Sox Discuss with Will Middlebrooks is a recurring content material collection on NESN.com. Middlebrooks, a former Pink Sox participant and present NESN analyst, offers his perception and opinion on pertinent Pink Sox storylines all through the season. You possibly can learn the newest tales from the collection right here.
A lot has been made about Boston Pink Sox 2023 prime draft selection Kyle Teel making the large ascent from school baseball to Triple-A in just a bit over a yr.
However one other Pink Sox prospect is on an identical meteoric rise as Teel, and it wasn’t till not too long ago that Kristian Campbell began to actually get seen.
“He is received not solely the Pink Sox followers and the group’s eyes, the entire baseball world is taking note of him,” Will Middlebrooks advised NESN.com.
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Campbell, who the Pink Sox drafted out of Georgia Tech within the fourth spherical final yr, wasn’t in the identical realm as Boston’s “Massive Three” prospects of Teel, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony to start the season. However in only a matter of months, he labored his method into that dialog, largely by means of his highly effective right-handed bat. Campbell is now Boston’s fifth-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline and he made his method on Baseball America’s High 100 prospect listing final month.
The 22-year-old center infielder/outfielder began this season at Excessive-A Greenville, the place he batted .306 with eight house runs and 25 RBIs. That earned him a promotion to Double-A Portland and he continued to tear aside opposing pitching on the greater stage.
Campbell hit an eye-popping .362 with a 1.045 OPS to associate with eight homers, 35 RBIs, 35 walks and 17 steals throughout his time with Portland. It solely took 56 video games with Portland — fewer than Mayer, Anthony and Teel — to get referred to as as much as Triple-A late final week.
And Campbell hasn’t slowed down on the plate since arriving in Worcester. He collected six RBIs in his first two video games.
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“This child’s the true deal,” Middlebrooks stated. “I feel his swing has room to enhance. I’ve executed a bit little bit of breakdown on his swing and his path. He is probably the most athletic guys as a result of he would not have an ideal bat path.”
Middlebrooks noticed that the 6-foot-3, 191-pound Campbell routinely will get out on his entrance aspect and steep along with his swing, making it much more spectacular the connection and energy Campbell confirmed.
“He is capable of nonetheless persistently sq. the ball up, which tells me he has elite hand-eye coordination,” Middlebrooks stated. “You bought to consider one thing coming down towards the plate and also you swinging barely down, it’s a must to meet it good, it’s a must to be completely on time to sq. up a ball as usually as he is squaring the ball up.”
Pink Sox director of participant improvement Brian Abraham advised Middlebrooks that Campbell has labored laborious on fine-tuning his swing. Middlebrooks noticed enchancment on movie, too.
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These slight modifications may carry Campbell to the massive leagues by subsequent season. He has considerably come out of nowhere, however Campbell’s emergence has made him simply as a lot part of the Pink Sox future plans as Teel, Mayer and Anthony.
“The extra he can keep behind the baseball and never get steep, not recover from that entrance aspect, he is simply going to be even higher, which is insane to consider,” Middlebrooks stated. “And it is not an enormous flaw, I simply assume it may make him extra constant in the long term and make him a extra constant participant hitting over .300 however with pop and the velocity.”
