Mark Sheldon of Reds.com published an article on Alex Blandino on Wednesday afternoon. The article looks at how well he transitioned to pro ball, moving from third base in college over to shortstop with the Billings Mustangs and Dayton Dragons as well as playing at two different levels.
Let’s focus in on a few things from the article, starting with this:
Scouting reports indicate he has the ability to hit to all fields and has good plate discipline — with 29 walks and 60 strikeouts in 283 plate appearances.
While we don’t have any data from his college days we can look at his spray chart for 2014 in the Minor Leagues. Blandino is a right handed hitter and he pulled the ball into left field 22.9% of the time. He went to center field 18.1% of the time and took it to right field 19.1% of the time. That’s using the entire field quite well.
His plate discipline was quite strong in the Pioneer League with the Billings Mustangs. He walked 12.2% of the time and struck out just 13.7% of the time with the Mustangs. Both of those rates are very strong.
In Dayton though things weren’t quite as good. His walk rate declined to 8.6%, which isn’t a low rate on it’s own, but his strikeout rate more than doubled as he struck out 27.6% of the time with the Dragons. Between the two stops his overall plate discipline numbers were good, but his time with Dayton saw numbers that will need to improve moving forward.
The article closed out with this quote by Blandino:
“You can always get stronger and faster, and honestly, be more consistent both offensively and defensively,” Blandino said. “There are good players everywhere you go. It comes down to the guys that can put it together — day in and day out — so the big league team knows exactly what they will get for you. They are looking for that consistency.
“I’m honing in on all the skills I bring to the table, and perfecting them to be consistent is important.”
I wanted to focus on this quote because it tells you about how he approaches the game. One of the things that I remember being talked about with Blandino late in the season with Dayton was how he goes about his business every day. That he approaches the game, practices and just everything with a very serious approach and looks to find that improvement each day.
It will be interesting to see where he starts the season at in 2015, particularly if he’s going to continue playing shortstop. Carlton Daal hit .296 in Dayton but struggled to find any consistency on the defensive side of the ball. Blandino didn’t spend as much time in Dayton, but he hit at a solid clip, but as noted above his plate discipline numbers did decline some with the Dragons. Daal also seems like a better bet to remain at the position. Both players will likely remain at shortstop this season and one of them is going to be back in Dayton, with the other likely winding up in Daytona.