Dominican prospect Alberto among log jam of short stops in Texas Rangers system

Dominican prospect Hanser Alberto is one of many young short stops in the Rangers system.  Elvis Andrus is the starter on the big league squad and uber-prospect Jurickson Profar is one level ahead of him in the minors.  He also has competition from his own teammate at class Hickory, Luis Sardinas.

With that said, Hickory Crawdads hitting coach Josue Perez says Alberto is "right there with them."  Perez continues:

When he came over here, it was a little bit of a different animal.  He didn’t know what to do on some pitches.  In the Dominican at their age, they don’t see that good two-seamer (fastball) and that good changeup at different counts. He was dealing with that last year.

Thus far this season, Alberto is in the top 10 hitters in the South Atlantic League.  Additionally he is playing several positions other than short stop, since their are so many short stops prospects in the Rangers system.

Alberto is from San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic.  He signed with the Rangers in 2009, the same year the Dominican Baseball Guy was following the Gigantes de San Francisco de Macoris in the Dominican Winter League.  I was based out of San Francisco de Macoris for the entire season, and I remember seeing this signing in the local newspaper.

He is one of the few players that the Dominican Baseball Guy has ever mentioned as being from this city.  The baseball infrastructure is much more developed along the southern coast of the Dominican Republic, so most players come from there.  However, there are many players from northern cities and from Santiago and other larger cities in the Dominican Republic.  So it is interesting to note the dearth of players from San Francisco de Macoris, considering it is one of the five biggest cities in the country.