Anthony Gose isn't the type of person or player who blends into a crowd.
The 21-year-old sticks out like a bright yellow Ferrari surrounded by navy blue sedans, an eye-catching centre-fielder who plays with strut and flair, unworried of what others might think.
Not only does he not lack in confidence, he features an abundance of it.
And as one of primary catalysts for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, he's helped the Toronto Blue Jays' double-A affiliate advance all the way to the Eastern League's championship series, a best of five against the Richmond Flying Squirrels scheduled to start Tuesday night.
"I'm probably as aggressive as they come," Gose says of his personality during a recent interview. "It gets me in trouble at times, being too aggressive, trying to do too much, getting too cocky and things like that, but it's just the way I am, it's how I play the game and that's how I go about my business."
He's mostly gone about his business in the right ways this season, a marked departure from a difficult 2010 in which Gose admits his ego hampered him.
A second-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008, Gose really put himself on the map the next year with Lakewood of the low-A South Atlantic League, leading all the minors with 76 stolen bases to go with 24 doubles, nine triples and two homers in 131 games.
Flying high afterwards, the promotion to high-A Clearwater last year quickly put him in his place. Thinking he had it all figured out, Gose's numbers plateaued, particularly on the basepaths, where he stole 36 bases but was caught 27 times while with the Threshers.
Traded to the Blue Jays on July 29 via Houston for first baseman Brett Wallace as part of the deal that landed Roy Oswalt in Philadelphia, things didn't get much better when he joined crosstown Dunedin to finish out the year. He stole nine more bases while with the Baby Jays, getting caught five times.
"I came into the league thinking, 'I'm the greatest, I just stole 76 and led all of baseball. It's going to happen again like it did the year before, what could change?'" Gose explains. "Obviously the players got better, they're anticipating me to steal, the strategies changed on the opposing side and I was still in the mindset that I was the best and already accomplished everything. …
"I was just really cocky from what I did in 2009 and how I did it. I kind of overlooked and overstepped the league and it ended up backfiring. I had a real humbling season on the basepaths."
In the grand scheme of things, there's been a benefit to that.
Despite his 2010 struggles, Gose was bumped up to double-A this season and responded by establishing new career-highs with 16 home runs, 59 RBIs, 62 walks, 211 total bases, and a .349 on-base percentage.
He also stole 70 bases in 85 attempts for an 82.4 per cent success rate, slightly above the 80 per cent generally ascribed to the top bag thieves.
More important than the big numbers, too, were the changes to his approach in the batter's box that led to the healthy stats line.
He feels that's the area where he's grown the most in 2011.
"What I've done at the plate has been far better than what I've ever done, probably in my whole life, as far as having good at-bats, laying off pitches, hitting the ball hard, driving the ball more," Gose says. "The biggest thing is getting ready for every pitch.
"Sometimes I'm late, sometimes I feel early so I shut down, looking for that timing to be ready for every pitch. Once I find that I'll be ready to go."
Asked how that approach varies from years past, Gose replies: "I never really knew about those things."
"I didn't start learning too much about how much focus goes into getting ready, everybody just told me you're late, you've got to get your foot down but I never really knew what it meant to get ready," he continues. "When I came over here, I'm learning what it means to get ready, how to get my body ready and now it's just a matter of finding the one thing that's going to get me consistently ready the most."
On that front work remains.
Gose struck out 154 times in 509 at-bats, and pitchers will only further exploit his soft spots the further up he goes. There are still adjustments to be made, and he recognizes that.
"I can still be late and put the ball in play but I'm not doing myself any justice because if you're going to drive or hit the ball into the gaps, the guys in the big-leagues or even here, they can field," he says. "I can put the bat on the ball freely, it's a matter of doing it the right way."
That needs to be applied to his game all around and at times Fisher Cats manager Sal Fasano has needed to step in and remind Gose of that, once pulling him from a game for not running a ball out hard.
But for the most part, Fasano has been more than pleased with Gose's progress, strut and all. He doesn't mind the flash in his player's game and attitude, provided there's the substance behind it to back everything up.
"If you have a kid who wants to play with a youthful enthusiasm, it might strike some people, especially some of the old baseball purists who might say he's arrogant," says Fasano. "I don't care about arrogance, you're supposed to be arrogant. I knew when I was behind the plate I was going to catch everything, does that make me arrogant, or am I just doing my job?
"So as the maturity level comes, some of the antics will go away, so I never shy away from the guy's antics. You want him to play with youthful enthusiasm and to feel as though they can be the best, because then they're going to do whatever they can to get better as a player."
The Blue Jays certainly hope that's the way things play out.
Either way, Gose isn't going to stop believing in himself, whether he continues to succeed or not.
"I feel I'm the best center-fielder in the game and nobody's ever going to change that," he says. "I led all the minor-leagues in stolen bases in 2009, I said I'm the best base-stealer. I feel I'm the best and I'll tell you right to your face I'm the best. …
"I don't walk up to a guy and say, 'Hey, did you know I'm the best?' I don't ever do anything like that, but if you ask me I'm going to tell you. I've never been sacred to tell you I'm the best."
