The Orioles have claimed OF Alex Hassan off waivers from Oakland.

[weams]

http://www.overthemonster.com/2013/1/30/3929782/alex-hassan-boston-red-sox-40-man-prospects

They liked him a lot last year.

Thus far, Alex Hassan has certainly shown a discerning eye at the plate. In 2010 he walked in 13.9 percent of his plate appearances in High-A. He matched that number again in 2011 at AA and then upped his walk rate to 14.5 percent with the move up to AAA. Just three hitters who qualified for the batting title walked more than that at the major league level and Joe Mauer, who had the highest OBP of anyone in the game was not one them, with a mere 14.0 percent rate. Players with an advanced approach can typically thrive in the lower minors, where they encounter so many wild young pitchers, but Hassan has carried that early success to each new level, making difficult to simply write off. There have yet to be any conclusive studies, but the prevailing theory among experts is that this incredible eye for balls and strikes is at the root of AHF’s contagiousness.

[Frobby]

Travis Ishikawa won a world series for San Francisco. Shame we could not have kept him longer. Dan saw it in him.

Right place at the right time. Ishikawa has a career .719 OPS, .703 in 2014. He spent most of this year at Fresno. I'm not lamenting that we couldn't hold on to him longer. I'm just glad for him that he got an opportunity in a big situation and came through. We all love those stories.

[weams]

Right place at the right time. Ishikawa has a career .719 OPS, .703 in 2014. He spent most of this year at Fresno. I'm not lamenting that we couldn't hold on to him longer. I'm just glad for him that he got an opportunity in a big situation and came through. We all love those stories.

I was tongue in cheek on this. I never wanted to keep Travis. He had his day of being useful though. Dan is visionary.

[LookinUp]

Remember when the Orioles were described by many on this site as lazy?

Dan is a lot of things, but lazy isn't one of them. He routinely gives us a depth advantage that previous regimes failed to provide. These moves almost always get a thumbs up from me.

[KurtCDavidson]

What does it say?

Things not safe for work or young children involving a certain list that came from Duke a few years back.

[scOtt]

If I had to guess, he looks like he's depth behind Steve Pearce and possibly a replacement for Delmond Young. Good depth move.

For all our successes, Davis, Chen, Tillman, Manny, AJ getting better and better, even Schoop, for all those I think Dan's depth moves are even more important. Every time we have an injury, need a spot start, pitcher or position player, Dan ALWAYS has a no-name player to fill the void. Even if that only helps you win 5 or 6 games a year that's 5 or 6 games! The difference in getting the Wild Card, winning the division. Dan is a magician at this. The puppet master.

[Roll Tide]

Very intriguing pickup, and fits the needs of the club well. I'd love to hear more about his defense.

It is said to be very good

http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20120405/News/304059154

Pawtucket manager Arnie Beyeler got to see Hassan up close in the Arizona Fall League, where the Boston College High grad played all three outfield positions.

“Arizona was the first time I’d had a chance to see much of Alex, and right away I could see he has a real good approach at the plate,” said Beyeler. “He’s looking forward to reaching the next level, getting his feet wet here at Triple-A, and producing. Alex really put himself on the map in spring training.”

“Alex will probably play mostly left field and right field here because we have Che-Hsuan Lin starting in center most of the time,” noted Beyeler. “But if Lin needs a day off for any reason, I know Alex can do it because he played a lot of center field in Arizona. His defense is very good, and if he continues to hit, we’ll have to find playing time for him.’’

[Pickles]

Just because Bill James wrote and pretty well proved that point in 1982 doesn't mean that news has filtered everywhere just yet. Some folks still believe that minor league numbers are just made up and have no correlation to talent.

Those people sure as sin don't work in ML baseball.

[Jammer7]

In what little video I could find on him, reminded me of Carney Lansford. Chokes up on the bat some and does not try to do too much with two strikes. Mostly an upper body swing, not much with the lower half. Would love to see this big kid use the lower half more early in the count at least.

He's depth, with options right now...and a chance to coach him and see what you get. They may even try to slide him through waivers later.

[Orioles0615]

85% of Markakis for 5% of the cost. Plus, there's this:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OlMJfX_V6Ic" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Except for the whole MLB player vs AAA player.

[weams]

Except for the whole MLB player vs AAA player.

The translation appears to be close to a 85 percent standard. Unless you are talking PCL numbers. Or sending the AAA player to Coors.

[OFFNY]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Hassan has options. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/orioles?src=hash">#orioles</a> like him vs LHP</p>? Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) <a href="

">November 20, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This is funny how do the O's know this? Get back to me when he hits MLB LH pitching.

Ugh. Come on, man. You're better than this.

I don't see anything out of character or unusual in regard to his post/comment.

[weams]

Baseball Prospect Handbook 2012 has him as having the best plate discipline in the Red Sox system. Line drive hitter who started turning on the ball more. Fringy speed with an average arm. Best suited for LF but can play RF and CF in a pinch. A "steady" defender.

Career .932 OPS against LHP's in the minors. .787 vs. RHP

2014 - .920 vs. .752

This move looks pretty interesting after looking at those splits. Hassan would look like a perfect platoon partner for De Aza if they should decide to go that way.

I assume Dan looked at it that way as well.