Our reporter, Nick Vecchione, was on the scene at LIU Post during their DH against Southern Connecticut. Here are his observations on their biggest impact bats.
Rob Andreoli (Sr. Outfield)
While Rob is definitely feasting on pitchers this year, let’s take a closer look as to what makes him so successful up at the dish.
The first noticeable trait of Andreoli’s approach is how far his hands are separated from his body pre-swing, almost hanging over the heart of the plate. Now, this would automatically trigger in a pitcher’s mind that he may have trouble getting to a ball on the inner third of the plate. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. This is due in large part to his explosive lower half and mid-section. The flexibility in which he is able to get his hips through the Baseball is a dynamic characteristic, to where his hands have no choice but to follow at a ferocious pace, making his extremely quick hands a bi-product of his overall lower half concentrated swing. Andreoli hunts fastballs, as he rarely offers at any sort of junk that is thrown his way. This puts him in a great position to consistently make hard contact as he creates massive torque with his launch angle swing path. The MacArthur product, displaying insane balance, doesn’t show many weaknesses and never seems out of an at bat, even when well behind in the count, and consistently gives quality at bats. Moreover, the trust that his coach’s show in him was evident in the 7th inning with the tying run on 2nd base with nobody out. In most instances, coaches would automatically sacrifice the runner over to third this late in the game, regardless of who is up at the plate. Not with Andreoli up, however. There was never a hesitation to letting the polished left foot swing away. Of course Rob proves his coaches right by ripping a frozen rope game-tying RBI single to right field. With Andreoli lurking in the heart of the Pioneers lineup, sky is the limit for this team the rest of the way here.
Dave Brehm (Jr. Connetquot)
Right in the meat part of the Pioneer order sits Dave Brehm, who I compare to a Rubik’s cube in that he was extremely tough to figure out. It was definitely a roller coaster day for Brehm as his outs were very weak contact, and his hits were loud and as clutch as can be. The Connetquot graduate sports a basic orthodox right handed stance and utilizes a virtually zero load mentality. He frequently feels for the ball without much help from his lower half. He is basically all arms and shoulders on his swing as he consistently lunges, cheating to the fastball. There is little to no action in his lower half or hips. His back to forward momentum is completely diminished as there is no stopping point on his front side. Losing most, if not all, of his explosiveness. In his approach, half of the diamond is eliminated. He has one goal while up at the plate, and that’s creating damage on the fastball to his pull side. Now with that said, Brehm without a doubt possesses the “IT” factor. He gets the job done, as most clutch winners do. As he was attacked with a heavy dose of breaking pitches to the outer half, which was without a doubt a great game plan in handling Brehm, he made the adjustment to somehow square up pitches that he had no business doing so, in the biggest spots. As I had mentioned earlier, he inhibits a clutch gene which was on display as he delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the 7th and the game winning RBI in the 10th. Regardless of his weak contact outs, or over aggressiveness, he found an approach that certainly works in his favor which is validated by the highest BA on the team. The over extension in his swing can create a feast or famine type of outcome, but the biggest stars shine brightest in the biggest situations, which was so ridiculously obvious with the Long Island native on Saturday. He fills out and completes an already stacked lineup, as I predict that Saturday won’t be the last of the big hits to come for Dave Brehm.
Ramger Iglesias (Sr. Bronx, NY)
Out of the leadoff spot, Ramger “Rambo” Iglesias, as his teammates referred to him as during his at bats, possess a majority of the 5 tools that the game has to offer. Out of the leadoff spot, this quick and shifty lefty stands with a wide base at the plate, featuring a very early load positioning with his hands and toe tap. Like every good leadoff hitter should, Iglesias works the count, allowing his teammates and himself get a feel for what the pitchers gameplan is very early on. In contrast to that point, the 2nd basemen tends to get very long with his hands and overall swing path with less than 2 strikes on him. To work off that point, he drastically shortens up with 2 strikes and works to his strengths of connecting on the top half of the Baseball, utilizing his speed. A technique in which I think he should do a lot more of! A gripe that I began to develop is that he tries to do too much, especially out of the leadoff spot. He starts to get into trouble when he lifts out of his deep crouching stance at the plate, trying to create lift on the ball. It’s evident that he doesn’t trust his hands much in trying to do damage in the gaps of the field. When he vacates his legs, he loses significant power and explosion, becoming a very top half oriented swing. By trying to drive the ball, he actually counteracts that very concept, producing weaker rollover contact. He can certainly serve as a spark plug for a deep Pioneer order, however he compromises himself more often than not. He just possesses a unique set of skills that can often masks these fundamental flaws in his game. Huge upside and raw ability that has yet to be tapped. There’s a huge ceiling for the Bronx native once he hones into what the true role of a leadoff hitter is. I can’t wait to watch him wreak havoc for opposing pitchers and catchers both in the box and on the base paths this upcoming postseason.
Joe Spitaleri (Sr. Division)
Although not really seeing or hearing much about the senior shortstop, and despite his middle of the pack .254 average coming into Saturday, Joe Spitaleri actually was all kinds of impressive on Saturday afternoon. The smooth fielding middle infielder brings a straight up and down open stance to the right handed batters box. His approach is most glaringly defined by his drastically unique timing mechanism which includes his hands dropping as low as his belt and coming as high as his back shoulder in a continuous up and down motion until the pitcher delivers. The former New York Met first basemen, Ike Davis, came to mind while watching his pre-swing routine, however, I digress! Before I had a chance to see Joe take some live hacks, I figured something like this would be problematic, however, much to my surprise, I left that field convinced that something like this was absolutely necessary to put Spitaleri in the best chance to succeed given his bat speed. He tries to neutralize one of the quickest bats I’ve seen all year, for the pure fact that it keeps his hands occupied for a long enough period of time to where he isn’t ahead of everything he sees. On the list of what the Levittown native does well, right there at the top of the list is pitch recognition. He is a prime example of giving extremely comfortable takes on balls outside of the zone, and putting his best swings on pitches within the zone. To further highlight what Spitaleri does well, the senior Pioneer not only recognizes soft and hard breaking stuff, but also has the ability to adjust mid pitch flight. What I mean by this is, after his initial load, he is actually capable of sitting and squatting on his back side to keep his weight and hands back, almost serving as a “2nd load” mechanic, allowing him to explode on hanging breaking stuff to all parts of the field. It’s beautiful to watch when executed correctly, which not many can. Furthermore, he lands on a stiff front side leg, serving as a “brake” to his momentum allowing his weight to be properly transferred, not losing an ounce of power, with absolutely no wasted motion. Everything in his sequence has a Rhyme and reason about it. And as uncomfortable and awkward as his approach may look, he makes everything stay in rhythm. Given the complexity of his swing, it makes sense as to why he may have not gotten off to the hottest of starts, however, Joe seems to be in mid season form now, barreling up almost everything he comes across, as all his moving parts seem to be well in lock step with one another. Spitaleri is poised to carry this lineup well into the postseason, especially out of the 2 hole hitting in front of one of the best hitters on the Island in Rob Andreoli.
