Exclusive aXcess
Frank Catalanotto: What is the Proper Pre-Season Hitting Prep?
(Photo Credit: Spokeo Images) Baseball season is right around the corner. If you haven’t started, now is the time to transition into baseball-specific training. You should now take the focus from off-season training to preseason workouts. During the first part of the off-season, you should have taken some time to rest and let our body heal from all the wear and tear of the long baseball schedule. Then, you go on to building back some muscle that the body may have lost during the season. This muscle-building phase during the off-season is so critical. If you don’t take it seriously, your body may be more susceptible to break down. The off-season is when you focus on becoming a better athlete; incorporating workouts that include strength, power and speed. Six to eight weeks before the ...
What Is the Proper Way to Warm Up Prior to a Start?
It’s no secret that arms are getting injured at an alarmingly high rate. With that being the case, why wouldn’t you do everything you can to prevent an injury? It starts with warming up properly before a start. Here’s a rundown of what I did before my starts and it’s something that helped me avoid any arm injuries through out my career. A pitcher should be taking a light jog around the field in order to get the blood flowing. Regardless of the weather, this is essential in the process of preparation. You should be stretching out. This includes both your legs and your arms. You can do some arm circles, you can also do some light band work to keep working on getting that blood flowing. Run some sprints. Doesn’t have to be at 100 percent effort, but it’s wi...
10 Skyline Conference Players That Could Be X-Factors
The Skyline Conference has improved vastly over the past few seasons. There are now four teams that could legitimately win it this year. St. Joseph’s, Old Westbury and Farmingdale have each one it in the past three seasons. Below are 10 players that could have a large say in who ultimately wins it this season. Nick Attardi-OF, Farmingdale State The reigning Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year is a force at the top of the order. He hit .420 with a .514 OBP and struck out only seven times. They have transformed into more of a small-ball team over the past couple years. When I was playing there, it was a lineup filled with power but with the speedsters they have, they try to “get-em-on, get-em-over, get-em-in”. With the vast improvements of the rest of the Skyline Conferen...
5 ECC Players You Should Know Before the Start of the 2017 Season
Year in year out, the East Coast Conference produces a significant amount of talent on the diamond. Headed into the 2017 season, there are a ton of players that could make an impact across the conference not only with their bats, but in the field as well. Here are five players in the East Coast Conference you should get to know better before the start of the season. Jimmy Mendyk (3B) & Joe Spitaleri (SS) – LIU Post From former rivals in high school–at Plainedge and Division in which they played shortstop against each other–to the left side of the infield together in college, these two young infielders are some of the most exciting players you’ll ever watch play the game. And the best part about that? Their best years are still ahead of them. Although the the Pio...
Neal’s Knowledge: Should You Be High 3/4, Low 3/4 or Submarine?
No two pitchers are exactly alike. A major reason for this is because everyone has a slightly different release point. For that reason, certain pitches will be more effective for pitchers. I’ll go over the three most common types of release points, as well as which pitches work best for pitcher’s that employ those arm slots and then you can choose which one is best for you… High 3/4 Very rarely is a pitcher directly “over the top”. Clayton Kershaw is probably the closest to that. Most pitchers throw from a high 3/4 delivery. The reason for this is because it enables pitchers to maximize their velocity and their command while also putting less strain on their arm than dropping down. The reason it puts less strain on your arm is because you’re using your l...
11 High School Players That You Will Know by the End of the Year
Hip-Hop star J. Cole coined the phrase “the come up”. This is a term that describes the period of time before someone gets fame. Some people truly relish this time period, because this is where you set the foundation for your future. You put the hard work in and it will come back to you in droves in the future. Athletes are no different. While there are plenty of famous players that have come from our great region, this list will be comprised of players most people have not heard of. They are on “the come up”. Tyler Marinaccio-Plainview-JFK ’18 The uncommitted junior has one of the most aesthetically-pleasing deliveries you will see. He has a deliberate leg kick–resembling Japanese-born pitchers like Hiroki Kuroda–but it works for him. It gets him ...
Neal’s Knowledge: What Should a January Throwing Program Consist Of?
A pitcher should be treated like a race horse–carefully groomed and you cannot accelerate that process. When a pitcher picks up the ball for the first time in January, they haven’t pitched off a mound for over two months. I tell my pitchers before I see them on the mound they should have done a bit of long-tossing. You should not be going from inactivity to a mound. I took a lot of precautions to stay healthy in my career, and for that reason I landed on the DL only once–and it was a freak accident during BP while running sprints. Here are some crucial steps young pitchers should be following in order to avoid injury and be at their best by the time the season comes around. You should not be lifting heavy weights at all once you start throwing from a mound. Doesn’t ...
What is the Best School to Recruit From?
Today I was down at Shoreham-Wading River‘s practice and watching the varsity and JV team take ground balls and batting practice. It hit me that for a League VII school, they have had a ludicrous amount of high-end players over the years. They have had three Carl Yastrzemski Award winners (Keith Osik, Mike O’Reilly, Brian Morrell), and a handful of other high-end Div-I players (Eric Strovink, Bryan Sabatella, Tyler Osik, Nick Bottari just to name a few) and they also have four current players committed to Div-I schools. Obviously, there are external factors that give certain schools advantages such as the socio-economics of the city, the average income of the parents, demographics, the quality of the school’s head coach/athletic director. Here is my best effort to compile...
Neal’s Knowledge: How to Approach The Recruiting Process
One of the things people always ask me is–“how did you get noticed by the University of Miami?” Well, things are very, very different than they were in 1978. First off, the school only recruited from the list of the top 25 or so players in the country and I was fortunate enough to have had a good enough junior year that I was on their list and they found me. For the average Long Island baseball player, though, that may not be an option. On the bright side, there’s so many more resources available to you in 2017 than I had coming out of Sachem HS in the ’70s. So here is my advice given my years of experience involved in this baseball community on how you can pick which college you want to attend based on your baseball ability and your academic prowess without w...
Which Players From Long Island Could Get Drafted This Year? Part 1
This is a year where there is a higher-than-normal amount of players with professional caliber playing on Long Island. There might not be a first-round pick, but there will be plenty of Day 3 guys. To discuss them all, it will be broken into a multi-part series. Here is the first group. Jesse Berardi (Commack ’14, St. John’s ’18) You won’t find anyone that says a bad word about Berardi. He won the Carl Yastrzemski Award in 2014 and was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. His makeup is off the charts and everyone adores how he respects the game and hustles at all times. He was regarded as the best defensive shortstop to come out of Long Island since Shawon Dunston. His bat has come along and all of a sudden he developed power which only enhances his value. Assuming...
Players Poised For a Bounceback Year
The beauty of college athletics is that you get four years to prove yourself. Sometimes it’s a blessing, sometimes it’s a curse and that’s entirely up to the athlete based on his worth ethic. There were a number of players who didn’t perform the way they were hoping to last year–but have committed themselves to proving that was an anomaly. In this article last year, we correctly identified T.J. Santiago, Ron Bauer and Matt Seelinger as player’s that could enjoy bounceback seasons. Here are the player’s poised for a bounce back season: Nick Bottari, Hofstra This is the first season he enters fully healthy since he was in eighth grade, when he drove in 40 runs on varsity at Shoreham-Wading River. He has suffered a myriad of injuries and has gone thro...
Who Is the Best Pitcher On Long Island?
Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to watch many of the top arms on Long Island between games, showcases or even just a bullpen session. Here is my best effort at a list of the best of the best. We will go through them in alphabetical order. All pitchers will be assigned an “aXcess Grade” which is out of 10.0 and based upon a number of variations; i.e velocity, command, repertoire, age, projectability, body language. Ryan Aloise (St. Joseph’s ’17) aXcess Grade: 7.8 Aloise had a spectacular 2016 season, taking the role of ace for St. Joseph’s. He’s not a particularly hard thrower but he does generate lots of groundballs with his hard two seamer and gets swings and misses with his breaking ball. He was the winning pitcher against Johns Hopk...
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