by Nes Lessman
While it's a bit quiet on the minors side right now because of the off-season, your award-winning farm reporter is still keeping up with all the comings and goings among the Nine's various teams, right down to the international complex.
I've just returned from Cuba where I got to meet the latest international acquisition, 17 year old Shawal Hussain. This young man hails from Karachi, where he's been pitching his heart out in an attempt to gain the attention of a BBA or GBC team.
Well, it happened. I was notified to come down to meet him after the signing, and I have to say, I came away impressed. While sitting on the plane coming down here, I watched every bit of tape available on him, which admittedly is not a lot. Pakistan isn't a hotbed of baseball, with even less players than India coming from there.
What I saw was a guy who will need to work hard to harness his potential, but the potential is definitely there. When not throwing it over the backstop, Hussain's splitter is off the charts good. He also has an above average regular fastball (sometimes), an either hit you on the knee or buckle your knees curveball, and a slider that either fools you or fools the catcher. This young man has stuff for days but he's going to need to get better at making it flirt with the strike zone.
At my in-person meeting, which I wore a batting helmet for, just in case, I saw him hit nearly 95 on the gun on the regular, which is good. But he also hit the gun itself, which is, well, bad.
I asked him about his workout and through his translator, this is what he had to say:
"I know I can be a big league baseball player. I just have to keep working at it. But I'm determined to get to the United States and become a star."
That's a tall order. From my perspective, he looks like he'll either flame out in Alamogordo or maybe get as far as Santa Cruz before his lack of ability to disguise and locate his pitches catches up to him against big-league quality talent.
Still, it will be fun to see what he can do. I'll be down here for a few more days to get a feel for who might make it into pro ball in 2062. Look for another column soon.
