Hissey weighing options

By Jay Jenkins

Published: June 13, 2008

A relative unknown in baseball recruiting circles, Peter Hissey was fascinated when Virginia offered a scholarship last year.
After several months passed, the Pennsylvania product was blown away again, drawing invitations to work out in front of scouts at Philadelphia’s Citizen’s Bank Park and Boston’s Fenway Park.
Showcasing his talent paid off when he was selected in the fourth round by the Boston Red Sox, leaving the outfielder with a life-changing dilemma.
“It’s really the best of both worlds,” Hissey said Wednesday. “As I see it and with all the scouts that I talked to, Virginia is the best all-around experience a college baseball player can have. That opinion is not only shared by me — I committed there — but everyone that is involved in baseball and has been to UVa says that.
“If I was to play for the Red Sox, they are the high-water mark of Major League Baseball.”
It would not be the first time Virginia coach Brian O’Connor lost a program-changing outfielder to the Red Sox. In 2006, Ryan Kalish was drafted in the ninth round and signed weeks later for $731,000 while rumors swirled in Boston about an agreement between the parties before the draft was underway.
“I am different from Kalish because I didn’t have a pre-draft deal,” Hissey said. “I told the Red Sox that I had a number in mind and if they met that I would sign.
“At this point, we haven’t talked any specifics, so it is all up in the air.”
During his senior season at Unionville High School, Hissey hit .509, had a .672 on-base percentage and stole 26 bases. His power numbers were lacking, but explainable.
“I played on a lot of fields with big fences or no fences,” Hissey pointed out. “And this year, I walked 30 times and had 70 at-bats.
“I play in a small league so all the pitches I saw were junk away. I had a lot of doubles to the left side and I hit a lot of balls off the wall that way because that’s where the pitches were thrown.”
Asking for at least $1.2 million in a signing bonus, almost double what Kalish got two summers ago, Hissey is unsure when a decision or offer will be made. He does not, however, plan to wait until the end of the Aug. 15 deadline that teams in MLB have to ink a deal with a drafted player.
“I would really say it is too early to tell. I really haven’t talked too much to the Red Sox since I was drafted. I talked with Jason McLeod, the scouting director a little bit, but we are going to see this thing out. He said we should know something by the middle of July.”
O’Connor will not have to wait as long on a decision from left-handed pitcher Danny Hultzen, the second of seven Virginia recruits taken in the draft.
Essentially, the decision has been made.
“It was definitely cool to get my name called in the 10th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks, but I know that I am going to Virginia,” said Hultzen, who went 13-0 on the mound for St. Albans School in Washington. “I have been telling them that I am going to Virginia the whole time and it’s cool that they picked me, but I am strongly committed.”
He also fanned 13 batters in a complete-game shutout in the semifinal game of the D.C. Baseball Classic.
The southpaw gained national attention after his velocity jumped from 85 to 88 miles per hour to low 90’s and even as high as 94 after a rigorous long-tossing and weight lifting program last winter. As radar guns multiplied at his games, Hultzen remained steadfast in his commitment.
Credit his father for the college-first approach.
“My dad has been really straight forward and says when you make a commitment that you should honor it,” Hultzen said. “He definitely kept that in my head.”
Hultzen said he is hopeful that the recruiting class remains in place, something that another drafted incoming player, third baseman Steven Proscia, echoed.
Proscia, in fact, took his wishes a tad further after Hissey became a first-day selection.
“I got a text from him after the draft and he said, ‘Congratulations. You coming to UVa, right?’” Hissey recounted with laughter. “He said we had the 10th-best recruiting class and he told me the number of players drafted in our recruiting class, which is really incredible.
“Steven’s a great kid.”
Hopefully for O’Connor’s sake, Proscia is an even better recruiter.