Abreu forgoes senior year, signs with Astros
GREENWOOD – When the Houston Astros organization recently signed Lander's Alan Abreu as a pitcher when he was an infielder and outfielder with the Bearcats, it might have raised a few eyebrows.
After all, he never pitched in his two years at Lander.
Nor did Abreu pitch for Eastern Kentucky University, where he played his freshman year.
Abreu didn't even pitch in high school. Believe it or not, he never even pitched in little league ball.
But possessing what Lander pitching coach Chris Anderson describes as "an electric arm," Abreu began to practice pitching earlier this year on the advice of his Bearcat teammates and coaches Anderson and Kermit Smith.
Abreu pitched some in practice late in Lander's 2011 spring season and continued to work over the summer at home in Miami.
"The next thing I know, I am getting a phone call that he is throwing 95 (miles per hour) in front of scouts," Anderson said, in amazement.
Abreu has been so impressive that the Astros signed him as a non-drafted free agent after a private workout in Miami, reaching the deal on Sept. 6, only hours before he was to return for his senior year at Lander.
The Astros are sending the right-hander to the instructional league in Kissimmee, Fla., where he arrived on Sunday.
"It's a dream come true," Abreu said from a hotel in Kissimmee. "Coach Smith told me when he recruited me that the goal is to be a professional baseball player. Yea, it's pitching. But it's kind of surreal. I thought I was coming back to Lander as an outfielder."
The "pitching" part is the amazing aspect of the story. The Miami native has spent the majority of his career as an infielder and was converted into an outfielder for his junior year at Lander.
Abreu starred at Archbishop Carroll High School in Miami, earning team MVP and All-Dade County honors during both his junior and senior years. He was an infielder in high school, hitting .424 with eight homers as a junior and batting .350 as a senior.
Abreu signed with Eastern Kentucky, a Division I school in Richmond, Ky., where he hit .282 as a freshman in 2009, including one homer and 12 RBI. But EKU's head coach, Elvis Dominguez, left after Abreu had signed and became Bradley University's head coach.
"It was not what I was expecting when I signed," Abreu said. "So I sought new opportunities."
Abreu transferred to Lander for his sophomore year, and showed much promise as an offensive player when he hit .306 with one homer, 24 RBI, and 11 steals out of 12 attempts. He was a middle infielder and got plenty of playing time, especially with current Lander shortstop A.J. Nunziato missing the 2010 season due to injury.
But the Bearcat coaching staff decided to move Abreu to the outfield in 2011.
"He was a talented kid who played the infield," Anderson said. "But it made sense to move him to the outfield because I felt like his athleticism could be used more in the outfield than at, say, second base."
But he struggled at the plate as a junior, hitting only .177 with 22 hits in 124 at-bats, with no home runs and four RBI.
"In his sophomore year at Lander, he hit around .300 and our expectations were that he was going to get better," Anderson said. "In his junior year, I think he put a lot of pressure on himself to hit some home runs, and he struggled."
But Abreu showed a strong arm and was clocked at 95 with an outfield throw during workouts. It was a mutual decision to try pitching, where he could perhaps be an asset for Lander as a senior in 2012.
"I got it (the idea) from my teammates at Lander and my pitching coach, Coach Anderson, thought I should get on the mound some time and try it," Abreu said. "We talked about it here and there. I never really liked the idea, because I always wanted to be a hitter. That was my dream. But my teammates know that I am a team guy. And I want to help my team as much as I can. I tried it one day, and I guess I hit pretty high on the (radar) gun."
Anderson saw potential.
"I had been lobbying Kermit to put him on the mound and Kermit agreed," Anderson said. "Believe me, this was a huge topic of conversation and we were really hoping to bring him back for that purpose. But Alan had so much potential as a position player. And we had a good one-two combination (of starting pitchers in Cory Hopper and Chris Thomas) and some good guys in the bullpen like Michael White and Ross Davis.
"So our pitching was pretty good. And Alan had never pitched before. So we decided to take this (idea) into next year. I asked him to work on it (pitching) over the summer, and he did."
Abreu said, "Toward the end of the season, I got in a few innings in scrimmages (practices). I threw pretty hard and I started working on that. But at the same time, I was still working hard on coming back as the center fielder for Lander.
"I had never pitched. I have a plus arm from the outfield and was an average or above average hitter. The question of pitching never came up. I mean, I just played my position. I just got on the mound, and it just worked out.
"I started with a pitching coach down here who is a good friend of mine. He played some pro ball and knows some scouts down here in Miami, and he got them to come out and watch me."
So Abreu signed the dotted line on Sept. 6, foregoing his senior year at Lander. With an opportunity to return to his college team, Abreu had enough leverage to receive a signing bonus plus three free semesters of college at Florida International University (he is three semesters shy of a college degree).
"You can negotiate better when you are not finished with school," Anderson said. "You have no leverage after your senior year. You either sign a contract or you don't play."
So Abreu is looking forward to getting better on the mound during the instructional league. He already has a uniform and will wear No. 50.
"They know that I have only been doing this (pitching) for about two months," Abreu said. "The instructional league is really just basic training like positional work, PFPs (pitcher fielding practice), bullpen work, pick-off moves, just the fundamentals of pitching and working with a lot of pitching coaches. That's about the first two weeks. I think the next two weeks we get into a little game action, but very limited innings because there are quite a few pitchers here."
And in the spring, "hopefully I will have a job," as a pitcher in Houston's minor league system.
Anderson said Abreu will have a lot to learn as a new pitcher.
"Learning the game from the mound is very different than learning from the field," he said. "If you are a hitter or a positional player defensively, you are very reactionary. In pitching, you have the ball and are very proactive."
Abreu is the third Bearcat in the last several months to sign a professional contract. Drew Elliott, a left-hander, has been pitching in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, playing in Bluefield, W.Va., this summer. Right-handed pitcher Darrin Tew played independent league pro baseball in Marion, Ill.
"If you are a good player, you are going to be looked at anywhere," Abreu said. "I have played Division I and Division II, and the players are the same. You are going to find as many good players in D2 as D1. There are good players in every division in college baseball."
But for a non-pitcher to sign as a pitcher, that is "more of an aberration than the norm," Anderson said. "I really don't know that Kermit or I had anything to do it. If we did anything for Alan, it was to make him stronger and more athletic."
Abreu plans to come back to Lander later in the fall for workouts, and more pitching instruction from Anderson.
"I hate that we won't have him back on our team," Anderson said. "But he is going on to play professional baseball, and that's every kid's dream."
Abreu said he enjoyed his two years at Lander.
"I grew as a player and even more as a person at Lander. I enjoyed my teammates, coaches, training staff, and everyone tremendously. It was a great experience. But this is a dream come true. It's all happened so fast in the last month. I am glad to be where I am at. I am really going to miss being a Lander Bearcat."
