Following Up on John VanB

A couple of weeks ago I went on a bit about the Pirates releasing former first rounder John Van Benschoten. Today Van Benschoten has a new job:

Right-hander John Van Benschoten, who was taken by the Pirates with the eighth overall pick in the 2001 First-Year Player Draft, has signed a Minor League deal with the [White] Sox, sources told MLB.com on Friday. Van Benschoten reportedly will be invited to the Sox big league Spring Training camp in Glendale, Ariz.

Expectations of success: approaching nothin’, but as I explained in the previous post, I’ve always felt like this kid was done a disservice by the Pirates, so I’ll be rooting for him to make something out of his career.


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Leo Walter
15 years ago

Craig,I am curious as to how you think Johnny V. was done a diservice by the Pirates. If you mean Littlefield did that by drafting him as a pitcher,I would agree.But if you mean later,after he was committed as a pitcher,I would have to disagree with you.I saw him pitch many times between Short Season,AA,and a number of times in Camp and Spring Training games,and to be honest,I always thought he really lacked the heart to be a Major League pitcher.Actually,I thought the biggest disservice the orginization did to him was to keep calling him up and running him out there to get his butt kicked when it was pretty obvious he just didn’t have the command and location needed.

Craig Calcaterra
15 years ago

I meant by turning him into a pitcher when he was such a blue chip hitting prospect.