The Arizona Fall League announced their “Fall Star Game” rosters, which is the new term for the former Rising Stars Game. Alen Hanson was named to the roster for the East Division, and is the only Pirates prospect who will be in the event. The selection is usually reserved for the top prospects in the league. Last year Vic Black was the lone representative of the Pirates. Gerrit Cole started the 2011 game, and Robbie Grossman was also named to the team that year. Previous participants have also included Tony Sanchez, Jose Tabata, and Andrew McCutchen.
Hanson is 12-for-48 (.250) so far in the AFL, with a triple and a homer. He hasn’t been tearing the cover off the ball yet, although he’s still in the process of making adjustments to upper level pitching. The shortstop just turned 21 a week ago, so he’s still pretty young. He had some issues with errors in his first few games, although as John Dreker pointed out, he hasn’t made an error in his last seven games. During the regular season Hanson had a lot of errors, but they didn’t reflect his fielding abilities, which are strong enough to stick at shortstop. That has been the same report so far out of the AFL: his errors don’t tell the story of his defensive skills.
If there’s any doubt about Hanson’s upside, getting the nod for the Rising Stars Fall Star Game roster should ease those doubts.
