Meisel tidbits on Benson:
Earlier this summer, with some encouragement from field coordinator and long-time major-leaguer John McDonald, Benson studied video of Barry Bonds and Mike Trout. Benson marveled at how they squeezed the most out of every moment in the batter’s box, how they never afforded the pitcher any peace of mind. They refused to chase pitches out of the strike zone. When the pitcher missed his spot, they didn’t miss theirs. Even if they didn’t inflict damage, they flustered the guy on the mound.
“They were the toughest out,” Benson said.
Those principles have aided Benson in his breakout season. Throughout his climb to Triple A, Benson was a three-true-outcomes prototype. He walked a bunch. He struck out a ton. And he hit for some power.
This year, he altered his profile. He boosted his walk rate to an elite mark of 18.7 percent, and he reduced his strikeout rate from uncomfortably high to completely tolerable.
Benson’s 2021 strikeout rate: 33.4 percent
Benson’s 2022 strikeout rate: 22.7 percent
Following the Guardians’ win in Detroit on Wednesday, Benson and Steven Kwan played chess. As they plotted their moves, they engaged in what Benson described as “the deepest conversation of all time,” one so “enriching and enlightening” he said he jotted down a bunch of notes in his journal afterward.
In spring 2021, when Benson and Kwan roomed together during spring training, Kwan introduced Benson to meditation.
“It opened up a new world,” Benson said.
Benson meditates for five to 10 minutes before he goes to sleep each night. He’ll meditate at other points in the day for upwards of a half hour. Throughout the 2021 season, Benson and Kwan would meditate together before heading to the ballpark.
Here’s how they describe it: They close their eyes and focus on their breath, concentrating on the air funneling through their noses as they inhale and leaving their mouths as they exhale. During that process, random thoughts will arise. What’s for lunch? What’s the plan for the off day? I wonder how Grandma’s feeling. They acknowledge the thoughts, identify that they have been distracted and then rush back to focusing on their breathing.
“We are not our thoughts,” Kwan said. “Thoughts just pass by. It’s like a cloud in the sky. You wouldn’t say it’s a cloudy day because there’s one cloud in the sky. You look past that.”
And that’s where it translates to baseball. Benson learned he could combat the suffocating thoughts that surface when he’s in a slump.
“You’re focusing on your plan and all of a sudden a fan yells something,” Kwan said. “‘OK, well, no, I don’t suck.’ And then you go down this rabbit hole. It’s like, ‘No, identify that, and let me get back to my plan.’ It’s just that training of your brain. It’s like a muscle that you train.”
