Scouting Report: Red Sox OF prospect Alex Hassan
John Klima | August 28, 2009
SCOUTING REPORT: ALEX HASSAN
Games Seen 2, Innings 18 (Seen playing for Orleans, Cape Cod League, July 2009)
Baseball Beginnings
Scouting professional prospects and identifying future major leaguers
Scouting Video: Red Sox OF or RHP prospect Alex Hassan
John Klima | August 27, 2009
The story went that Alex Hassan had been drafted as a pitcher, though when Baseball Beginnings scouted him, Hassan looked as uncomfortable on the mound as drivers dealing with the Hyannis roundabout for the first time.
In the video, it’s easy to see that he’s feeling for what he should be doing, and has the look of a guy who took the ball to be a team guy. Playing for the Orleans Firebirds on the Cape, Hassan didn’t throw hard, looked like he was just trying to get it over and not embarrass himself. It was experimental mop-up work.
Drafted in the 20th round of the 2009 draft out of Duke University by the Boston Red Sox, Hassan signed in late July and traded the Cape for the next step up the ladder, the short-season New York Penn League. He also signed as an outfielder, not as a pitcher.
Hassan as a position player is more at home. He doesn’t have the flashiest tools, but he’s a decent enough athlete to have been able to play both ways in college. His body has room to fill out and if one of his tools does pop, the guess here is that it will probably be power.
Hassan was a very “armsy” hitter when I saw him on the Cape, but then went to Lowell in the New-York Penn League and hit his way out of there in 17 games, hitting .350 in 60 at-bats with no home runs, which indicates that he made some adjustments. However, in scouting, you have to go with what the player gave you on the day you saw him.
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Double Duty: Q&A with Red Sox prospect Alex Hassan
John Klima | August 25, 2009
Alex Hassan got his wish and then got it again. Growing up in Milton, Massachusetts, he aspired to be drafted, played at Boston College Prep High and was selected in the 20th round of the 2009 draft by the Boston Red Sox out of Duke University.
There was a catch. Hassan was drafted as a right-handed pitcher, not as an outfielder, as he had always envisioned himself to be. So Hassan waited until July to begin playing for Orleans in the Cape Cod League, mainly as an outfielder. Hassan showed well for himself offensively, hitting .289 in 30 games. He had five doubles, two triples, and one home run, which is a pretty nice extra-base hit output for a one-month look on the Cape.
Hassan drove in 20 runs, made the Cape Cod League All-Star team, and signed shortly after the game at Fenway Park. When he signed, Hassan went in as an outfielder rather than a pitcher. Red Sox scouting director Jason McLeod explained to Baseball Beginnings the organization’s thought process.
“We drafted him as a right-handed pitcher. He’s athletic and has the makings of three future average pitches,” McLeod told Baseball Beginnings. “He was a kid who performed pretty well offensively in the ACC, and although the power numbers weren’t there, Duke is one of the harder places to hit home runs in the ACC. He worked out for us at Fenway and put on a good show in BP and followed that up with a good showing at the plate in a prospect game.”
McLeod said that was where Hassan hit his way into a chance to play every day.
“When he went to the Cape our intention was still to sign him as a pitcher, but every time we saw him, he swung the bat well,” McLeod said. “We eventually determined he had a chance to make a bigger impact as an athletic right-handed hitting outfielder. If hitting doesn’t work, we will have the option to move him back to the mound.”
When Baseball Beginnings caught up with Hassan midway through the summer, he was a guy drafted as a pitcher who was carrying his bats to the field like pitching was for someone else. You can’t expect a drafted player to come out and say what they’d like to do most, especially in the 20th round where demands aren’t best made. What Hassan did over the summer was show with his performance what he could never say with his words.
He came to hit. And if that doesn’t work out in the future, there is always Plan B. (more…)
