Visalia's Keon Broxton grew up a multi-talented athlete in Florida who succeeded in several sports. Fortunately for the Rawhide, the 21-year-old outfielder settled on baseball and is emerging as one of the club's most productive hitters during his first full season in the California League.

Broxton's athletic career began in skateboarding, something he and his cousins picked up as a way to have fun and stay out of trouble.

"Once we got into it, it was hard to put it down," Broxton recalled.

Broxton and his cousins tried new tricks every day at the skate park in their hometown of Lakeland and eventually attracted attention from a local skate shop. The shop went on to sponsor Broxton and provided him with free boards.

Skateboarding taught the future baseball star important lessons about his current craft.

"I learned how to deal with pain," he said. "Falling off a skateboard hurts. I also learned how to deal with failure. When you don't land a trick every time, it's a failure. I'm learning from my mistakes."

Broxton had a commitment to play wide receiver at Florida Atlantic University out of high school but chose baseball and a smaller atmosphere at Santa Fe College in Gainesville. During his first year of college, focusing on baseball full time, is where Broxton felt he learned the most about himself and the game.

"I learned how to play every day and make my body ready for baseball every day," said Broxton, who is batting .260. "I wasn't used to that in high school, when I was playing both football and baseball."

The D-backs chose Broxton in the third round of the 2009 Draft (95th overall), making him the third highest pick from a junior college that year after a fantastic freshman year in which he hit .340 with 10 home runs.

D-backs personnel have worked extensively with Broxton since he arrived in the organization three years ago, focusing on his mechanics as well as his mental approach to hitting.

"It's helped me a lot with my mind-set and what my thought process should be in the batter's box," he said.

His hard work is paying off, evidenced in his numbers this month: a .348 (23-for-66) average, three homers and 11 RBIs in 17 games. After struggling out of the gate with a .177 average in April, his recent stretch has raised his average to a career-high .260. His 16 homers and 54 RBIs after 116 games are also personal bests.

Can't stop the thief: Lake Elsinore's Rico Noel is the stolen base leader among active California League players with 85. Noel has 131 hits in 466 at-bats and an OBP of .436 over his last 10 games. The center fielder went 3-for-4 with an RBI on Monday against High Desert on the road.

Staying in power: San Jose third baseman Adam Duvall broke the Giants' single-season home run record when he hit his 27th blast of the year on Aug. 17. He went yard again two days later to push his home run total to 28. San Jose's single-season home run mark stood for 11 years before Duvall smashed it. Duvall also leads the entire San Francisco organization in home runs.

More speed: Bakersfield left fielder Theo Bowe broke through to the Class A Advanced level in May and since he arrived from Dayton, he's racked up 46 steals and hit .318 in 321 at-bats. Bowe has shown power with 10 doubles and three homers and his OBP with the Blaze is .397.