Get To Know Your A's: Billy Burns

As the 2015 baseball season approaches in Nashville, the affiliate switch to the Oakland Athletics' organization brings about excitement. With that excitement comes a fresh batch of talented prospects. In the time leading up to the season, we will elaborate on a few of the different players that could be heading to Nashville and expand on the anticipation of another year of Triple-A baseball.

Billy Burns played college baseball at Mercer University and was drafted by the Washington Nationals in 2011. After being traded to Oakland in December 2013, he made his Major League debut with the Athletics on July 28, 2014. He is a member of the A's 40-man roster.

The 25-year old is best known for his speed. After swiping 57 bases in 64 attempts through three levels in 2014, Burns boasts an 88.4% success rate over his first four seasons. The 54 bags he swiped in Double-A and Triple-A during the 2014 campaign was tied for the fourth-most among all minor leaguers. Overall, he has averaged just fewer than five triples a season.

Getting on base does not seem to be a problem for the speedy outfielder either. In 2013, when Burns was named Washington's Minor League Player of the Year, he drew 72 walks on the way to a .425 OBP. He added career-highs with 140 hits and 96 runs as well. Burns was named a Carolina League Mid-Season and Post-Season All-Star selection during his breakout campaign.

Baseball America rated Burns as the "Fastest Baserunner" in the Nationals' organization in back-to-back seasons (2012-13). The same publication also named him Washington's #12 top prospect prior to being traded to Oakland.

The speed that the outfielder enjoys suppresses the type of ability to hit for power. Burns has just two home runs in his four professional seasons, although one of them was a grand slam when he played in the New York-Penn League in 2011.

Besides making it to the big leagues, Burns' claim to fame would be how his father, Bob, played running back for Joe Namath's New York Jets in 1974. Running clearly seems to be a family affair.