One of the top uncommitted players in the 2018 class is now off the board with James Cardinale committing to Hofstra University today. Many more to come in the upcoming weeks.
Why did Hofstra identify Cardinale as a top player?
James Cardinale (uncommitted) is one of the top arms on the class of 2018. He is looking to pitch the Cougars to the LIC pic.twitter.com/CefHlApUWi
aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2017
For one, Cardinale is a very polished pitcher. He has clean mechanics, very smooth arm action and command of a fastball, curveball and change up. His velocity remains in the 79-82 MPH range, which doesn’t typically translate to the Div-I level, but he certainly has room to improve still. With their current coaching staff, they have traditionally leaned towards upper 80s velocity but it would make sense that they would bet on a high-character kid that has the prerequisite pitching knowledge to allow him to succeed without dominating stuff. Plenty of pitchers have succeeded at that velocity and they’ve had guys in the past couple years that threw in the low 90s that didn’t quite dominate.
Additionally, they have now inked up Mark Faello and Anthony D’Onofrio, who are high baseball IQ kids with tireless work ethics and no character red flags. They are leaning towards adding players like that, to eliminate any drama or clubhouse issues. Having a dugout full of selfless players is what it will take them to compete in the ultra-competitive CAA conference. All three of those, in addition to class of 2017 Jimmy Joyce have proven themselves to be winners. They have played high-intensity games and don’t figure to be overwhelmed by the bright lights of college baseball.
So who’s the next player in line to commit?
Aside from some of the top class of 2018s, the biggest name that can go off the board in the next week is Massapequa phenom Johnny Castagnozzi. We wrote about him last fall, as he was fresh off being named the top class of 2020 in the state. He justified that by starting at third base and being a key cog in their Long Island championship victory over Commack.
He is a 6’3″ corner infielder with power. He just tripled in the Perfect Game tournament and it was recorded at 92 MPH off the bat. He still has room to grow, which is a scary thought. He just had visits with Notre Dame and Vanderbilt, two of the best schools in the country. I expect him to make a decision soon.
St. Dominic SS Mikey Florides has been in contact with Boston College and Kentucky and he could be making a decision soon. He is coming off an injury but is back to 100 percent and swinging a hot bat.
