Had a nice time visiting family and celebrating my cousin's college graduation yesterday. I mentioned my travels took me to St. Charles, IL, where Matt Reynolds played his high school ball. Well, while I was there I was updated on another young left-handed pitcher from St. Charles by the name of Wes Benjamin.
I remember meeting his parents in a previous visit when they were optimistic about his future in baseball. This time around it sounds like he's developed into a legit prospect. He's committed to the University of Kansas, but over the past year he's been contacted by 22 MLB teams. So it wouldn't surprise anyone if his name gets called during the MLB draft this week.
Hey, the Rockies had good success the first time they went to that well. Maybe they'll take another chance on a kid out of St. Charles. Who knows? But whatever happens, I wish him well on his journey.
You can read more about him in this Chicago Tribune piece from Wednesday. Just remember when his day comes: You heard his name there first. You heard it here second.
Looked like the Rockies had a nice time as well on Saturday. I only watched MLB.com's condensed version of the game and looked over the boxscore, so I'll just say a couple things here.
-- A one-run victory! Wooo!
-- It was great to see Troy Tulowitzki take over a game with his bat. Granted it didn't lead to a lot of offense overall, but he made the most of his opportunities, which is a positive sign. Now you want others to start feeding off him.
-- Hard to comment on Jhoulys Chacin without seeing the whole body of work. Results, though, were excellent. Glad he was rewarded with a victory.
-- Matt Lindstrom. Rafael Betancourt. Huston Street. No hits. No nothing. I was beside myself with excitement when I saw that. Especially since it was a one-run game the entire time.
-- Thrilled to hear Rex Brothers finally got the call he and Rockies fans have been waiting for. Jim Tracy says he'll be eased in to duty, but I'll believe that when I see it. He really doesn't need it. He's too talented. Besides that, baseball situations don't often dictate you can ease a pitcher in. Sometimes it'll work, but I say treat him like you would any other reliever and let's see what we have here.
-- Matt Daley hits the DL to open up the spot for Brothers. Daley looked good initially in his callup, but faltered recently when the shoulder soreness flared up. Hopefully there's nothing too serious going on there.
-- Lineup card returns tomorrow.
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