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New York State Games Recap: Which LI Players Performed The Best?

The three-day NY State Games took place from June 25-27 at Binghamton University, Union-Endicott HS, Maine-Endwell HS and Vestal HS. The event featured 340 of the top players from New York playing in front of roughly 90 college coaches.

Long Island was well-represented and featured some well-recognized players if you’ve been following us for the 2018 season. Some of the players that performed well come as no surprise, but a couple players really put themselves on the map with eye-opening performances. I spent a lot of time interacting with the Division-I coaches. Several of them asked by opinion on players that I have watched this season, and I was able to kind of pick their brains as well in terms of their opinions on our local players. Below is my takeaways and which players performed the best.

Kyle Rausch (Longwood 2019)

He smacked two HR today and he has basically been on a tear since the postseason when he was unconscious at the plate for Longwood. He has a rare combination of strength and speed and he is a fierce competitor. It is not a surprise to me as I first saw him at PBR’s Long Island Showcase back in February but he firmly established himself, in my opinion, as a Division -I player and I think the fact that he plays center field–and plays it well–only helps his case. He will be invited to our Home Run Derby at Baseball Heaven on August 16.

Andrew Ciufo (Pat-Med, Andover Academy)

Ciufo is a throwback player. As soon as the last out is made by his team he is the first player on the field and as soon as the third out is recorded while he’s in the field he’s the first one in the dugout. It’s not simply false bravado, either. His hustle paid off as he went 1st-to-3rd on an errant pick off attempt, he beat out an infield single to third and he stole two bases. He is very smooth in the field. That should come as no surprise as his brother, Richie, is currently at Brown University and was arguably the best defensive SS on Long Island out of the 2015 class. Andrew has really come into his own as a player over the last 18 months. When I met him in the Dominican Republic he was a 2nd basemen and, although he had the potential, he was not yet the best infielder on the field. After watching him in a couple showcases last summer and now 3 games this week he is clearly that type of player. He hit a HR today, so the power is there as well. I put a Division-I grade on him as well.

Roman Dorosh (Sachem East 2019)

If you’ve followed us at all this season, you know who Roman Dorosh is. He put himself on the map right away with an outstanding performance on Opening Day against Pat-Med, and aside from one mediocre outing against Ward Melville, he has routinely been the best player on every field he steps on this season. He turned plenty of heads when he sat 88-90 on Tuesday night at Binghamton and hit 91 twice. He has great arm action and some people even believe he has a couple more ticks of velocity in his body although I think he’s just about maximized what his current body size is capable of. That’s not taking anything away as his velocity, athleticism, slider, command and tenacity are all components of his game that factor into why he is the reigning Axcess Baseball League 1 MVP. He fields his position extremely well and he can even swing the bat well, although, his future is clearly on the mound. He’s an incredible pitcher and that performance proved that to many other people as well. He has the makings of being a weekend starter at the Division-I level.

Theo Farynick (Cold Spring Harbor 2019)

Here’s a bit of a wild card name as he has flown under the radar to this point. I was very impressed with Farynick, with his performance but I was also informed that he is a 3.95 GPA, 1500 SAT student which clearly puts him in the category that very few student-athletes are in. Farynick was recovering from a sore hamstring that he suffered running the bases last week which diminished his velocity slightly. He had reportedly his 88 MPH the previous outing but he was 83-84 with a few 85’s mixed in. He has a very composed delivery and he pounded the strike zone. Very good demeanor on the mound, I would put him in the high-end Division-II category with an outside chance of being a Div-I arm.

Joey Savino (Connetquot 2019)

Savino is no secret anymore after his All-Long Island season in which he was named Axcess League II MVP. He went 6-1 and did his best work in the postseason. He is 6’4″, he has a 3/4 delivery and has great command of his fastball and slider. He gets a lot of called strikes on the outside corner for some reason, My inclination is that it’s a combination of him having a deceptive delivery and also a comeback two-seamer that hitters give up on, but it comes back over the plate. I’ve heard he has offers to some big-time schools and he is yet to decide. I would say he’s in the category of Jason Diaz and Roman Dorosh, but he has the 6’4″ height which may put him No. 1 of that group in terms of future ceiling. He is potentially a Power-5 conference pitcher.

Jake Dannenberg (Longwood 2019)

Dannenberg is another under-the-radar type of kid, but he did emerge as a capable closer for Longwood this season. He’s got a fastball in the 83-85 MPH range that peaked a 87. I really liked his delivery, he appeared to have great balance and explosion towards the plate. He broke up a couple nasty breaking balls in the low 70s. This was the first time I watched him in-game but it was very impressive.

Noah Eisel (Oceanside 2019)

Noah was overshadowed on his own high school team being that they had players like Jake Lazzaro, Dylan Judd, Brendan McFall, Leo Alvarez, etc that steal the headlines but Eisel is a very well-rounded player in his own right. Like Rausch, he impressed me back in February and I thought he had a chance to surprise some people this year. He did that, putting on a performance against Massapequa in their series back in mid-April. Eisel is a middle-infielder with power that also hits 85 on the mound. He has a knuckleball that he commands at 76 MPH. A proactive college team could potentially utilize that skill set on the mound and stash him until a heavy fastball hitting team comes to town and they totally ruin their day. His power did surprise me a bit considering he is very lean but he packs a lot of power into his punch. He definitely turned some heads and I expect him and Lazzaro to combine for a dangerous combo atop the lineup next year.

Colin Diez (Division 2019)

I was introduced to Diez for the first time in the highly-anticipated Division-MacArthur match up when he asserted himself directly into the rivalry but recording the win with 3.2 shutout innings of relief including the final batter of the game on a strikeout. While he is certainly a capable pitcher that throws in the mid-to-upper 70s on the mound, his true impact is with the bat as a leadoff/No. 9 place hitter wreaking havoc with his speed. He has game-changing speed as we saw in this tournament. He basically steals every time he is on, and that includes third base. He put on a good showing during BP, I am impressed with his bat speed and ability to consistently find the barrel of the bat. Combine his skilled glove work in center field with his experience playing in big games and you have a high-end Div-II/possible Div-I center fielder.

Justin Harvey (Smithtown East 2019)

Harvey crossed off all the checkmarks, in my opinion, this week. Not only did he show off his arm behind the plate during defensive drills and in-game action, but he also ripped the ball a couple times and also showed himself to be a capable backstop by handling both Savino and Dorosh behind the plate.

Patrick Jarvis (Manhasset 2021)

I was at a different field, but I watched the video and also saw his bullpen back in February and this is an attention-grabbing player. To touch 85 MPH at 15-years-old is pretty significant. This is a power arm in the making. I really like how he generates power from his lower half. He’s able to do that at 155 lbs so it’s pretty tantalizing to think what that could become. I haven’t watched him in a game, but from those measurables and mechanics alone he warrants being on this list.

Ethan Farino (Ward Melville 2019)

Farino is another player that gets overshadowed on his high school team due to the presence of other high-profile players. Next year, it will be his time to get the attention, though, as he has clearly emerged into a frontline starter. His velocity doesn’t jump off the page at 82-83, but he has a couple things that separates him from the pack. First off, he has a low 3/4, almost sidearm delivery reminiscent of Walter Johnson back in the deadball era of Major League Baseball. Despite the arm slot, he has precise command of a bowling-ball sinker that frequently gets beaten into the ground for easy outs. Also, the movement on the pitch makes it extremely difficult to lift or even hit hard. These two factors make him the ideal high school pitcher. He also swung the bat very well, smoking a double to deep left field in the game that I saw. Back in October, he fired a 68-pitch complete game and hit a two-run single in the game I saw in Fort Myers, FL. Very impressive player with 6’2″ 185 lb frame. The best-case scenario would be for him to become a Jake DeCarli type at the college level that embraces the fact that he won’t generate strikeouts and can still go complete games with under-100 pitchers.

A.J. Verga (William Floyd 2020)

Verga was coming off an injury and was making his first appearance of the summer, according to his coach. The crazy thing is that he looked like he was in mid-season form with his command. He was in the low 80s, Very few lefties were sitting in the low 80s as he was, and he also broke off some quality slider/cutters in the upper 70s. Not common for amateur lefties to have the ability to throw in that wrinkle at that velocity. He fired a one-hit shutout in his varsity debut last year. He has a very high ceiling.

Doug Goodwin (Smithtown East 2019)

Goodwin has been on varsity since ninth grade and has been contributing right away. He had the pitchability and demeanor to succeed with lesser velocity and now that he has gotten into that mid-to-upper 80s he is a dynamic pitcher. He reminds me of Bradley Camarda from Hofstra. I think he will be a great fit at a Division-I mid-major.

Travis Krzemienski (Commack 2019)

The twin of Boston College-commit Jake Krzemienski has certainly flown under-the-radar in comparison. Still, he is a steady player in his own right that mans the hot corner and is a capable starting pitcher. He was very impressive, worked in the 80-81 MPH range, but he did two things that was impressive. No. 1–he threw a 64-68 MPH curveball for strikes on any count, showing that he has the confidence and ability to pitch backwards. Also, he mixed in a hesitation delivery that he told me he just began employing two weeks ago. I have a Division-II grade on him, but more importantly he has a winning pedigree and no nerves on the mound.

Tyler Widercrantz (Shoreham-Wading River 2019)

I don’t have a video but Widercrantz deserves to be on this list. I’ve seen him at Shoreham-Wading River and he also smoked a single on Tuesday in addition to being hit with a couple pitches. I’ve had him at 100 MPH exit velocity, just a strong kid with the ability to deposit a mistake over the fence of any field.

Michael Storms

Storms has been on my radar since I first saw him getting lessons with Neal Heaton as a sophomore. He just jumped out to me as a player that would be a star. He really came into his own this year. We covered his outing when he defeated Bay Shore to improve to 12-0 on the season. He has a delivery reminiscent of Billy Wagner to me. Obviously the fastball is not in that vicinity, but at 80-81 MPH he is a borderline Division-I arm. I think if the radar guns had never existed he would be one without a doubt. The thing about lefty pitchers like him are that the fastball velocity plays harder when you a) have command of a change up with the same arm action and b) have a deceptive delivery that hitters tend to not pick up on. That 80-81 is more than enough for him to dominate. Laid back demeanor with no nerves on the mound too.

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Vinny is the President of Axcess Baseball. He is a 2013 graduate of Adelphi University and he is currently the Long Island area scout for the San Diego Padres

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