Baseball: Lake Stevens Shortstop Aspen Alexander Earning Player of the Year Consideration
Dominant season puts GCU commit in the same conversation as predicted top MLB picks Mason Pike and Xavier Neyens
LAKE STEVENS —Bat held upright in the left hand…forearm rippling….thousand yard stare framed by a mess of eye black… clean home whites and crisp purple pin stripes…. blonde curls piling out the back of the helmet.
Lake Stevens shortstop Aspen Alexander knocks the weighted donut off his bat for the fourth time Friday and strides slowly towards the right side of the plate.
He stops just outside the batter’s box and waits, bat gripped lightly in the left hand.
A moment earlier, he’d watched silently from the on deck circle as sophomore third baseman Blake Moser took ball four and skipped to first base in the sixth inning.
Alexander, a two-time Perfect Game Preseason All-American was already on a heater: 3-for-3 with two doubles and a triple.
And now he’d have a chance to throw gas on that fire.
“The Hottest Hitter We Saw All Summer”
It’s not a surprise that Aspen Alexander is posting impressive numbers. Depending on who you ask, he’s been at this level for a while.
In addition to the dual preseason All American nods, Alexander also earned a series of all tournament team and even MVP honors from the national travel circuit, where Alexander represents Baum Bat Northwest Upperclass
“He was the hottest hitter we saw last Summer.”
That’s what one Grand Canyon University baseball coach said on record. (And they should know about hot-hitting shortstops, they developed current Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson.)
And across the prep ranks, Alexander is a career .405 hitter across three all conference varsity campaigns with a reputation for a well rounded hitting/speed/defense game.
As one collegiate assistant coach/recruiter told J425,
“(Aspen) impacts the game in so many ways…he’s just so athletic.”
Although Alexander homered in WIAA play last year, neither his lofty average nor his previous season’s homer were necessarily predictive of the type of explosion his senior campaign has become.
Aspen Alexander is currently leading ALL of state 4A baseball in homers, slugging, extra base hits, and RBI.
Let that sink in. That said, it’s not like he just arrived.
Stat Leaderboards and Industry Rankings
Alexander was ranked in the top 20 in his class by a couple PNW-centric sites, including this one that has Alexander at 18th. They also think Xavier Neyens is 6’0 170 though. Not sure how often they actually see these guys (crying laughing emoji goes here.)
More importantly, the highest-level college baseball talent evaluators have long liked him: Alexander was a University of Washington commit as early as 16 months ago. During his recruitment, he received heavy interest from USC, UCLA Texas Christian USD, Duke, Arizona State, and Arizona – among others.
And most importantly, he ended his recruitment by signing with a top-50 D1 program last November.
These are pretty big resume bullet points.
"Aspen is extremely athletic in the field and has the ability to impact the game in multiple ways. He was one of the hottest hitters we saw this summer and has a very fundamentally sound offensive game.”
Division One Assistant Coach
Just because Alexander doesn’t currently command the name recognition of Mount Vernon’s Neyens or the rising public draft status of Puyallup’s Mason Pike…doesn’t mean Alexander can’t command a couple other things: like the state offensive leaderboards – and a young, talented 4A squad that just ripped through perennial state contender Jackson en route to a second straight Wesco title…. and a top seed in the WesKing tourney, where Alexander and the Viks just need to win one of their first two games to reach State tournament play.
Perhaps in the current barren media environment, there’s just not a ton of spotlight to go around when you’re part of a class that features established names like Xavier Neyens – a guy seen around Lake Stevens quite a bit — who has featured on Baseball America covers and MLB.com Draft previews for years, or perhaps it’s because reigning 4A champs Puyallup remain unbeaten…as their fireballing return player of the year Mason Pike’s name continues to climb industry draft boards. J425 has heard that Pike is likely to command a $2M+ signing bonus regardless of slot. Basically he’s viewed as a first round talent in other words.
Aim Higher: Look at the Leaderboards
But if you take your glance away from industry reports and social media and instead direct it to the Wesco leaderboards, you’ll notice one name repeated again and again and again: Aspen Alexander.
Hell, aim higher. Take a look at the state 4A leaderboards.
Story Continues Past the Jump with Stats, Photos, Video of Aspen’s Senior Night Homer and more…
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