Sox Speak with Will Middlebrooks is a recurring content material collection on NESN.com. Middlebrooks, a former Purple Sox participant and present NESN analyst, provides his perception and opinion on pertinent Purple Sox storylines all through the season. You’ll be able to learn the newest tales from the collection right here.
A lot has been made about Boston Purple Sox 2023 high draft alternative Kyle Teel making the large ascent from school baseball to Triple-A in just a bit over a yr.
However one other Purple Sox prospect is on the same meteoric rise as Teel, and it wasn’t till just lately that Kristian Campbell began to actually get observed.
“He is acquired not solely the Purple Sox followers and the group’s eyes, the entire baseball world is taking note of him,” Will Middlebrooks informed NESN.com.
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Campbell, who the Purple Sox drafted out of Georgia Tech within the fourth spherical final yr, wasn’t in the identical realm as Boston’s “Huge 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, principally by the use 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 residence runs and 25 RBIs. That earned him a promotion to Double-A Portland and he continued to tear aside opposing pitching on the larger 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 actual deal,” Middlebrooks stated. “I feel his swing has room to enhance. I’ve executed somewhat little bit of breakdown on his swing and his path. He is one of the 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 together with his swing, making it much more spectacular the connection and energy Campbell confirmed.
“He is in a position to nonetheless constantly 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, you must meet it excellent, you must be completely on time to sq. up a ball as typically as he is squaring the ball up.”
Purple Sox director of participant growth Brian Abraham informed Middlebrooks that Campbell has labored exhausting 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 Purple 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 isn’t a large flaw, I simply suppose 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 pace.”
