Chip Alley

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William Charles Alley

BR Minors page

Biographical information[edit]

Catcher Chip Alley played in the minor leagues from 1995 to 2001 and from 2003 to 2004. Despite playing for nine seasons, he never advanced past Double-A.

Alley was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the second round of the 1995 amateur draft, two slots ahead of future All-Star Sean Casey and two picks after Carlos Beltran. He signed for a bonus of $325,000. He began his professional career that season, hitting .300 in 12 games for the GCL Orioles, with four of his nine hits going for two bases. He also displayed a good eye at the plate, walking 11 times with only four strikeouts. His .477 OBP was second on the club behind Calvin Pickering.

With the Bluefield Orioles in 1996, Alley slumped to .194/.345/.254, posting an OPS of only .599 in 24 games. The following year, he improved slightly, hitting .236/.344/.348 with three home runs and 7 steals in 9 tries (over half his career steal total) in 82 games for the Delmarva Shorebirds. He had 17 passed balls, 12 errors and allowed 77 steals in 109 tries.

In 1998, Alley hit .262/.378/.415 for the Frederick Keys with nine home runs and 47 RBI in 112 games. He set career highs in many categories, including games, plate appearances (410), at-bats (340), hits, doubles (23), home runs, RBI, strikeouts (60), total bases (141) and sacrifice hits (5). He threw out 41 of 129 attempted base-stealers and allowed 22 passed balls, most in the Carolina League.

He split 1999 between three teams, the GCL Orioles (two games, no hits), the Frederick Keys (41 games, .227 batting average, backing up Jayson Werth) and the Bowie Baysox (five games, .111 batting average). He hit a combined .215/.339/.285 batting line with one home run and 12 RBI in 48 games.

The following season, Alley played for three teams again. He made returns to the GCL Orioles (six games, .333 batting average) and Keys (35 games, .245 average), while also appearing in 15 games for Delmarva, hitting .183. Overall, he hit .261/.410/.344 with 37 walks, two home runs and 15 RBI in 56 games. He had 11 passed balls in 44 games behind the plate while gunning down 36% of attempted base thieves.

2001 was the catcher's final season in affiliated baseball. He hit .192/.333/.249 in 62 games split between Bowie and Frederick and threw out 37% of would-be base-stealers. He did not play professionally in 2002.

In 2003, Alley laced up for the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the independent Northern League, hitting .343/.484/.481 with five home runs and 35 RBI in 75 games. He walked 61 times while whiffing only 19 times, a ratio of 3.21 walks per strikeout. He led the league in on-base percentage (57 points ahead of runner-up Eddie Pearson) and walks, while finishing second in batting average (19 points shy of Pearson). He was second in OPS, just 9 points behind Pearson. Despite his outstanding season, he lost All-Star honors at catcher to Kirk Pierce.

He played for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League in 2004, hitting only .237/.327/.355 in 31 games.

Overall, Alley hit .254/.382/.364 with 22 home runs, 173 RBI and 216 runs in 502 minor league games. He walked 291 times, striking out 242 times. He fielded .984 and threw out 30% of attempted base-stealers.

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