Is Andrew Benintendi the toughest Red Sox to game-plan for?
It’s not supposed to work this way — not in this era.
Young players aren’t supposed to all but bypass the minor leagues, start hitting upon their first exposure to the big leagues, and then sustain their production as the league begins to dissect their weaknesses. Even Mike Trout endured an adjustment period in the big leagues (granted, when he was still a teenager) as a 2011 call-up.
But in a time when stuff is as overpowering as baseball has ever featured, when scouting reports are more sophisticated than ever, teams have yet to discover the secret of how to get Andrew Benintendi out.
Through his first 30 contests of 2017, opponents have tried nearly everything, to no avail.
Fastballs? Nope: Against four-seam fastballs of 95 miles per hour or greater, Benintendi is 3 for 8 with three walks and two homers (including a 437-foot launch Sunday against Twins starter Ervin Santana’s 95 m.p.h. heater). The previous weekend, he went deep against a John Lackey two-seamer with a 423-foot blast.
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