I might be a few days behind on this one, because it’s been pretty hectic here in Nashville with my teams getting underway with their spring seasons, but Hyannis released their roster.
Surprisingly, there are NO returning players for the Hawks, who went from being the basement joke for two years to absolutely dominating last season. (Actually, I was really surprised not to see a few of them returning, until I realized that it was an older team last year and most of them will be draft-eligibile this spring. Twenty-three of them, in fact, plus probably a few more based on age).
That said, onto the players:
Hyannis has two kids from East Carolina coming in, outfielder Ben Fultz, and freshman right hander Jeff Hoffman. Fultz hit .303 in 54 games played and was a starter for 46 of them. He’s a reliable outfield guy, but impatient at the plate, judging by his 44 strikeouts and 19 walks. He’s certainly capable of hitting for power–he has 4 HRs to his 2011 spring season, and a respectable 26 RBIs in that mix.
I’m excited to see the three players from Auburn, the three from Stanford, and the UConn guy, for the following reasons: Auburn is in the SEC, so I’ll get an opportunity to see these guys play Vanderbilt this spring, I have a lot of respect for Mark Marquess and the program that he’s built over the years, and UConn has sent a good group of guys to the Cape for years.
From Auburn, Hyannis gets Zach Alvord (So., SS), Blake Austin (So., C), and Bobby Andrews (So., OF). Andrews will provide a decent bat for the Hawks, having hit .396 last year (second best on his Tigers team), but being so young he saw only a fraction of the at bats of everyone else–53, to be exact. In fact, they’re all young. But, they play for the SEC, which is easily one of the best conferences in the nation. (I’d say the best, but I realize, working for an SEC school right now, I’m biased hah).
Stanford pitcher Sahil Bloom is actually pretty local–a Weston, MA kid. Played for the NECBL Mystics last summer, a star reliever who has a 0.55 career ERA at Stanford in 12.0 innings. Cardinal teammate Brett Michael Doran, who also played with the Mystics with Bloom last summer, is a sophomore infielder with a .286 average in ten freshmen appearances. Then there’s 15th round draft pick Dominic Jose, a talented young freshman outfielder.
Check out the rest of their roster. Season starts soon! (Okay not soon enough.)
By the way: they’re doing a Hot Stove fundraiser this weekend. Check out their page, support the team!
highheelsathomeplate
Ashley,
Great to see your blog. I’m currently working on a book about the last five years of the Cape League (living in Hyannis and attending a lot of games, meeting players, interns, host families etc) and I’d love to get more of your insights on the Cape League as you know it. I’m now in Georgia, but have a large wealth of resources with me- and I definitely can’t get the sand and salt air out of my mind as well.
By the way, hyannis is going for a policy of not having players who can be drafted- or limiting the number- hence the lack of returns. It was great to see them actually turn things around after four years of futility- but I got around to see a lot of the other teams as well- Cotuit and D-Y being my favorite places to go, not least ebcause of daytime ball- got lots of good photographs at Lowell and Red Wilson.
I look forward to seeing what you will be posting.
Cheers,
Jim Stewart
magister18459@hotmail.com