I didn’t want to open this post with just any old sentence. I needed to come up with an unbelievable opening. Something that screamed brilliance. Something that truly captured my feelings for Andrew Benintendi. I held off on really gushing about him in an opening, because the time needed to be right. You know popping his opening cherry, so to speak was special stuff….(WOW! those were some words you could quote me out of context on, and it would look real bad on my part.) The time is here! So off we go, let the trumpets blow, and hold on because the driver of this mission is a horse proctologist by the name of Jan Wilbury. Is that my real name? It shall remain a mystery!! Oh yeah, Andrew Benintendi was promoted to AA Portland on Monday. The long and the short of it, or the “those Grey readers who just read the openings to other posts and scoff” version of why you should care. He’s a future 5 category, 6 if you’re in OBP leagues, contributor, and he’s going to be in the Boston outfield in short order. I suppose he could be in someone else’s outfield too, if there’s a …..gulp….trade. I’d just like to suppress those thoughts for today.
My obsession with Benintendi started almost immediately upon researching his draft profile. All the reports I read described Benintendi as a polished college hitter, and some went as far as to describe him as the best hitter, college or otherwise, in the draft. He had a long and storied history dating back to his high school days, where he set the Ohio state high school record for career runs, and as a senior was named the Gatorade Ohio Player of the Year and the 2013 National High School Player of the Year. He then matriculated to the University of Arkansas of the SEC. There he made the team in his Freshman year, making 60 starts and slashing .276/.368/.333. The following year the power came, and “Benny Baseball” was born, as he destroyed the NCAA with a .380/.489/.715 slash line and 19 homers. He was named SEC Player of the year and Baseball America’s College Player of the Year. He won the DICK HOWSER TROPHY, **random diatribe skip ahead humorless adult for more fantasy baseball (that’s something that needs to be capitalized whenever written, and also awarded at the AVN’s. A DICK HOWSER must stick out. It just has to, it’s the natural order of things.)**, and the baseball version of the Heisman Trophy the Golden Spikes Award. So he’s been good, and has had success at every level.
Leading up to the 2015 draft Benintendi was rumored to be going to either the Astros at 5 or the Red Sox at 7, there was a good chance if he made it past the Astros he was going to the Sox, as the Twins has been connected to a bevy of prep arms, eventually taking Tyler Jay. This was a win-win for me, because I would have an opportunity to watch him at a few stops in his minor league progression. As Lowell, Pawtucket, Portland, and Hartford (Rockies AA in the Eastern League with Portland) are all driveable locations from my house. So last summer I watched a handful of Lowell Spinners games, and the very beginnings of Benintendi’s pro career. It was obvious that he was too advanced for that level as all he did was slash .290/.408/.540 with 7 homers, 7 steals and a ridiculous 16.3% Bb% to 9.8% K%. He then continued to hit upon promotion to Class A Greenville to close the season. From here I was hooked. I then spent the offseason drafting, acquiring picks to draft, or doing whatever I could to acquire Benintendi. So far it’s been a sage move, as he’s cruised through high class A Salem, where he teamed with fellow super Sox specs Yoan Moncada and Rafael Devers. He then capped off his second career AA game last night with a 2 for 3 performance that included a 2 rbi 2 out double to break a tied game in the 5th for the Sea Dogs. He immediately was placed in the three hole in the lineup upon promotion Monday, and looks like he could be up in Pawtucket by August if he continues to hit.
Minor League Quick Hits
These are a handful of notes and updates I felt couldn’t wait till Sunday and our next full minor league update.
- There’s been much talk of when Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow will be up and who will be promoted first. The questions on this topic from our readers end up in the comment section of seemingly every post. Well allow me to share with you my off the wall theory on the topic. I think it could play out like this, first neither of them will be up until the Super Two deadline passes in June. If you look at the Pirates track record they promote no one prior to that date. So my theory is Taillon, who BTW has outpitched Glasnow in AAA, will be up first somewhere in that mid-June time frame. Because he might be the third if not second best (with the way Liriano is pitching) arm in that rotation. Once he’s up there will be serious attention paid to what his innings limit, as he’s spent two years on the shelf with multiple injuries. As he approaches the limit, he could be shutdown, moved to the pen, or the Pirates could promote Glasnow, go to a six man rotation where Taillon is skipped every other start, or have Glasnow take Taillon’s rotation place. They could almost be used as a Fraken-Rookie. This would allow Taillon to log some innings in relief down the stretch and in the playoffs, as well as give Glasnow time to work on his control, while also adding a potential top of the rotation pitcher to a competing team down the stretch. Crazy…..Maybe…..Like a fox….
- For those of you unfamiliar Super Two is a rule that states that a player with between two and three years of MLB service time will be eligible for arbitration prior to the usual three year cut off date if they rank in the top 22% of players in terms of service time in that two to three year window. Smaller market teams will keep players down for an extra two months to circumvent this ruling and ultimately get another year of arbitration and team control. Confused? Me too!
- Onto the next upcoming potential promotion in Trea Turner. Many think that Turner could be down until June when his Super Two date passes, but I once again have a theory. Just as it was with the Pirates prospect aces, it’s based off of studying the Nationals history with promoting prospects. While the Nationals have shown a tendency to delay service clocks on their bigger prospects (Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, etc), they’ve shown no tendency to delay promotions due to Super Two restrictions. Of all the players promoted by the Nationals in the last ten seasons, only Stephen Strasburg was kept down to avoid Super Two. So they don’t mind paying their young studs. Even the Strasburg promotion timing might have been more innings limit driven than actual budgetary concerns. So the long and the short is Turner will fall below the 172 day mark (the benchmark for a full service time year), on May 31st, so I’d place my bets on that being the day of his promotion.
- Do you know how many AL teams could use a guy like Dan Vogelbach right now? The portly Cubs hitting prospect is an ideal DH, prospblocked on an NL team. He’s continued to mash this season, as he just capped off an 8 for 24 week with three homers and 8 RBI’s. He was a player that tumbled off the prospect radar this off-season (MLB Pipeline ranked him 20th in the Cubs system alone), but has regained, and then gained helium over the last two months. I’d start sniffing around now in dynastys, because the minute he’s dealt to a team in need of a DH he’s an instant everyday player.
- One player I’m constantly called out for sleeping on is Chi-Sox shortstop prospect Tim Anderson. Up until last week he was only further cementing my skeptism. Then last week happened and he WENT OFF, to the tune of .432/.462/.730 with 3 homers, 12 runs, and 4 steals. He then continued his hot hitting last night going 3 for 5 in the leadoff spot with a steal. Jimmy Rollins has been pretty meh, as has the rest of the middle infield options on the Southside, as they presently rank 20th in wOBA from the SS position. The do have some decent depth with Rollins, Saladino, and Carlos Sanchez, but I would be shocked if we don’t see Anderson sometime this season. More than likely he’ll need an injury to be up anytime before early August.
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