Sean Coyle is drawing from the past and present as he looks toward the future.
Coyle, whom the Boston Red Sox added to their 40-man roster over the offseason to protect from the Rule 5 draft, figures to start the season at either Double-A Portland or Triple-A Pawtucket. Wherever he lands, the 23-year-old infielder will look to implement wisdom he’s obtained from Red Sox legend Ted Williams and All-Star second baseman Dustin Pedroia, according to WEEI.com’s John Tomase.
Quite the tandem, right?
Williams, of course, is no longer with us, having died in 2002. But as Coyle recently told Tomase at Red Sox spring training in Fort Myers, he used to flip through the pages of “The Science of Hitting” — written by Williams and John Underwood — while growing up in Pennsylvania.
“My dad had ‘The Science of Hitting’ and the pages were falling out,” Coyle said. “Me and my brother went through it. At first we just liked to look at all the pictures of baseballs and averages. Then we started to read into it. It started there.
“I’m a firm believer in a lot of things Ted Williams had to say about hitting,” Coyle added. “The hips lead the swing. Everything starts from the ground up, for sure.”
While Coyle will always be able to rely on what he learned from Williams, arguably the greatest hitter of all time, the young second baseman isn’t satisfied with simply taking notes on a former major leaguer. Thus, he looks up to Pedroia, with whom he shares some similarities.
Coyle, ranked the Red Sox’s No. 13 prospect entering 2015 by SoxProspects.com, is listed at 5-foot-8, 175 pounds, though his 32 homers the last two seasons suggest power bigger than his size. Pedroia is listed at 5-foot-9, 175 pounds, making for an easy comparison that actually is even more sensible when one considers the grit with which Coyle plays.
“I look at him as someone who doesn’t need to be 7-foot tall to act like it,” Coyle told Tomase of Pedroia. “I really look up to him and how he goes about things and how he’s unfazed and how he’s confident despite what people have to say about him.”
Coyle, a third-round pick in 2010, has flown under the radar to this point in his professional career. Some more studying on two Red Sox greats could change that in no time.
Thumbnail photo via Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports Images
