Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on C.J. Alexander
Scouting Report
Size/Build
Alexander has a significant build, and that was one of the draft concerns about him. He stands a true 6’5″ and is listed at 215 pounds. I could believe as many as 10-15 pounds heavier than that, and it’s definitely not bad weight at all. He has a wide shoulder, wide hip build to his frame that allows him to be plenty athletic at his current size.
Hitting
Contact (55) – Alexander has excellent balance through his swing. He begins with his shoulders a hair beyond shoulder width apart, and toe taps back toward his body before taking a stride forward, keeping his weight transfer to the back leg up until the point of contact very well.
This allows Alexander to generate excellent force behind his contact, and it will allow him to consistently generate decent batting average numbers in the minor leagues.
His hands are quiet in placement, cocking up and back just a hair as he begins his stride, but with exceptional wrist strength to get the bat through the zone. The one concern that I could possibly have with his current set up and stance is that he can pull his head at times and focus out to the field at the point of impact on the bat to ball.
Power (65) – Already, Alexander is able to generate exceptional gap power with a swing plane that lends itself to hard screamers around the field. He doesn’t tend to exaggerate his follow through for launch angle, simply generating excellent power at a good slight uppercut plane, which should translate to better power as he climbs the ladder. He’s a guy who could be considered to have plus-plus raw power.
Eye (60) – Often guys with minimal “big college” experience will get fooled with breaking stuff or chase way out of the zone, but that’s not an issue with C.J. If anything, his issue could be that he seeks out a perfect pitch rather than attacking a great pitch to hit, and sometimes that lands him on the bench or ends up with him protecting with two strikes and having to offer at pitches that he would rather not.
Base Running/Fielding
Speed (45) – A 40-grade raw runner due to slow take off, Alexander plays up his raw speed with impressive instincts and more 50-grade speed when underway. He showed those instincts on the bases with the Braves system in his first year, legging out 7 triples and stealing 4 bases in 6 attempts.
Defense (50) – This is where the biggest question on C.J.’s future currently lies. The video available on Alexander is limited from the defensive end, but what is there shows very good hands with fringe-average range. Talking with scouts about him, that is exactly the report I got on him, with a comparison given to Brian Dozier‘s play at second, as Dozier is not terribly rangy or gifted with his arm at second, but anything he gets to, he gobbles up and rarely errs on.
Arm (60) – This is another area that is tough to gauge from what I could find for available video. It is clear that there is tremendous power behind Alexander’s arm, but in a few videos, he was fairly inaccurate throwing across the diamond, so I am going to go with a conservative plus grade here. One thing to consider is that at his size, if he was to move off the position and not move to first, it’d be to an outfield corner, so that raw arm strength could be a definite advantage.