Detroit Tigers rookie Colt Keith finds his speed in MLB with help from Riley Greene
Full article at link
Detroit Tigers rookie Colt Keith knew he hit a home run when his bat struck the ball.
Not once but twice.
…
“Those were the first two in the big leagues where I hit them and I knew they were going to be homers,” said Keith, who grew up less than 200 miles east of Cincinnati, in Zanesville, Ohio. “That’s a really good feeling because it means I’m behind the ball, feeling everything and more conscious of the game, instead of being sped up.”
Keith has felt sped up many times in his professional career.
It happens to him every time he moves up a level.
…
Keith has leaned on Riley Greene, an energetic 23-year-old wise beyond his baseball years, for tips about his approach and swing mechanics.
Drafted in 2020 and 2019, respectively, they’re separated in age by a mere 10 months, 15 days.
Greene, deliving an All-Star-worth appearance in 2024, is hitting .266 with 17 homers and an .868 OPS across 87 games in his third MLB season. He has a .318 batting average with a 1.025 OPS in his past 35 games, dating to May 29.
“We talk a lot about approach and swings and mechanics and stuff like that,” Keith said of Greene’s influence. “When I got up to the big leagues, I felt like I lost everything in my swing. I felt lost. He’s a guy who’s helped me build back to where my swing was last year.”
“Yeah, I’ll throw something out there every once in a while,” Greene said of teaching Keith, “but he’s pretty close to the hitting guys, and the hitting guys know what they’re doing. He’s just kinda doing his thing, and it’s working.”
…
“When I feel sped up, a lot of things you’ll hear is when guys hit homers, they don’t know they’re gone and they don’t know what pitch they hit,” Keith said. “That’s one of the things that happened to me. I hit that slider super deep, and I didn’t know if it was gone or not. I knew I hit it OK, and I know that wall is big in right field, so I better make sure I’m getting as many bases as I can.”
He didn’t feel sped up in Friday’s 5-4 win over the Reds.
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
“It’s part of the big leagues, in a sense,” Greene said. “You’re going to succeed, you’re going to fail, you’re going to succeed, you’re going for fail. He’s taking it well. It just shows how far he’s come as a player, and the homers are a result of that.”