Earlier this year, Stanford baseball picked up a commitment from 2025 shortstop/2nd baseman Rashad Hayes out of Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California. Hayes caught up with CardinalSportsReport.com about his commitment to Stanford and what he hopes to bring to the program.
For Hayes, Stanford has always been his dream school. Its combination of world class academics and having a storied baseball program is what initially piqued his interest. After going to some games and experiencing the atmosphere at Sunken Diamond, Hayes knew that Stanford is where he wanted to play ball.
“Growing up I always heard Stanford was a great school for education and had one of the best baseball programs in the world which sparked my first interest,” Hayes said. “Then I went to a game when I was younger and loved everything about it.”
Visiting campus as a recruit reaffirmed Hayes’ desire to play at Stanford. In addition to liking the baseball facilities, the whole campus really clicked with him. All around, he really enjoyed everything about the Stanford experience.
“When I went to campus I really enjoyed the area and how everything is set up,” Hayes said. “Their baseball field and facilities will always be my favorite, but I really enjoyed the campus and school as a whole.”
Hayes has developed a really strong relationship with head coach David Esquer and his staff. He believes in their ability to push him to be the best player that he can be and they in turn believe that he’s going to be a really good player for their program.
“My relationship with the coaches at Stanford is great,” Hayes said. “They believe in me and I am very thankful for them giving me an opportunity to play at the next level. They are very competitive coaches and are determined to win. They also have very close relationships with their players from the day they commit to play at Stanford which is very important to a player for their development.”
As far as what he’ll bring to The Farm, Hayes projects to be a really good two-way player. He hits the ball cleanly and does a great job playing defense up the middle of the field. He currently projects to either play shortstop or 2nd base. He feels it’s more likely he’ll play shortstop, but if he ends up playing some 2nd base or some other position, he’ll be fine with that as well.
“I think I am a very athletic player with a very smooth repeatable swing and great actions up the middle on defense,” Hayes said. “I am very confident in my abilities and think I project to play shortstop, but if I am told to play second I’m fine with that too as long as I’m on the field.”
In terms of who he most likes to emulate on the field, Hayes has a few players who he likes to study. For hitting, he really likes to study Toronto Blue Jays 1st baseman Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. For defense, he likes to study a pair of shortstops in Fernando Tatís, Jr. of the San Diego Padres and Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox.
“One player I love to study for hitting is Vladdy Jr.,” Hayes said. “We have similar stances and hand placement. He is one of the best in the game and I love learning from him. On defense I feel I try to emulate a mix of Tim Anderson and Tatis. I try to have the flexibility of Tatis and the athleticism of Tim Anderson which are two great players.”
One of the things that really excites Hayes about Stanford is its rich athletic tradition. He’s aware that it has produced a lot of great athletes in a variety of sports and hopes to follow in their footsteps.
“I am very excited to be playing at a school that has had great athletes come out of it and I aspire to become great like they were one day,” Hayes said. “I love hearing the stories of the guys before me and learning from their journey on how they became as successful as they did.”
On the academic side, Hayes has a real interest in math and also business. If he’s able to go down one of those two paths at Stanford or possibly fuse them together, that would make him really happy.
“Currently in school I enjoy math, it has been my favorite since I was younger,” Hayes said. “I have also talked to my dad previously about my major in college and we talked about business management and starting my own business one day.”
Given that he’s committed to Stanford, Hayes obviously takes his work in the classroom really seriously. At such a young age, only a high school freshman, Hayes has had to learn how to budget his time and get the most out of every day. It’s been a challenge at times, but it’s also taught him a lot of invaluable life skills.
“Finding the balance between baseball and school definitely forced some changes and made me utilize my time better,” Hayes said. “I had to learn to start using my free time at school to get some homework done so I can have time for practice after. I do my best to maximize my time with my friends at school and on the days that I don’t have games.”
Looking ahead to this season at Bishop O’Dowd, Hayes is really excited. He feels he has a close group and that they should be able to win league en route to a playoff push. He hopes to be a leader on the team and also hit at least .300.
“I am very excited for us as team this year,” Hayes said. “We are a very close team and are ready for whatever this season has in store for us. A couple of my personal goals for this year is to bat above 300 and be a leader on the team. As a team we plan on winning league and making the playoffs.”
After interviewing Rashad Hayes, it’s clear that Stanford is the right place for him. He values its academics, athletic tradition, and also the overall Stanford experience. It’ll be fun to see what he brings to The Farm and how he grows over the coming years at Bishop O’Dowd.
To connect with CardinalSportsReport.com on Twitter, click here.
To connect with Ben Parker, click here.
