Alex Bassani

From BR Bullpen

Alex Bassani

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 5' 8", Weight 187 lb.

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Alex Bassani has played in the Italian Baseball League/Serie A1 and for the Italian national team.

Bassani debuted in Italy's top league in 2013 with Fortitudo Bologna, backing up Juan Carlos Infante at shortstop and going 0 for 2. He moved to the Godo Knights for the 2014 IBL, moving to the mound and going 1-2 with a 5.20 ERA. He was 2-1 with two saves and a 3.57 ERA in 2015 despite a .333 opponent average. He tied Yulman Ribeiro and Jhonny Montoya for 7th in the league in saves. [1] In 2016, he was loaned by Bologna to Novara (perhaps being loaned to Godo in 2014-2015 as well?). [2] They used him as a 3B/P, hitting .259/.325/.304 as a regular and posting a 1-2, 4.20 record. The rest of the staff was 1-30. He led the last-place team in average and was second on their team in ERA behind Ribeiro. He fielded .886. [3]

He hit .279/.397/.329 for Novara in the 2017 IBL and had a 5-6, 2.70 record, fielding .915. He was 8th in the league in opponent average (.208, between former major leaguer César Jiménez and Junior Oberto), 2nd in IP (96 2/3, 1/3 behind Ronald Uviedo), 4th with 74 whiffs (between Jonnathan Aristil and former MLBer Rudy Owens), tied for 9th in wins and tied Uviedo for 5th in losses. [4] He joined ASD Rimini for 2018. In the 2018 European Champions Cup, he lost to Heidenheim Heideköpfe. He went 3 2/3 innings, giving up a two-run homer to Gary Owens, before Ricardo Hernandez relieved [5] He pitched for Italy in the 2018 Haarlem Baseball Week, going 0-1 with a 2.45 ERA. In the bottom of the 9th, against the host Netherlands, he walked Gilmer Lampe, Dudley Leonora and Gianison Boekhoudt and gave up a game-losing single to Yurendell de Caster. [6]

In the regular season, he was 4-0 with a 3.18 ERA for Rimini. He held opponents to a .201 average, 10th in the 2018 Serie A1. Being on a stronger team, he no longer took the field, being used almost exclusively on the hill. [7] He was 1-1 with a 2.86 ERA in the semifinals. [8] He made Italy's squad for the 2018 Super6. He had the team's first save in a Super6, relieving Valerio Simone with two on, one out and a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the 8th against Belgium. He fanned Robin Roevens, gave up a RBI single to Yves Poesmans and retired Benjamin Goffaux. After Italy got two in the top of the 9th, Benjamin Dille reached on an error but Bassani fanned former Mets farmhand Thomas De Wolf on a full count and got Dennis De Quint to hit into a twin killing to save Angelo Palumbo's win. In his other outing, against the champion Dutch national team, he relieved Filippo Crepaldi in the bottom of the 9th after the Dutch had tied it at 7 with two homers. He struck out two players with US pro experience, Boekhoudt and Lampe, to escape the frame. Italy scored one in the top of the 10th. In the bottom of the 10th, Bassani failed to hang on. Two runners started aboard under the Schiller Rule and Leonora bunted them over. Dwayne Kemp singled in one run and Randolph Oduber singled in another to hand Bassani the loss. He tied Kevin Kelly, Cedric De Smedt and teammate Andrea Pizziconi for the most saves (1) in the first Super6. [9]

Bassani returned to his original Bologna club for 2019. He got the win over Wes Roemer and the Arrows Ostrava in the 2019 European Champions Cup, fanning four in two innings and allowing one unearned run. In the championship game, he closed out Raúl Rivero's shutout win over the L&D Amsterdam Pirates, retiring 4 of 5 hitters, two by strikeouts. [10] In the 2019 Serie A1, he was 4-1 with a save and a 4.38 ERA. He was 10th in the league with 46 Ks and tied for 3rd in wins (behind Carlos Quevedo and Alessandro Maestri). He tied for the lead with 12 games pitched. [11] He struggled in the semifinals at 1-1, 9.64. [12] In the 2019 Italian Series, he pitched three shutout innings in Game 2 and Bologna came back to beat T&A San Marino after he left. They pulled off a sweep to take both the European and Italian titles in the same season for the first time. Only Series MVP Rivero had a better ERA in the finals. [13]

He was with Italy for the 2019 European Championship. Against Croatia, he struck out all three batters in the 10th (Ronnie Krsolovic, Chris Ciatti and Fran Stančić Vidrač) and got the win when Italy scored in the bottom of the inning to avoid an upset. In the semifinals, he saved Andrea Pizziconi's 7-6 win over Israel, fanning four in two innings. He led the team with four appearances and allowed only two hits in 5 2/3 shutout innings (1 BB, 12 K), whiffing over half the batters he faced. Despite being a reliever, he tied Marc-André Habeck and Benny Wanger for 3rd in the event in Ks, behind Alex Webb and Jorge Balboa. He also tied Zack Weiss and Mikael Fasth for the most games pitched. Italy won Silver. [14]

That won Italy a spot in the 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier. His first outing went well. Relieving Matteo Bocchi in the 7th with a 4-3 deficit against Spain, two on and two out, he retired all four batters he faced (Jesús Ustariz, Lesther Galván, former major leaguer Fernando Martínez and Javier Monzón), ending with a strikeout, but Italy failed to score again. Against the Netherlands, he relieved Nick Pugliese in the 9th with a 4-3 deficit. He allowed a single to Sharlon Schoop. John Polonius bunted Schoop over then Kemp grounded out. Bassani intentionally walked former major leaguer Roger Bernadina. Schoop scored on a Bassani error (presumably a pick-off attempt) and then Alex walked Hendrik Clementina. Michael Johnson relieved and let the inherited runners in. [15]

In the 2020 Serie A1, he was 4-2 with three saves and a 1.34 ERA for Bologna, striking out 40 in 36 2/3 innings with a 0.88 WHIP. He was 4th in ERA (between Murilo Gouvêa and Luis Lugo), 4th in opponent average (.171, between Markus Solbach and Gouvêa), 9th in IP, 10th in K, tied Dimitri Kourtis for first in saves, tied for 9th in games pitched and tied for 4th in wins (with Francesco Nardi, Matthias Zotti and Nico Garbella). [16] In the 2020 Italian Series, he pitched four games, going 1-0 with two saves and a 1.56 ERA. He saved Bocchi's Game 2 win over San Marino and Zotti's Game 5 win. In Game 7, he came in the 3rd when Gouvêa was injured and worked 4 1/3 innings before Crepaldi closed out a 6-5 win; he got the decision. He tied Fernando Baez for 2nd in the Series in ERA (behind Solbach), tied Baez for 4th in IP (9), tied Zotti for 7th in K (8), was the only pitcher to register a save (let alone two) and tied Garbella and Zotti for 2nd in games pitched. [17] He was named Series MVP. [18]

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