Nine innings: Andrew Benintendi is more proof that Red Sox do not overrate their prospects
Also: The attrition continues, and can Drew Pomeranz reach a certain modest milestone?
COMMENTARY
Playing nine innings while beginning to suspect that Fernando Abad is a loyal disciple of Scott Sauerbeck …
1. Would you trade Andrew Benintendi straight-up for Chris Sale? Of course you would! It’s Chris Sale, one of the best pitchers (and abstract uniform tailors) in baseball. But you had to think about it for a moment, didn’t you, and that’s remarkable given that two weeks ago most of us would have been OK with him being the second- or third-best player in a deal for the Chicago ace. The kid already feels like a mainstay, someone who may eventually join Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts as a homegrown cornerstone, the kind of player who makes the whinnying “they overrate their prospects’’ crowd look ridiculous. I like him.
2. Benintendi is as advertised and then some — safe to say now he’s never going to know the thrills of a Pawtucket summer — and it took, what, five games for the comps to young Mike Greenwell as a hitter to make perfect sense. Other than a season that ends with champagne, there is little about baseball that is more fun than seeing a touted prospect arrive and immediately show something more than just promise. Like Ellis Burks in ’87, Jacoby Ellsbury in ’07, and Xander Bogaerts in ’13, among others, he certainly has done that.
3. And … that about does it for the good news. I thought I heard the worst of it during the Sox’ disaster against the Yankees on Wednesday night, having turned on the radio for the drive home in the seventh inning. (Tim Neverett reacted to Fernando Abad’s 62-mph meatball to Jacoby Ellsbury like he’d just reenacted Bill Lee and Tony Perez from the ’75 World Series. It was actually a great call). But then I got home, heard Mookie Betts had left the game, and then found out that Papi had nearly Jermaine Dye’d himself. If Steven Wright weren’t hurt, John Farrell might have him batting cleanup for the rest of the week.
4. There have been several games, good and bad, that felt like tipping points as the Sox have staggered toward mediocrity since the All-Star Game. But that one felt like more than a tipping point; it felt like the end of their legitimate contention, which is pretty absurd considering they’d still play in the wild-card game if the season had ended Wednesday. Lately, though, it’s been bad vibes, man. And there’s no worse vibe than seeing Papi limp off the field.
5. In a couple of his usual ways, Craig Kimbrel owns some crazy-good numbers. He’s allowed just 21 hits in 36 innings, and he’s whiffed 57. That’s a 5.3 H/9 and 14.3 K/9. For perspective, or just amazement, Mariano Rivera had a H/9 below 5.3 once in his 19-year career (2008, 5.2) and never struck out as many as 11 batters per nine innings. So he has fulfilled some closer duties amazingly well.
6. But — you knew there was a but — he’s walking five batters per nine innings, and while he’s given up just three homers, when his control starts to go, it always feels like a three-run blast is imminent. Kimbrel is both dominant and way too suspenseful, and that’s only a half-decent way for a closer to win friends and save ballgames. I do not trust him yet. I’m not sure I will this season.
7. I’ll get into John Farrell’s status a little deeper in Friday’s column. But I’ve got to ask this now and again: What makes anyone certain that Torey Lovullo would be an upgrade in the dugout if Farrell is relieved of his duties before the season ends? A decent stretch while Lovullo was on duty during garbage time last year while Farrell was being treated for cancer isn’t a big enough sample for me.
8. Lovullo is his bench coach; he’s always talking to Farrell. Isn’t he outright complicit in Farrell’s bad ideas? Or are there actually worse ideas that never see the light of a box score because he’s talking Farrell out of them? Check it out! T: Time now to unveil my managerial masterstroke: A Hanley suicide squeeze with Papi on third! Whaddaya mean it won’t work? You said the same thing about Steven Wright, pinch runner, and look how that … oh, right. Tell Butterfield it’s off, I guess.
9. Five starts into his Red Sox career, Drew Pomeranz remains two behind Sean O’Sullivan on the franchise victories list and tied with you.
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