EL notes: Hayes hammering for Curve

At the beginning of the season, Altoona's Ke'Bryan Hayes struggled as pitchers successfully began pounding him inside.
Over his first five games, the Curve third baseman was only able to muster one hit, so he began working tirelessly to adjust. After playing the entire season with Class A Advanced Bradenton last year, Hayes was quick to learn what pitchers were doing, and his steady approach has led to a big season for the Pirates No. 2 prospect.

"A big focus for me this year was just being ready early in the count, doing damage to the pull side," explained Hayes. "It depends on who you are facing, what they're going to try do and what's worked for them other times. A lot of times they're going to try to stick to that, because it's worked for them. It's gone really well. I started out like 1-for-20 at the beginning of the year. Approach-wise, I just started trying to get a little early with my timing to get the barrel out."
After his 0-for-21 start to the year, Hayes, the son of former big leaguer Charlie, has hit .298 in the 89 games since.
He's also proven extremely consistent from month to month, hitting .282 in May and .296 in July, with June sandwiched in there as his strongest stretch: .333/.403/.580, hitting safely in 12 of 17 games. In a 10-game stretch in June and July, the Texas native registered nine multi-hit games and has 30 such games under his belt over the season.

For his efforts, Hayes earned two big mid-season honors -- a place at the Eastern League All-Star Classic and, later in the same week, a shot with the USA side at the All-Star Futures Game, where he launched a two-run homer that keyed his team's win in front of family and friends at Nationals Park in Washington D.C.
"It was an awesome week," he said. "I got to meet some of the players from Double-A that I've been playing against, talk with them. Obviously, going to the Futures Game was super huge. My parents were there, so to hit the home run was pretty surreal."
With only a month to play, Hayes continues his pursuit of consistency, carrying a seven-game hitting streak through the first week of August. While he has had some great experiences already this season, he is not looking toward the end, noting the importance of not squandering any at-bats along the way.
"A lot of times people give away at-bats because they are thinking about the season being over," said Hayes. "Every day you have to go out there and play like it's the first game of the season. You always want to finish strong."

Hayes is also hopeful that he can continue to get at-bats in the postseason, as the Curve sit in second place in the Western Division, five games back of division leader Akron and three up on third-place Harrisburg.
"Finish strong and ultimately win a championship with our team," he said of his end-of-season goals. "I feel like we have a really good team. A lot of us have been playing together for a few years, so everyone gets along well."

In brief

The right profile: Phillies No. 4 prospect Adam Haseley continues to swing a highly dependable bat since his promotion from Clearwater in early July. He has played in 23 games for Reading and has collected hits in all but five of those games for a .338 batting average. The Fightin' Phils outfielder has been a model of consistency this season, hitting exactly .280 in both April and May at Class A Advanced, followed by a .333 June, a .330 July and a .333 average through his first four games in August.
Clampdown: Since his callup at the beginning of July, Hartford's Rico Garcia has shown the promotion was well-deserved. He has made six starts for the Yard Goats, and though he allowed five earned runs in his first start, the right-hander has since gone 3-1 with a 1.74 ERA. Colorado's No. 21 prospect has lasted six or more innings in all but one of those starts, and the one start in which he didn't, he tossed five scoreless innings for the win. Between Lancaster and Hartford, Garcia has logged 137 innings this season, 68 more than last year.
Brand new Cadillac: Unrattled by being dealt from the Dodgers at the Trade Deadline as part of the Manny Machado deal, Dean Kremer has settled in nicely with Bowie. In three starts for the Baysox, he's gone 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA and 17 strikeouts over 16 innings. Prior to the trade, Kremer, now the Orioles' No. 16 prospect, pitched just one game at the Double-A level, earning a win for Tulsa after tossing seven scoreless innings. Overall, the right-hander has 142 strikeouts in 102 innings this season, both career highs for the 22-year-old.