Jacksonville: Brent Keys, OF

[THE_REAL_MIBS]

Full Name: Brent A. Keys
Born: 07/14/1990
Birthplace: Simi Valley, CA
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 210
Bats: L
Throws: R

[emkayseven]

Hoppers center fielder Brent Keys went 3-for-6 Thursday night in the regular-season home finale at NewBridge Bank Park, pushing his batting average back up to .340 and inching closer to a Sally League batting title.

Keys, 22, would be the first Hopper to win a batting title and just the third Greensboro player to win one -- the first in 27 years.

Manny Jose, a switch-hitting outfielder who never reached the major leauges, used a slap-and-run approach to hit a league-best .323 in 1985, when the Greensboro Hornets were a Boston Red Sox affiliate.

Don Mattingly batted .358 for the Yankees-affiliated Hornets in 1980. Mattingly was an outfielder back then. He went on to play 14 seasons with the Yankees, winning an American League batting title in 1984, the A.L. MVP in 1985 and nine Gold Gloves as a first baseban. The Yankees retired his No. 23 jersey in 1997.

Mattingly and Jose are the only Greensboro players to win Sally League batting titles since 1960.

Keys holds a significant league in the batting race over Hagerstown's Billy Burns (.325), West Virginia's Greg Polanco (.324), and Hoppers teammate Austin Barnes (.320).

http://www.news-record.com/blog/56101/entry/151665

[tjfla]

Finally off the DL and up in Jupiter

[Mainge]

From Fangraphs AFL piece:

Brent Keys, OF, Marlins – Rated as having the best strike zone judgement in the Florida State League during Baseball America’s recent minor league ‘best tools’ series, Keys just continues to get on base any way possible. After a slow start to his pro career, which saw him spend three seasons in short-season ball, the former 19th round draft pick has hit more than .335 in each of his past two seasons. He also posted an on-base percentage of .394 in 2012 and should finished above .400 in 2013. Keys, 22, does’t have a huge ceiling but he’s eligible for the Rule 5 draft in November and he’s a left-handed hitter with a little untapped potential that could serve as a valuable 25th man He can play all three outfield spots but the Marlins’ 40-man roster already hosts 11 outfielders.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/afl-p...ins-white-sox/

[emkayseven]

I think it's silly to say our 40 man "already" boasts 11 outfielders. I don't even know how they come up with that number unless they're counting guys on the 60 day. In which case, of those "11":

Pierre and Diaz will definitely be gone
Coghlan is supposedly coming back as a 3B
Silverio I assume won't be around

So that's 7, assuming we don't move Ruggiano and/or Stanton at some point.

I see no way they don't protect Keys after some of the guys they've protected in the past.

[HUGG]

he could probably hit .270 in the majors right now


(with a .280 slugging)

[Mainge]

I bet he couldn't.

[HUGG]

you're worse than Daft in the minor league forum

minor league daft
--------------------
his equivalent Jupiter MLE line is .277/.334/.315

[Mainge]

MLE is dumb

[HUGG]

another moment brought to you by Bill James

[Mainge]

I mean, it is. Most stat guys will tell you that it's not particularly useful

[emkayseven]

Brent Keys doesn’t put on much of a power show in batting practice, or leave dents in outfield walls with vicious swings that compel pitchers to wince.

Giancarlo Stanton he is not.

But Keys is making waves and drawing raves in the Marlins organization with a style of his own. A 17th-round draft pick in 2009, Keys is a throwback to the era when singles, bunting and walks — old-fashioned baseball — were treasured as highly as brute power.

“He’s got that hit gene, where the ball hits his bat and happens to find grass,” said Double A Jacksonville manager Andy Barkett, who caught a glimpse of Keys toward the end of last season. “You watch him in batting practice, and he’s not impressive. But you watch him in the game, and the next thing you know, he’s scored twice, he’s been on base three times, and he’s made the pitcher throw 25 pitches.”

Keys led the Florida State League in hitting with a .346 average last season at Single A Jupiter and was named the Marlins’ minor league Player of the Year.

Not bad for a guy who hit just two home runs.

“I really don’t take a big swing too often,” Keys acknowledged. “I think the more I try to do it is when I get into trouble. So I try to keep the ball out of the air.”

What Keys does exceptionally is find a way to get on base. A career .315 hitter over five minor-league seasons, his on-base percentage during that time is a robust .390. Last season, Keys reached base at a .415 clip. He walks more often than he whiffs. Twice he has led the league in hitting thanks to a lot of singles. Of his 479 career minor-league hits, 87 percent has been singles.

Keys said his role model growing up in Southern California was Juan Pierre, the ex-Marlin who played with his beloved Dodgers from 2007-09.

There was once a time when Keys felt that he needed to put more oomph in his swings to gain notice. But it didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t in him, and his game suffered as a result.

“At first coming in, I kind of felt like that,” he said. “And then, more and more, I realized when I try to do something that’s not myself, it’s not going to get me anywhere. I’ve accepted it. I know I’m not a guy who’s going to hit a lot of home runs.”

The Marlins are perfectly fine with Keys the way he is.

“He’s one of those guys, he just gets it done,” said Marlins manager Mike Redmond. “He’s a tough out.”

Brett Butler, the Marlins’ new outfield and base running coach, said it hasn’t taken him long to see that Keys is a valuable asset.

“I like his passion,” Butler said. “He’s a perfectionist by nature and when something goes wrong, he gets a little frustrated. He understands how the game is supposed to be played. If he can do that, they’ll find a place for him to play.”

There are no openings in the Marlins outfield at the moment.

But if Keys continues to move up the minor-league chain, he could find himself in a big-league uniform before long. That is, if he avoids the hamstring injuries that have plagued him throughout his minor-league career.

Keys has dealt with one hamstring injury after another and said he now goes through a lot of “preventive maintenance” to keep his legs in tune. Last year was his first in the minors in which he played more than 100 games.

“I’ve got to cut out those injuries,” he said. “otherwise, I’m going to be left behind.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/0...#storylink=cpy

[Spork5812]

Played for the GCL Marlins today.

[tjfla]

Minor League Player of the Year to out of the system. Just shows you what happens when can't stay healthy

Released him

[Mainge]

Pretty good example to show how hard it is to survive with such little power.