Player Name: Steven Foster
School: Hofstra
Position: CF
Steven is a 5’11” 170 lb CF for Hofstra and was one of the top prospects in the 2014 graduating class. He had a tremendous 2015 season for the Pride and was named to Baseball on the Island’s All-Long Island team.
Offensively: He is a left-handed batter that employs a bat wag, with a slightly bent knees and a high back elbow. In the above above, you can see how he allows the ball to travel deep, he stays closed and has enough strength to muscle the ball over the third baseman’s head for an RBI single. He has very quick hands and finishes with both hands on the bat.
He went 3-for-13 with six strikeouts in the season opening series against Texas A&M. Their pitchers were incredibly advanced and rarely challenged him with a fastball. The book on him is that he refuses to swing at a first pitch, he took it in all 13 at bats. He is a very good fastball hitter. He also has above-average power for a 170 lb hitter, he showed off his power in BP, hitting it out of Blue Bell Park. His power is to straight-away right field, but is a good gap-to-gap hitter. He had trouble laying off breaking balls out of the zone, in the first game he waved at a curve in the dirt on a 3-2 count and in the first inning of the second game. He also struck out looking on an 0-2 fastball in his next at bat. That pitcher, 6’4″ Corbin Martin, is better than any pitcher he will see in the CAA, so it is hard to make a definitive statement that he is susceptible to that sequence of pitches. Chances are he will do damage to a lesser fastball in that spot. His best at bats came in the third game. He blooped a first pitch curveball to left field from a tough left-handed pitcher, Ty Schlottman. In his next at bat, he ripped a single to centerfield against hard-throwing setup man Mark Ecker, proving he can hit an elite fastball.
Defensively: He played flawless centerfield, converting all of his chances and also throwing to the correct bases, hitting the cutoff man and showing pretty good velocity on his throws. It’s nitpicking, but the only flaw I noticed was that he drifted back on a fly ball over his head rather than running to the spot, but he still made the play in deep center field–roughly 395 feet away from home plate, covering tons of ground.
Base Running: He is a very good base stealer, he ranked third in the CAA with 19 last season. He is a green-light type of stealer that Coach Russo has plenty of confidence in. He nearly beat out a routine grounder to the SS in the second game, getting out of the box very quick. The only flaw was that he did not run hard on the ground balls to second base. It is not going to effect the play very often, but you would like to see your best player setting the example to the freshmen, even in those situations.
