FanHouse John Van Benschoten

As you probably know, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a bad recent history with their high level draft picks. Lots of the pitchers they've picked recently have gotten seriously injured and very few of any of their picks have lived up to their early potential for any amount of time. That leads to lots of speculation about how the Pirates run their minor league system. What doesn't help that speculation is when a first round draft pick like John Van Benschoten says that he wasn't coached in the minors. From the Pirates official website:

"Coming up through the system and being the No. 1 pick and no one really stepping up because no one wants to mess you up," said Van Benschoten, who was the team's first-round selection in the 2001 First-Year Player Draft. "They have a big organization and they need to take care of other people, so I think being almost left alone has just come to a head this year with a crash course here."

Let me remind you that Van Benschoten was a hitter in college that the Pirates drafted as a pitcher. And no one in the organization bothered to coach him. Not surprisingly, he's had a bad shoulder injury to both his pitching arm and non-pitching arm and is making his first prolonged appearance in the majors this year, six years after he was drafted. And people wonder why the Pirates are in or close to last place every year. Oh, wait. No they don't.

Via Bucs Dugout.

On Deck is The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups. This is not one of them. In fact, it would be best for your sanity to avoid this whole series and just watch golf or something.

Chicago White Sox (27-35) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (28-38)- 7:05 PM Est. Friday, 7:05 PM Est., Saturday, 1:35 PM Est., Sunday

This is what interleague play is all about. The records in this one may not be the worst you'll find, but you'd be hard pressed to find two worse offensive teams than the Pirates and the White Sox. The White Sox on-base percentage is a major league worst .304. The Pirates? Second worst in the bigs at .315. A no-hitter could break out at any second in this series. Well, except that the Pirates are starting 2-9 Paul Maholm tonight, John Van Benschoten is making his first big-league start in almost three years tomorrow, and Zach Duke will take his major-league leading 112 hits allowed to the mound on Sunday. Irresistible force? I'd like to introduce you to immovable object. The White Sox will counter with Jon Garland, Mark Buerhle, and Javier Vazquez. Those three are hoping against all hope that maybe the White Sox offense will finally break out against someone... anyone.

Apologies to Fornelli for tweaking his format here. And for being a White Sox fan. We'll suffer through this one together.

Previously at the FanHouse
John Van Benschoten's Shoulders Are OK
Mark Buehrle Doesn't Want You To Forget He Threw a No-Hitter First

Unless you're a Pirate fan, the name "John Van Benschoten" probably doesn't ring a bell for you. In the first round of the 2001 draft, the Pirates had the eighth pick. With it, they took Van Benschoten, widely regarded as one of the best college hitters (not a typo) available. They selected him as a pitcher. He moved through the minors pretty quickly and was in Pittsburgh in 2004. After less than 30 innings, he went on the DL and had serious surgery on each shoulder, which caused him to miss all of 2005 and most of 2006. And despite all that, he's back in the Pirates rotation tomorrow because of the Buccos' awful bullpen. As you can imagine, he's ecstatic.

This is what his agent, Joe Bick, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"I've never been happier for any player I've had than I am today," Bick said. "People can't fathom what it's like for an athlete to be out for that period of time, to wonder if you're going to recover, to think, 'Can I ever be what I'm supposed to be?' Don't get me wrong: John still has a lot to prove. But I don't think he'll ever get over a bigger hump than this one."

It really is an inspiring story, but without trying to take anything away from it, I will say that it's pretty much only possible because Van Benschoten is in the Pirates' organization. He's getting the call-up because the Pirates have been forced to move Shawn Chacon back into the bullpen because of the incredible string of rejects that have tried to bridge the gap between the starting pitching and closer Matt Capps.

He's still on a pitch count and his AAA numbers aren't that great, but as his agent points out, just getting back to this point is a huge victory for Van Benschoten. It'll certainly be hard to root against him on Saturday.