Each year, Red Sox fan Chris Hatfield ’06 heads to Fort Myers for spring training—not to catch the major league stars at JetBlue Park, but to scout the minor leaguers in the backfields. A seasoned D.C. litigator in his day job, Hatfield moonlights as executive editor of SoxProspects, the go-to source for Red Sox Nation to track up-and-coming players in its farm system. As a contributor since 2005, he’s helped grow the site from a scrappy niche blog to a daily must-read for fans, players, and even Red Sox management. “It’s fun when you get to be the town crier,” he says. “You keep an eye on a guy and think, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be good.’ And then you see it happen.”
Hatfield played baseball and basketball while growing up in Salem, New Hampshire. At Brown, he planned to study computer science but pivoted to political science after hearing ESPN’s Chris Berman ’77 emphasize the importance of writing and analysis in sports journalism. While writing sports articles for the Brown Daily Herald and interning at the Eagle-
Tribune in North Andover, he first encountered SoxProspects editing virtual rosters for minor league players in MVP Baseball on Nintendo GameCub. He emailed site founder Mike Andrews, only to find out he grew up down the street. Hatfield soon joined as a writer, then editor and podcast host, all the while attending Triple-A PawSox games in Pawtucket. Shortly before he attended law school in 2010, Andrews offered him part ownership in the site.
What’s continued to drive his passion are the varied stories players have to tell. “You’d think a player gets better at each level and comes out fully baked,” he says. “But that’s not how it works. Guys struggle on the field, they deal with off-the-field issues, they get traded. That human element is what drew me to it.” His most prescient call was spotting Mookie Betts as a future star while watching him play for the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs. Greeted with skepticism at the time, he was ultimately vindicated when Betts became one of the top players in the game.
Not every prediction has panned out, of course. Hatfield still winces at his tweet that the Red Sox wouldn’t trade first baseman Adrian Gonzalez—a post retweeted by legendary sports writer Peter Gammons—only to see Gonzalez traded the next day. “My mentions were a disaster,” he laughs. “But ideally, you get more right than you get wrong.” Over time, the hobby has yielded dividends, as he’s appeared on cable sports shows, been recognized by fans at games, and even earned a shoutout from Red Sox’s top baseball officer. Hatfield keeps it all in perspective; it’s only a game after all. “I always come back from the park and my wife asks, ‘Did you have fun?’ It reminds me, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why I’m doing this.’”