Desmond Jennings is Good at Baseball

by
September 4, 2009

Last night for Triple-A Durham, Desmond Jennings tied an International League record by going 7-for-7 in a single game. That’s pretty good. Desmond Jennings is pretty good.

This season Jennings has already put the Southern League MVP under his belt. There, in Double-A, he posted a .316/.395/.486 line with 37 bases in 42 tries. As some extra icing on the cake, coaches and managers rated him the best defensive outfielder in the league. He also displayed tremendous plate discipline, drawing 48 walks against 52 strikeouts in 440 plate appearances. Jennings was doing a little bit of everything. He has not slowed down a bit since being called up to Triple-A.

For Durham Jennings has a downright tasty .420 wOBA over 116 plate appearances, including 14 more steals in 16 tries. He’s also walking more (18 BB) than he’s striking out (14 K).

Because of his tools, performance and football background, Jennings has been drawn a few comparisons to his future teammate, Carl Crawford. While Crawford was up in the majors by the time he was 20, Jennings, 22, has shown more patience and extra base pop throughout his minor league career. The only major question mark is his durability.

With B.J. Upton, Crawford and Jennings in the outfield in 2010, the Rays will boast just a freakishly athletic and rangy outfield.

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Erik Manning is the founder of Future Redbirds and covers the Cardinals for Heater Magazine. You can get more of his analysis and rantings in bite-sized bits by following him on twitter.

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Joe R
16 years ago

Are the Rays looking to get Jennings playing time in 2009, or are they keeping him away from the majors rather than start the arb clock?

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