It's interesting to me how we had four left-handed hitters who were pretty successful at Columbus this season; Will Benson (.948 OPS), Bo Naylor (.880), Will Brennan (.838), and Nolan Jones (.831).
All have gotten looks in Cleveland, although Bo has only six at-bats so far. Bo has struck out five times in those six at-bats. Benson is hitting .182 with a 35% strikeout rate. He struck out last night on an at-bat where he saw nothing but curveballs. Jones was somewhat better at .244/.681 with a 36% strikeout rate.
And then there's Brennan, hitting .344/.900 with 3 K's in 32 at-bats. Just an incredible difference between him and the other three. Now maybe Brennan regresses back to Nolan Jones' numbers with more at-bats (since they had the same OPS at Columbus), but the eyeball test backs up the numbers; this guy can really handle the bat. That miniscule 9.4% K-rate confirms it, although it's a very small sample. That K-rate is even lower than Kwan's 10.5%.
Maybe it's the Bradley Zimmer hangover, but when I see very tall left-handed hitters like Jones and Benson they remind me of Zimmer. And when they are striking out 35-36% of the time it REALLY reminds me of Zimmer. These guys have long swings and huge strike zones. I doubt they'll ever hit major league pitching. Whereas Brennan looks like he's been up here for years.
Last night in his first at-bat he was down 0-1 and chased a breaking ball below the knees, lining a triple into the right field corner. Next at-bat he's down 0-2 and drills a knee-high fastball for a three-run homer. In his last at-bat he just missed a grand slam on a high curveball and probably would have got it if not for a strong wind blowing it.
Now maybe pitchers will start throwing him more high heat and he'll turn out to be another Tyler Naquin. We'll see. But I can't get over the difference we're seeing between his ability to handle major league pitching and that of Benson, Jones, and Bo Naylor (all of whom have swings that look too long to me).
