Scott Kingery Excelling At Double-A Reading

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Scott Kingery is one of the Phillies top prospects, enjoying an outstanding season for Double-A Reading. But this is just the latest entry in what is already a very impressive baseball resume.

Related: Phillies With 5 Of Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects

Kingery's first taste of high level baseball came back in 2006 when he played in the Little League World Series with a team from Phoenix, Arizona. Then he had an outstanding run at Mountain Pointe High School in Arizona. But despite that, Kingery says he didn't get any Division I college scholarship offers, so he decided to roll the dice as a walk-on at the University of Arizona.

"A preferred walk-on," Kingery told KYW Newsradio prior to Sunday's home game with New Hampshire. "Which means, I think they brought something like 50 players in during the fall and you had a spot on the fall roster, no scholarship. I think its 35 people they can keep on the spring roster. So there's 15 or so guys out there that weren't sure if they were going to make it. So I was basically given a jersey, I was #53 out of 54 and I was given a jersey and they said, 'Let's see what you got.' So I took my chances there."

Listen to the entire interview with Reading's Scott Kingery:

Needless to say, it worked out. Kingery became a force in the Pac-12, winning the conference's player of the year award as a junior in 2015. This led to the Phillies selecting him in the second round of the 2015 draft.

He started his pro career in Low-A Lakewood in 2015, hitting .250. He then hit .293 in High-A Clearwater in 2016, a performance which earned him a promotion to Double-A Reading late in the season where he hit .250 in 37 games. So far this season, he has been outstanding for the Fightin Phils.

The 23-year-old Kingery is hitting .289 with an Eastern League-leading 13 home runs. He has scored 40 runs in 37 games and also has eight doubles, four triples and nine steals (without being caught). He says his ascension up the organizational ladder has felt right every step of the way.

"It takes me a little bit to get accustomed to every level and kind of get comfortable there," Kingery says. "But once I get my feet under me and get things rolling a little bit, I think it's good at the pace that I'm going at and hopefully I can just keep improving at every level. Hopefully, whenever they feel like I'm ready, they can move me up and I can get some at bats in Triple A and keep moving up from there."

The 13 home runs this season are impressive, especially considering he had just eight long balls as a pro coming into 2017. But he isn't getting carried away with the power surge.

"I definitely don't consider myself a power hitter," he says. "I think from here on out, as I move up, I'm going to be a gap guy. Get my doubles, get my triples, take my singles and turn those into doubles with stolen bases. For me, I can't get too big. It's easy in this park to try to get too big, and I feel myself doing that sometimes. When I feel that, I have to remind myself to go back to a line drive swing because I think, with my natural swing, if I do put a good swing on the ball, it'll have a chance to go out, even if I don't try too hard. For me, it's a line drive swing and line drive approach and just try to find a gap and run a little bit."

On Sunday, Kingery's complete offensive repertoire was on display. In a game Reading eventually lost to New Hampshire, 8-7, he went 4-5 with four runs scored and two runs batted in. His hits included an infield single, a bunt single and two home runs. On Monday, he was named the Eastern League Player of the Week.

There is still a lot of this story yet to come, as Kingery would appear to have a very bright future with the Phillies. But he appreciates the path he has already traveled.

"It's crazy to think about," Kingery says. "When I think back on not having very much attention out of high school and going to Arizona as a walk-on and then eventually having a good career there and becoming a second rounder. From there, going into professional baseball and then being invited to big league spring training after my first (full) professional season. It's incredible. I can't even describe what it feels like to know how highly the Phillies really think of me."

Kingery and the rest of the Fightin Phils open a three-game series in Trenton tonight against the Thunder.