Shepherd College, which is situated in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, has produced 4 draft picks throughout its historical past. Three of these gamers are individuals who none of us have ever heard of. However considered one of them is Brenton Doyle, the middle fielder for the Colorado Rockies. Doyle was chosen within the fourth spherical of the 2019 draft, and Doyle has confirmed to be an amazing choice by the Rockies.
After the draft, he signed with the membership and was assigned to Grand Junction, the staff’s Rookie ball staff. All he did there was slash .383/.477/.611 with eight homers, 33 RBI, and 17 steals in 51 video games. And all he has executed since then is to proceed to hit and present enchancment at every degree of ball he has performed on.
So let’s take a dive within the Brenton Doyle, an Up-and-Coming Dynasty Participant
CAREER STATS
SEASON
AB
H
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OBP
SLG
2023
399
81
48
10
48
22
.203
.250
.343
2024
542
141
82
23
72
30
.260
.317
.446
162 Recreation Avg.
554
131
77
19
71
31
.236
.289
.403
The highlight on Doyle shouldn’t be very stunning. In two public sale leagues by which he was accessible, I used to be pondering I’d have the ability to “sneak” Doyle by the public sale course of and get him for an inexpensive worth. Discovered my pondering was mistaken.
For a participant who was simple so as to add by way of free company final season, he enters the 2024 season rostered on 96% of Yahoo groups. Over in Fantrax, his roster proportion is at 99% and his ADP is at 79.27. Those that play in ESPN leagues are slightly slower in realizing the worth of Doyle as he’s discovered on solely 40% of rosters.
In my Prime 400 Dynasty Rankings, I ranked Doyle at No. 75. However I believe he can be ranked larger this time subsequent 12 months.
The Instruments
There have been plenty of causes for Brenton Doyle’s enchancment from 2023 to 2024. The best enchancment to level to is his strikeout price, dropping from 35% in ’23 to 25.4% final 12 months. That could be a fairly important drop. One would deduce that the lower in his strikeout proportion was as a result of Doyle not chasing as many pitches. However that actually wasn’t the case. His chase price in 2023 was 32.2% and final 12 months it was 30%. No, the distinction for Doyle was his potential to really make contact in opposition to pitches within the zone.
His zone contact proportion in 2023 was 74.8%. For context, the MLB common is 82%. In 2024, Doyle was mainly on the MLB common as his zone contact proportion was 81.1%. So, not surprisingly, Doyle’s potential to make contact in zone led to fewer strikeouts, which led to the next batting common as extra balls have been put into play. So his xBA went from .200 to .254 and his xSLG went from .344 to .436.
Not solely did he scale back his strikeouts, he additionally elevated his stroll price from 5.1% to 7.6%. That’s nonetheless beneath the MLB common of 8.4%, however it’s inching nearer to that normal. General, his enchancment on the plate to simply make contact and be slightly extra affected person allowed him to extend his slash line from .203/.250/.343 to .260/.317/.446
Whereas Brenton Doyle did a greater job of constructing contact, he additionally did a greater job of hitting the ball tougher when contact was made. In 2023, his ISO was .140, his HR% was 2.3, his Common EV was 85.1 mph and his Exhausting Hit% was 35.3. Soar to 2024 and all of these numbers have been higher. The ISO was at .186, HR% was 3.8, the AEV was 88.4 mph and the Exhausting Hit% was 41.6%. He additionally elevated his line drive proportion, decreased the bottom ball proportion, and elevated his fly ball proportion. All of that accounts for the rise in his house run proportion.
And the ability isn’t one thing that’s new to Doyle. In three seasons in faculty, he hit 55 homers in 292 video games with a .647 SLG. Within the minors, he had a profession SLG of .496 and hit 22 homers between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022.
Stealing bases has all the time been part of Doyle’s recreation. He stole 52 bases in faculty whereas solely getting thrown out 9 instances. Within the minors, he swiped 62 luggage with 12 caught stealing and in his time with the Rockies he’s 52-for-62 in stolen base makes an attempt. His dash pace ranks with the highest gamers within the recreation. In 2023 his dash pace ranked within the 98th percentile and final season it ranked within the 94th percentile.
Doyle will rack up the steals, and in leagues that additionally use caught stealing as a stat, he’s not going to harm you there both.
The Verdict
There actually is not any purpose for you to not goal Brenton Doyle to fill a slot in your outfield or in middle subject in case your league breaks out the positions. However if you’re in search of any purple flags, there are a couple of to pay attention to.
First, Doyle’s manufacturing was vastly totally different at house in comparison with the street. At Coors Discipline he slashed .313/.365/.534 with 12 homers, 43 RBI, and 16 steals. He additionally had a 21.7% strikeout price and seven.8% stroll price. However on the street, Doyle was a totally totally different participant, slashing .211/.271/.364 with 11 homers, 29 RBI and 14 steals whereas posting a 28.8% strikeout price and seven.4% stroll price.
He additionally noticed his manufacturing drop off from the primary half to the second half/ Within the first half he was a .276/.343/.472 hitter whereas that line fell to .234/.274/.407 line within the second half. Loads of that lack of manufacturing got here in September. In 19 video games he slashed .167/.194/.212 with just one house run and 6 RBI.
However I’m not going to make an excessive amount of of 1 dangerous month. And Colorado gamers have historically had dangerous house/street splits. That’s what you get when you may have Rockies in your lineup. However total, Doyle made an enormous bounce from season one to season two of his profession. He probably received’t make the identical bounce this season, however I’d be shocked to see him regress. He’s a participant it’s best to go after.
