JARED KEEL

8/3/84; '06 31st; Troy Univ.
R/R; 6-1, 190

Level
BA
OBP
SA
AB
2B
3B
HR
BB
K
SB
CS
2005 NCAA
.259
.349
.488
201
6
2
12
25
40
14
2
2006 NCAA
.340
.447
.578
206
19
0
10
33
40
10
2
2006 A-
.250
.321
.400
140
10
1
3
15
30
2
3
2006 R
.432
.476
.632
74
6
1
2
7
10
5
1
2007 A
.261
.386
.494
326
23
1
17
56
79
5
2
2008 A+
.237
.358
.451
410
24
2
20
65
89
16
5

Keel went to two different JCs before attending Troy, one being Gulf Coast CC, which was then coached by Darren Mazeroski.  He came on strong his senior year.  For reasons I could never decipher, the Pirates under Dave Littlefield increasingly stocked their roster in the GCL, which was meant to be a league for high school draftees and players just up from Latin America, with college draftees, so Keel went off to Bradenton.  He torched the much younger pitchers he saw there, until the Pirates promoted him to help a pitiful Williamsport offense.  He did just fair there, but the 'Cutters hitting was so bad that Keel was actually their primary power source.

Keel for a while was a big success story in 2007.  He started the year as a corner utility player at Hickory, but the combination of his solid hitting and Eddie Prasch's continued struggles got him increased playing time at 3B and a little at 1B.  Keel had solid months in April and May, then got extremely hot and posted an OPS well over 1.000 in June and July.  He hit 15 of his 17 HRs in those months.  Unfortunately, he slumped badly in August, with his strikeout rate doubling.  He doesn't look like a guy who'll hit for average, but he has power and walks a lot.  He had a platoon split of .981 vs. LHPs and .832 vs. RHPs.  Keel was brutal defensively at 3B—he committed 16 errors in 30 games there, leading to a fielding percentage of .849—so he ended up playing LF most of the last couple months.  He also played some 1B.  In 2008, he started out miserably, hitting .169 in April and fanning 31 times in just 83 ABs.  He hit better over the next three months, although still not well.  He started cutting down dramatically on his Ks in June, though, as he fanned only 38 times in his last 236 ABs, compared to 51 in his first 174.  In August he got extremely hot, posting an OPS of 1.192 and twice as many walks as Ks (20 to 10), and hitting eight of his 20 HRs.  Despite the low average he finished with a good OBP and respectable SLG.  Keel is roughly a poor man's Jamie Romak, taking a lot of pitches in an effort to find one he can drive.  Like Romak, it gets him in bad counts, although he doesn't fan as much as Romak.  He had only a mild platoon split on the year.  Keel runs well, but he's a defensive liability even in LF, as he doesn't take good routes to flyballs.  He started 2009 on the DL.  Once he's healthy he could appear at either Altoona or Lynchburg.

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