RyanBrettAnim Photos courtesy Eric Todd.[/caption] RyanBrettFaceRyan Brett, who graduated from Burien’s Highline High School in 2010 and has been playing baseball since the “Highline East” Little League & Bronco days, has been added to the 40-man roster for the Tampa Bay Rays. That’s right – a former Pirate from Burien has hit ‘the bigs’ and will be playing baseball in the Major Leagues! During his senior year while playing varsity baseball for the Pirates, scouts came to watch Brett from the stands. Coach Dave Larsons’ cell phone kept ringing as he received calls about setting up times for them to come by to see Brett. Brett later played on five different Select teams in the area throughout his school years. Soon after there were tryouts for teams that called him. Then the MLB draft came about, and on the second day of it in 2010, Brett’s name was called in the 3rd round. But just because you’re drafted doesn’t mean you’re going to be on the roster. Brett had to work his way up from each team in the Rays system. He made it to Double AA this year, and just this week it was announced he made the 40 Man Roster for the Rays! Since 2010, Ryan has averaged a .297 batting average playing for five teams during his minor league career. His hard work ethic has his next goal being making the 25 man MLB roster. According to MLB.com, the minimum salary for the 2014 season was $500,000. Way to go Ryan! Here’s some video of Brett training at RIPS in SeaTac:

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Here he is hitting a home run for the Montgomery Biscuits:
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…and hitting a double for the Biscuits:
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And here’s a link to his Rays profile: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=592166#/career/R/hitting/2014/ALLIMG_0226[1] Tweets: Here’s a profile by MLB Columnist Bernie Pleskoff:
Tampa Bay Rays second-base prospect Ryan Brett is the type of high-energy, maximum-effort player who gets the very most from his 5-foot-9, 180-pound frame. He goes full speed all the time and doesn’t get cheated at the plate. Brett is the type of player who consistently gets his uniform dirty. In his senior year at Highline High School (Burien, Wash.), Brett had a .660 batting average and helped his team go to the state playoff quarterfinals. He was named the State of Washington 3-A Player Of The Year. Brett is listed in several locations as a switch-hitter. At one point in his high-school career, he abandoned hitting left-handed, concentrating solely on his natural right-handed stance, but he hit from both sides of the dish for the first four years of his pro career. This season at Double-A Montgomery, though, Brett is hitting exclusively from the right side, and he is hitting well against both left- (.291) and right-handed pitching (.280). Following high school, Brett had committed to play baseball at Gonzaga University. Instead, he signed a professional contract when the Rays selected him in the third round of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft. Brett is No. 8 on the Rays’ Top 20 Prospect List. He began his career playing 27 games for the Rays’ Gulf Coast League Rookie-level team, where he hit .303 in 99 plate appearances. Brett has hit less than .300 for a season only once in his career, batting .285 in 2012. Brett is a consistent player and a natural hitter. With his solid bat control, he generally puts the barrel of the bat on the ball and hits for a solid average. Brett is striking out a bit more than in the past this season, but his power increase and ability to get on base continue to be important components of his offensive game. The speed remains, as he could have the most stolen bases of his career by year’s end.
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