His season in review:Young Jake Hager makes huge impact as a shortstop on the rise
The reason for his confidence is simple, his relentless work ethic. Hager knows that he needs maximize his abilities every day if he wants achieve his ultimate goal of playing in the Majors.
"Baseball is my job and it needs to be my focus, but it's obviously a pretty cool job to have," smiled Hager, as part of an interview at season's end.
This 18-year old had plenty to be happy about while looking back on his first professional season in baseball. Hager showed tremendous range at shortstop as well as a strong arm to go along with it.
"I thought I played pretty solid on defense. One of the big things I worked on during the season was my pre-pitch focus. I am very comfortable in the field, Ryan Brett and I became confident on double plays as the season went on," claimed Hager.
On the offensive side of things, Hager showed he has some extra-base pop in his bat with eleven doubles and four homers. The right-handed hitting Hager also showed a good approach at the plate as he went to right field several times for base hits in late-inning situations.
"This winter I'll continue to work on my bat to become faster and stronger for next spring when I'll hopefully join (class-A full-season) Bowling Green," Hager forecasted.
The slim 6'1" 170-pounder, who made his professional debut on July 4, also had a message for the fans of Princeton Rays' baseball, "I just want to thank everyone for coming out to the games this past summer and supporting the team the whole season."
Although Hager is still obviously early in his career don't be surprised if you see this former Princeton Ray playing on the left side of the infield beside Tampa Bay Rays' superstar third baseman Evan Longoria in a few years at Tropican Field in St Petersburg.
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