Today was Stony Brook Scout Day at Joe Nathan Field.
10 years ago, there would’ve been very little reason for scouts from outside the Long Island territory to hike down to a small school that plays in the America East. Today, there was a dozen scouts watching and taking notes on all the draft-eligible players that the Sea Wolves have. Last year was pretty indicative of the program they’ve become in the sense that they did not win their conference yet had two players drafted. They also sent Daniel Zamora to the big leagues. He came in during the 2013 class that featured a huge roster turnover following their trip to the College World Series. I remember sitting in the Adelphi library when I first started “Baseball on the Island”, thinking to myself “who are these guys?” They started the season 0-6, but quickly fought their way back to relevancy.
Anyway, they had some impressive performers today. I’ll go throw a couple that caught my eye.
Nick Grande (junior SS) – It’s going to be interesting to see what the perception is of Grande from a professional standpoint. For those of us who have watched him since high school, we see the performance now matches what our eyes have told us back then.
For starters, he is mature beyond his years. When interviewing him in 2016, I noticed that he was not your typical senior in high school. Most kids are victims of circumstance–meaning their demeanor changes based on the external factors out of their control. Grande is not like that–he is always the same regardless of the situation. He has his head on straight and he’s similar to Bobby Honeyman in the sense that he’s going to go about his business and not look back or get distracted.
From a physical stand point, he is not the biggest or strongest hitter and he’s not Travis Janikowski on the bases but he just get it done. I think years ago that gets overlooked, but now people value his complete body of work and the fact that he has no glaring weakness on the field. He just seems to do everything well. For me, when he developed the power he became a pro prospect, I think that was the only thing limiting his ceiling, but when you slug .560 I don’t care if you are 5’9 or 6’7, that’s called being a dangerous hitter at the plate. He led the conference in several categories and also stole 32 bases. To me, he’s a professional player and I think he will continue to prove that. Now is that valued the way Jesse Berardi was in 2017 or the way Bobby Honeyman was in 2018? We will find out in June.
Michael Wilson (junior OF)– The fact that Wilson even ended up at Stony Brook is a testament to the coaching staff because he’s a kid that was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 15th round, and that’s the type of player that doesn’t choose Stony Brook in the past. He slugged close to .500 with a .293 AVG and 40 RBI as a freshman, so he was an instant contributor. He did kind of take a step back last year, as his slugging dropped to .400 and only drove in 23 runs.
He is a physical specimen, he runs well and he has a violent swing at the plate from the left side. I think he needs to either become a true power hitter and dismiss the strikeouts, or he needs to cut down on the strikeouts and have a considerably higher batting average if he wants to get drafted again. Hitters from the northeast are already have the chips stacked against them, so to stand out you have to do something exceptionally well. As we saw from previous Sea Wolves position players that have gotten drafted, it’s really about putting together an outstanding season and you have to have a couple elite tools. Janikowski did it with his legs, Willie Carmona did it with his mashing ability, Honeyman had the outstanding plate discipline. For an outfielder, you have to put up ridiculous numbers, so this is a big year for Wilson as he looks to re-establish himself as a pro prospect.
Brandon Bonanno (junior RHP) – I was looking back on my notes on Bonanno from his senior year in high school at Mount Sinai. He was 81-83 MPH with a curveball that he struggled to throw for strikes which led to a 150 pitching outing against John Glenn. Now, I haven’t seen all of his outings in his first two college seasons but I’m guessing that has led to an inflated ERA through his first 22 college innings. In any event, he looked sharp today. He’s 6’1, he has great rhythm in his delivery and he threw strikes. He also worked in the 87-88 MPH range with a couple 90s (very nice arm side run) while also throwing an extremely sharp slider that buckled some right-handed batters’ knees in their intrasquad. I think he has a chance to be a very valuable arm in the bullpen if he can just be a sinker/slider guy.
Jared Milch (junior LHP) – This is a potential steal for the Sea Wolves, landing a JuCo transfer from the College of San Mateo that could potentially be one of the best pitchers in the conference. I’m curious how every school in California decided not to recruit a 6’4 southpaw with a fastball that touches 89 and a slider with depth. To be fair, he could’ve just wanted to come to New York and attend one of the truly prestigious schools in the northeast but it just seems sketchy to me. Anyway, he looks like a potential ace if he can find the release point on his slider because he did throw a couple that wound up in the right-handed batters box and hit one batter. That could be jitters or the reason he was not recruited to a top-25 program. He has the chance to follow in the footsteps of Tyler Honahan and Daniel Zamora if he shows command all year.
Bret Clarke (senior RHP) – I feel like Clarke has been around forever because he was in the rotation as a freshman and won America East Rookie of the Year. He set the bar incredibly high for himself, having a 2.19 over 61.2 IP. He struggled mightily as a sophomore, and was a little bit better last year. The problem is he has never consistently owned the strike zone. Over his three year career spanning 187.2 IP, he has less than a 2:1 K:BB ratio. That is rarely something a pitcher can magically turn around. He does have swing-and-miss stuff. He showed his 92 MPH heater and a razor sharp slider. It’s also possible I could see him lowering his arm angle and just being a ridiculously tough to hit reliever that works off his slider. He will be a rotation guy for them, but I just don’t know if he can be a starter at the pro level given his inconsistency with his command.
Brian Herrmann (junior RHP) – Herrmann has sort of been the face of a particular type of player from Long Island. That’s the player that flies under the radar, works hard in silence and than causes all coaches to scratch their heads when they realized he fell through the cracks. As a junior at Northport he was 79-83 MPH, sort of a classic Division-III pitcher that could carve up hitters because of his command. He was committed to Cortland, where he probably would’ve helped them win a regional and make it to the College World Series. Then a funny thing happened–his fastball popped. He started throwing 89 MPH and Division-I coaches all of a sudden had found scholarship money for him. He winds up leading Northport to the Class AA Finals against West Islip, having won 10 games and pitched 70 innings for the Tigers. He winds up at Stony Brook where he wins our Rookie of the Year after throwing 80.2 IP with a 3.46 ERA as a freshman. What makes him successful, aside from the 6’4 height and 89 MPH heater is the demeanor. He’s a flat-liner on the mound. Nothing gets to him. At this level, you can’t be nervous and he certainly fits that mold. I think he’s going to be a professional player and with his calm and cool demeanor, he can definitely surprise some people.
