Anthony Aliotti

Organization Prospect Rankings

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  Ranked Oakland Athletics #23 prospect in 2014
  Aliotti comes from a football family. His father Joe is an assistant coach at California prep power De La Salle High, and his uncle Nick is the University of Oregon's defensive coordinator. Anthony stuck to baseball, and he's slowly built up his prospect status. He hit a combined .318/.432/.403 in three years at St. Mary's, but the lack of sock in his bat--he hit just seven homers in his entire college career--caused him to last until the 15th round of the 2009 draft. He's made strides toward addressing that deficiency, and the results showed in his combined 14 homers at Double-A Midland and Triple-A Sacramento in 2013. Aliotti always has possessed the ability to control the strike zone and a feel to hit, but he's added some loft to his stroke and now takes authoritative swings more often, rather than settling for singles. Though he's a below-average runner, he's an outstanding fielder and has been voted his league's best defensive first baseman by managers each of the last three years. Though he was left off the 40-man roster, Aliotti might one day fit into Oakland's platoon-friendly approach to the lineup. He hit .360/.444/.540 against righthanders at Double-A and Triple-A in 2013.