June 21: West Rakes on Road Trip. Still Happy to be Home

Kevin West stood around the batting cage just before the Goldeyes nine-game road trip through Chicagoland, blasting balls over the leftfield fence.

When asked to describe his hot start to the 2010 season, West snickered, then laughed and said, "I can flat-out hit."

He was joking, of course, but not all that much. It’s true that in his third year with the Goldeyes he’s off to his best start and during the Goldeyes eight-game trip to the Chicago area (one game was rained out), West hit a gaudy .375 and raised his batting average to .333 on the season. He’s tied (with Juan Diaz) for the team lead in runs batted in with 21, leads the team in doubles with 11, is second in on-base percentage at .402 and leads in slugging percentage at .520.

He’s fifth in the Northern League in hitting, fifth in RBI and second in doubles.

So was it the outstanding spring training he had with the Cincinnati Reds that set him up for this red-hot start?

"No, I think it was probably my 11 years of professional baseball experience," he said with a grin.

"Listen, this has always been my philosophy about baseball. Players will always do what players do. In other words, because we play 100 games or 125 games or 162 games, there are no flukes. Guys get off to slow starts and almost always finish where they’ve always finished in the past.

"Remember (Brent) Metheny or (Dustin) Richardson last year. They started off hitting like .400 for the first month, but by the end of the year, their betting averages were where they always are. That’s the thing about baseball. We play so many games that by the end of it all, you are what you are."

West is convinced that the criticism that has come with the Goldeyes 17-12 start has been directly related to hitters getting out of the gate slowly.

"Everything is so magnified in the first month or so," West said. "People say, ’Oh, so and so is in a slump, or so and so is red-hot.’ It’s true, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. The guys will do what they’re capable of doing. Our .300 hitters will be .300 hitters. That’s just the way it goes.

"We haven’t been very good yet, but we’re still 17-12 and that’s pretty good. The guys will get it together and do what they’ve always done. This is a good team that will do well before the season is over."

True, but it still doesn’t explain why guys such as Vince Harrison and Dee Brown have been scuffling and West has been lighting it up.

"I made a conscious decision this year to concentrate on my defence," West said. "I feel that if you really try to play well when you’re out in the field, it will translate to your hitting. I’ve just tried to concentrate hard on every aspect of the game and so far, it’s been paying off."

West will have a chance to get back at it tonight at 7 p.m. when the Goldeyes play host to the Gary SouthShore RailCats at Canwest Park.