April of 2017 marked the third year in a row in which Alex Blandino would find himself in Double-A Pensacola. The previous two times he had struggled to hit for the Blue Wahoos. Things were more of the same in the first month of the season for Blandino as he hit just .182/.357/.236 during the month. He walked as often as he struck out, but the hits simply didn’t come. On April 12th he went 3-4 with 2 doubles. It was the only game during the month that included more than one hit. It also accounted for two of his three extra-base hits during the entire month.
The struggles carried over into the early part of May. Over the first eight games, Alex Blandino went just 5-22 (.227). The infielder finally started showing signs of life in the second week of May, hitting .321/.472/.607. He would, however, slump from the 18th through the 25th before rebounding in a big way. To finish out the month he hit .400 with two doubles and two home runs in the final five games. While there was inconsistencies in the month, May saw Blandino hit .261/.383/.477 with 13 extra-base hits.
The strong end to May didn’t quite carry into June. Alex Blandino went 0-5 in the first two games played, but he picked things up quickly after that. From June 4th through the 18th the Blue Wahoos infielder hit .367 and slugged .735 with nine doubles and three home runs. He was promoted to Triple-A after a double header on the 18th. He would play in his first game with Triple-A Louisville on the 23rd. Over the final week of the month with his new team, Blandino hit .350 with more walks than strikeouts. He would finish June hitting .338/.417/.608 with 14 extra-base hits.
July began with a big slump for Alex Blandino. In the first two weeks of the month he played in eight games, but had just one hit, going 1-24 (.042). Things turned around quickly in the second half of the month. Over the final 15 games he would only go hitless in two of the games, hitting .347/.439/.633 the rest of the way. The slump held down his overall line on the month with a .247/.353/.438 line. He continued to show a strong on-base percentage despite the lower average on the month.
August got out to a solid start for Alex Blandino as he went 7-21 over the first eight days of the month. He didn’t play much over the next four days though, starting just once and pinch hitting three other times – going 0-6 in the stretch. When he returned to the everyday lineup he picked things up, hitting .333/.467/.667 over the next week. A mini-slump followed as the infielder went 0-10 through the next three games. Blandino rebounded well over the final two weeks of the season, hitting .295 the rest of the way with more walks than strikeouts. In the final five weeks he would hit .272/.392/.447 for Louisville, walking three more times than he would strikeout.
For all 2017 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).
Alex Blandino Spray Chart
Alex Blandino Scouting Report
Hitting | Alex Blandino can and does use the entire field, which is good. Despite that, though, he’s struggled to hit for average for a while now. His hit rates out as below-average.
Power | His power grades out as about average, with 15-ish home runs in a full season being in the area of expectation.
Running | Blandino shows off average to slightly above-average speed.
Arm | He’s got an above-average arm that will play anywhere on the infield.
Defense | He’s an average defender overall, but where he’s at changes how he rates out comparatively. He’s good at second and solid at third base. But, he’s below-average at shortstop because the range just doesn’t stack up to everyday shortstops.
Nothing really jumps out at you with Alex Blandino, but he’s solid across the board when it comes to his tools. At the plate there’s enough pop in his bat, and he makes contact. He’s also got a good understanding of the strikezone and it carries over into his strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Defensively his best position is second base, but he can handle third base just fine. He’s stretched at shortstop, but could be a solid back up at the position in the Majors as long as it’s not an everyday job. He’s athletic enough that he could probably handle the two corner outfield spots if given time to gets reps there. His bat, however, profiles best at second base – which is probably the spot where he’s most capable of being a starter.