Brenton Doyle’s Doubters Fuel His Fire For Baseball
Becoming a professional athlete is not an easy task. It takes years of training, patience, endurance, determination, and some would say a little bit of luck. For outfielder Brenton Doyle, that journey has led him from Kettle Run High School to Shepherd University to the Grand Junction Rockies.
Doyle helped lead Kettle Run to its first appearance in the Virginia state baseball tournament and he also earned multiple honors including being named the 2015 and 2016 All-Conference Player Of The Year and the USA Today High School Sports 2015–16 All-USA Virginia baseball team. He originally committed to the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. However, as he felt his baseball skills develop, he decided he had a shot at professional baseball.
“My junior and senior years in high school, I became a lot better at baseball,” Doyle said. “I felt like if I went to VMI, I wouldn’t be able to put as much time into baseball as I wanted because of ROTC so I decided to de-commit late in my senior year.”
After talking to several friends and alumni, he decided his next step included Shepherd University in West Virginia. With college baseball up next and pro ball on the horizon, Doyle put his head down and worked to show he belonged at the next level.
“I definitely had to do a lot more to get looked at being at a Division II school. I had to put up a lot more numbers. I had to do a lot more in the summer,” Doyle said. “I really busted my butt. I mean I wanted to prove a lot of people wrong because a lot of people were doubting me because I was at a Division II school. It fueled me to work harder and harder.”
Doyle credits his work ethic in school, the weight room, and the field for helping him improve each year. As the honors continued to roll in, more and more teams contacted him about being drafted although the Rockies didn’t speak to him a lot.
“There were one of the teams I talked to probably the least out of the teams that I expected to take me in the draft but for some reason on draft day, I just had this weird gut feeling that it was going to be the Rockies,” Doyle said. “My agent called and said how much the Rockies guy really likes me and how he’s a really tough grade and doesn’t praise kids a lot but he was praising me. I was like maybe this is a sign I’m going to go to the Rockies.”
That prediction came true when the Colorado Rockies selected Doyle in the fourth round of the 2019 MLB Draft with the 129th overall pick.
“Probably around pick 90-something, my agent called and said the Rockies want to take in the fourth and honestly, I just had goosebumps,” Doyle said. “It was a crazy, unreal feeling. All of the work and the dedication and my parents helping me through the years with travel and paying for my equipment and hotels and stuff … I mean it’s honestly such a great feeling to see it all pay off.”
Doyle knew some of what to expect from his first season which he said is a lot like playing summer ball in the Coastal Plains League.
“The CPL was a great experience. It was definitely good competition, great fan atmospheres, and it kind of set me up for what it’s like now,” Doyle said. “It’s a little more physically demanding than summer ball and it’s more physically stressful on your body with the traveling schedule but I think playing summer ball is a really good idea because it really preps you for what comes next.”
And what comes next for Doyle now that he’s in his first season?
“I just want to better my skills, all five tools. At the Division II level, I didn’t see great pitching consistently like I do here so I want to get more plate discipline with this better pitching and just improve overall. It will definitely help me in the years to come.”
