#2 Hitter: Brandon Quaranta, Strasburg

This young man, Brandon Quaranta, has cut a pretty wide swath through the Valley League in his two seasons in Strasburg. If you follow the Valley League with any regularity, Brilliant Reader, you’ve heard of this young man and his hitting ability and monstrous power. (He pitches, too, of course.)

Let’s get right to the stats, for both 2016 and 2017, along with Brandon’s playoff stats, with the totals at the end:

VBL	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	Avg	OBP	SLG
2016	20	80	17	30	7	1	6	24	4	15	1	0	0.375	0.425	0.713
Play	7	29	9	13	2	0	5	12	3	8	0	0	0.448	0.500	1.034
2017	38	151	36	50	11	0	11	49	25	32	1	0	0.331	0.448	0.623
Play	9	35	8	7	0	0	1	3	11	7	0	0	0.200	0.383	0.286
Tot.	74	295	70	100	20	1	23	88	43	62	2	0	0.339	0.438	0.647

In 2016, even though Brandon came late and didn’t get enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title, he finished 4th in the league in home runs, and was named 1st team All-Valley at designated hitter.

In 2017, He had 4 hits in a game 4 times, and, perhaps not so coincidentally, was named ATVL’s hitter of the day 4 times as well. His best game was on July 21 against Woodstock, when he went 4-6, with 3 runs, a double, 2 home runs, and 7 RBIs.

He finished 3rd in OPS, 7th in OBP, 4th in slugging, tied for 5th in walks, 3rd in total bases, 1st in RBIs, 1st in home runs, tied for 4th in doubles, 9th in hits, and tied for 3rd in runs. That’s top 5 in 8 categories! He was named, again, first team All-Valley at DH, and a 2nd team All-American at utility in the entire nation by Perfect Game. Oh, right- he won the home run derby in the All-Star game, too!

Brandon also made both big prospect lists; he was named #8 in the league by Baseball America, and #9 by Perfect Game.

Now let’s take a look at what Brandon has done at Philadelphia University (which, by the way, will now by known as “Jefferson,” after the merger between Phil U and Thomas Jefferson University).

PU	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	Avg	OBP	SLG
2015	19	41	4	8	0	0	1	8	9	12	2	0	0.195	0.340	0.268
2016	35	102	22	34	3	0	7	25	15	20	3	0	0.333	0.444	0.569
2017	47	157	45	45	8	1	15	41	34	34	12	1	0.287	0.430	0.637
Tot.	101	300	71	87	11	1	23	74	58	66	17	1	0.290	0.423	0.563

Brandon led his team in home runs, RBIs, and walks in 2017, and was named to the All-Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference First Team.

And just for fun, let’s combine Brandon’s stats from the Valley League and his college team:

175 games, 595 at-bats, 141 runs, 187 hits, 31 doubles, 2 triples, 46 home runs, 162 RBIs, 101 walks, 128 strikeouts, 19 stolen bases (1 caught stealing), and a slash line of 314/430/605. Wow.

Congratulations on your two excellent seasons in the Valley, Brandon! Now go out there and have another great year at Jefferson, and force a major league team to draft you in June! (And happy birthday!)