it just slightly in either direction.
In his third at bat, he hit the ball very well to the left field side. It was a great approach.
Matt is arguably the best left-handed hitter on Long Island. He is a phenomenal athlete and I expect him to return to his dominant ways in 2018.
Brad Malm (Pat-Med ’17, Albany-commit)
I am a huge fan of Malm. He does two things exceptionally well–he drives the ball to the gaps and he plays a flawless shortstop with a tremendously quick transfer and release.
He did not have an impactful game at the plate, but he is a very gifted hitter who was probably the second-best hitter in League 1 this year. He went 0-for-3, with one very-well hit ball in his third at bat but it was directly at the third baseman and it was fielder’s choice. To show how feared he is, Hogan intentionally walked him with runners on 1st & 3rd in the sixth inning, clearly not the prototypical situation to put the go-ahead run on base.
He played a great shortstop, and displayed some of his skills on the final play of the game. The ball was hit well on one-hop that the pitcher tried to barehand. He slowed it down enough that it appeared the runner would reach first safely, but he charged it hard, transferred quickly to his throwing hand and fired a strike to nail the runner by a step.
Mike Palazzolo (Hills East ’17, Stony Brook-commit)
I’ve long been a fan of Palazzolo’s silky-smooth lefty swing and his athleticism at shortstop. He is one of the rare players that gets recruited to Stony Brook as a shortstop that will actually stick at the position. He is slender, but he has the bat speed to produce line drives over the outfielder’s heads.
In this game, he went 1-for-4.
In his first at bat, he hit the ball well to right-center field on a fastball but it was run down by the outfielder. He then popped out to third base in foul territory in his second at bat, which was not a great swing. He redeemed himself with a well-struck single through the right side. It was a very good swing. He wound up scoring, showing his plus-speed around the bases.
He grounded out to second in his final at bat, a rollover on a fastball middle-in.
It’s a shame he didn’t get a county championship to finish his decorated high school career, he certainly appeared to be on his way.
