Benintendi Launches First Pro Homer





(Photo Source: ArkansasOnline.com)

via Boston Baseball Magazine 

Last month, the Red Sox drafted 20-year-old sophomore outfielder Andrew Benintendi from the University of Arkansas with the seventh overall pick in the First-Year Player Draft. Boston signed him last week for just over $3.5 million.


Benintendi began his professional career last week with the Single-A Lowell Spinners of the New York-Penn League. He promptly collected two hits in each of his first games, including a home run against the Tri-City Valley Cats on Saturday, the Fourth of July. He has collected four hits in eight at-bats (.500 batting average) with the single home run and two runs batted in through his first three games with Lowell.

Although he has shown he possesses plenty of raw power, at only 5-10 and 170 pounds he considers himself more of a doubles hitter.


“Going into my sophomore year, I knew what to expect. So I prepared accordingly. I don’t think I’m a power guy, even though the numbers may say I am. I’m more of a gap-to-gap guy. I just go up there and try and hit the ball hard and, fortunately, enough balls go over the fence,” Benintendi told The Lowell Sun last week.


Benintendi was named the SEC Player of the Year, Collegiate Baseball’s Player of the Year and received the 2015 Golden Spikes Award. The lefty hit .376/.488/.717 with a Divison I-leading 20 home runs, 58 runs batted in and 24 stolen bases in only 65 games for the Arkansas Razorbacks this season.

The Cincinnati, Ohio native hopes to join a long list of former Golden Spikes Award winners who have gone on to have successful MLB careers including Alex Gordon (2005), Tim Lincecum (2006), David Price (2007), Buster Posey (2008), Stephan Strausburg (2009), Bryce Harper (2010) and Kris Bryant (2013).

This is the second time in three seasons that Boston has had the seventh overall selection, their earliest picks in the draft since 1993, when they drafted Trot Nixon with the seventh pick. The Red Sox are hoping to get more production out of Benintendi than their 2013 seventh overall draft choice, lefthander Trey Ball, who has so far failed to live up to expectations. Ball has gone 11-17 with a 4.24 ERA, allowing 191 hits and 78 walks in 186.2 innings over three seasons.

— Forrest Mulheron

Greenville Stacked with Infield Depth

(Photo Source: Boston Globe)

via Boston Baseball Magazine

Much of the talk coming into the 2015 season revolved around the surplus of outfield depth the Red Sox were carrying on their roster.

What was not mentioned as frequently was the tremendous amount of infield talent Boston possesses in its minor league ranks, specifically at Single-A, especially after signing international free-agent Yoan Moncada to a $31.5 million deal back in early March.

Moncada is currently Boston’s highest-rated prospect, ranked seventh in all of baseball by MLB.com. The young second baseman spent the beginning of the season in extended spring training. Since being assigned to Greenville on May 18, he has hit just .229/.311/.321 with only seven extra-base hits. However, it should come as no surprise to anyone that such a young man would need a little extra time to fully transition.

“I was excited to get out of Fort Myers and play [live games],” Moncada told BaseballProspectus.com through his translator. “Since then, I’m just trying to get better and get used to everything.”

Greenville boasts not just one but two top-100 MLB prospects in their infield. There's also 18-year-old Dominican born third baseman Rafael Devers, who is currently ranked 80th. The Red Sox signed Devers as an international free-agent in 2013.

Devers has looked impressive in 62 games for the Drive this season, slashing .306/.372/.479 with five home runs, 19 doubles, 40 runs scored and 36 RBI. Devers will represent the Red Sox in the MLB All-Star Futures Game on July 12 alongside Manuel Margot.

His offensive approach has even garnered comparisons to All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano.
"In terms of the swing itself, I've heard people comp him to Robinson Cano,” Greenville manager Darren Fenster said in an interview with WEEI.com. "Just with the whip that he has from the left side and the path that he has.”

Not listed as one of MLB’s top-100 prospects, but ranked 10th in Boston’s organization by SoxProspects.com, is 19-year old Michael Chavis. Chavis was selected 26th overall by the Red Sox in the 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of Sprayberry High School in Marietta, GA.

Although his slash line of .207/.267/.356 leaves something to be desired, Chavis has shown some ability to drive the ball by slugging six home runs and 13 doubles in his 56 games this season, including a walk-off double in his Greenville debut.

"It [was] a great sign for a kid who, this is his first game under the lights, and to have him come up with the game on the line in the ninth, for him to have the ability to stay calm under pressure and come through with a good at-bat — he smoked a ball that was a couple of feet from being a home run," Fenster told MiLB.com back in April.

With three of Boston’s top-10 prospects just beginning to get their feet wet in the minors and many questions surrounding the Red Sox infield in the seasons moving forward, it should be exciting watching these and several other infield prospects journey through the minors for the next few seasons.
 
— Forrest Mulheron