Pirates prospects shine in Futures
Charlie Hayes played 14 years in the majors and won a World Series with the New York Yankees in 1996. He now coaches in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system and runs a baseball academy in Tomball. Ke’Bryan’s older brother, Tyree, pitched in the minors for six seasons. Tyree’s experience in baseball gave Charlie perspective.
“I remember not being around a lot [with Ke’Bryan] with the baseball stuff because I didn’t really want to put pressure on him, because I’d be the first one to admit, I think I rode my other kid too much, to the point to where he maybe didn’t like baseball,” Charlie Hayes said Sunday while sitting in the stands behind the third-base dugout, watching Ke’Bryan take batting practice. “As a parent, you learn.”
Ke’Bryan did not need preaching. After a Jeff Bagwell home run at a Houston Astros game when Hayes was 12 or 13, he pointed out to his father how quick Bagwell’s hips turned in his swing. He worked out with Tyree’s minor league teams. The intent and focus increased, Charlie said, in his junior year in high school, and again after a year or two in pro ball, when Hayes began using a small scale to weigh his food in the offseason. The idea was to slim down and improve his firststep quickness.
“It definitely helped,” Hayes said. “The difference in my first year when I got drafted to now, it’s not even close. The way I run and move, everything.”
This year, Hayes has assembled his best offensive season — a .361 on-base percentage, .454 slugging percentage and a .293 average with four home runs.
“I’d say the biggest difference from high [Class] A to [Class] AA is guys being able to move their fastball around with some movement,” Hayes said. “Guys in the Florida State League, I felt like, were throwing hard, but the guys up here know how to go in and out and the ball moves a little bit more.”
Hayes displayed the offense Sunday. After working a 10-pitch walk in his first plate appearance, Hayes hit a two-run homer to left field off Lewis Thorpe, a lefthander in the Minnesota Twins organization, in the fourth inning.
“Kind of an out-of-body experience,” Hayes said. “Seeing it go out, I was kind of like grinning all the way around, like a little kid.”
Hayes is used to playing behind Keller, so Keller’s performance — he retired the side in order with one strikeout and two fly outs, throwing nine of his 14 pitches for strikes — looked familiar. Keller reached 99.5 mph with his fastball.
“It was really cool,” Keller said. “I got the chills running out there just thinking about one day in the big leagues and how that’s really going to feel in an actual MLBgame.”
Keller, 22, the Pirates’ top prospect and the No. 12 prospect in baseball according to Baseball America, earned a promotion to Indianapolis in late June.
He allowed eight runs and 10 hits in 2⅔ innings in his first Class AAA start, but struck out 10 in six innings in his second.
“First start was rough,” Keller said. “Other than that it’s pretty awesome. I’m learning a lot from older guys.”
Charlie Hayes got to Washington Saturday, concerned with ensuring Ke’Bryan fulfilled all of his Futures Game obligations. Ke’Bryan wanted to go hit. So they found a cage — Diamond Heroes Baseball in Fairfax, Va., half an hour outside the city — and hit.
“He hit for about 30 minutes,” Charlie said, “and then that smile came back to the face.”