Cincinnati, We Have a Problem

Twenty-four years ago, the 1990 Cincinnati Reds were on their way to winning the World Series.  They finished the regular season in first place at 91-71, five games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers.  They would go on to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates in six games, and then sweep the Oakland A’s, who, despite not winning the World Series, was clearly the best team in baseball that year.  But the Reds got hot, Jose Rijo gave up nine hits and one earned run in 15 1/3 innings, and that was that.

Hooray Reds.  But today isn’t about the Reds of 24 years ago.  It’s about the Reds of 25 years ago.  Specifically, we’re going to look at not only the team leader, but the league leader in at bats, Todd Benzinger.  Were the Reds so bad because Benzinger got so many at bats, or did Benzinger get so many at bats because the Reds were so bad?  Either way, the results weren’t good.

Every Rose has it's thorn.

Under the scourge of manager Pete Rose’s throwing of baseball games, the 1989 Reds finished 75-87, fifth place in the NL West.  At the end of June, they were a respectable 41-37, but a 7-19 July and a 10-18 September sealed their fate.  Barry Larkin hit .342, but he only played in 97 games after missing most of July and all of August.  Eric Davis hit 34 home runs and drove in 101 runs, but his stolen base totals fell off a cliff, down to 21 from a high of 50 just two years earlier.  The five starters that started the most games for the Reds that year – Tom Browning, Rick Mahler, Danny Jackson, Rijo and Scott Scudder – combined to go 41-51.  Closer John Franco saved 32 games, but also went 4-8.  Two-thirds of the Nasty Boys – Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton – were pleasant surprises, combining for a 18-8 record.  Dibble was second on the team in wins at 10.

Let’s get back to this Benzinger fellow.  He would have been listed on the back of the 1989 Topps “Reds Team Leaders” card in several places – games played, at bats, runs, hits, doubles, strikeouts, and for some reason that defies logic, intentional walks.  In addition, he was second in triples, home runs, and RBIs, and third in walks.  All of this goes back to the sheer number of games he played in – 161 – a full 30 games more than second place Davis.  Not sure what kept him out of action on April 30th, but I’m sure it was important.  So Benzinger was good at playing in a lot of games that year, and not much else.  Let’s take a look back and see if anyone saw that coming.

Benzinger was drafted in the fourth round of the 1981 Major League draft by the Boston Red Sox out of New Richmond High School in New Richmond, OH.  To date, he is the only major leaguer produced by the Lions.  Fellow fourth rounders that year include future teammate Paul O’Neill, Shane Mack and Eric Plunk.  Fun fact!  By some accounts, Benzinger was the worst player drafted that year.  While only 10 of the 26 players drafted reached the majors, Benzinger has the lowest WAR of the 10 at -2.7.

Upon signing, Benzinger was assigned to A- ball Elmira, where he hit .241 with 10 doubles, a triple, two home runs and eight RBIs in 41 games split between the outfield and first base.  This earned him a promotion to A ball Winston-Salem, where he hit .219 with 19 doubles, a triple, five home runs and 46 RBIs in 121 games, also in the outfield and at first base.  You’re going the wrong way there, Todd.

Benzinger found himself back in A ball in 1983, this time at Winter Haven.  He did better this time, hitting .279 with 34 doubles, five triples, seven home runs and 68 RBIs in 125 games mainly in the outfield, but he also had two games at first base, and one game at third base.  In the game he played third base, he had one chance, and promptly made an error, giving him a minor league career fielding percentage of .000 at the position.  Despite not being able to field third base, the Red Sox promoted him to AA New Britain for the next season, where he hit .258 with 25 doubles, five triples, 10 home runs and 60 RBIs.  They still couldn’t figure out where to play him though, as he again split his time between the outfield and first base.

Isn't the "o" long if
there's only one "d"?

The next three years are what is known to Benzinger as The Pawtucket Chronicles.  In AAA, he combined to hit .251 with 26 doubles, three triples, 22 home runs and 79 RBIs in 1985 and 1986.  In those two seasons, he only played three games at first base.

By the time 1987 came around, it was pretty much crap or get off the pot for Benzinger.  And crap he did.  In 65 games, he hit .323 with 17 doubles, three triples, 13 home runs and 49 RBIs.  He played about three-quarters of his time in the outfield, combining for a fielding percentage of .992, easily the best of his minor league career.

Not really sure why the
Brewers had a 60 year old
ex-fullback pitching.

The Red Sox called up Benzinger on June 21st, 1987.  In a 4-2 win over the New York Yankees, he pinch hit for catcher Marc Sullivan in the bottom of the eighth, drew a walk, and trotted home when Ellis Burks took Bob Tewksbury deep.  The next day, Benzinger would get his first career hit off of John Henry Johnson in a 5-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.  Two days later, he would knock in four runs in an 8-7 win again over the Brewers.  He was hitting .310 through the end of June, and after playing sparingly in July, his average was only down to .288.  He played quite a bit more in August, but at the end of that month, he was only hitting .234.  After the league made some adjustments to him, he made his own adjustments, collecting 11 multi hit games in 31 games from September 1st on, including a three hit, seven RBI day in a 9-8 loss to the Tigers on September 15th.  That game also featured his first career grand slam.  He would finish his first partial season hitting .278 with 11 doubles, a triple, eight home runs and 43 RBIs.  In his 63 games in the field, 61 of them were in the outfield, where he had a fielding percentage of .987 across all three positions.

Benzinger returned to Boston in 1988.  He played sparingly in the first half of the season, only playing in 33 games through the end of June while batting .238 with two home runs and 16 RBIs.  After hitting .324 in July, his season average was all the way up to .282.  This included a three-run, walkoff home run on July 20th, in a 9-7 win over the Minnesota Twins.  Unfortunately, that was pretty much the high water mark of the season.  On August 4th, he had his first two-home run game.  He would add four more home runs through August 26th, but he didn’t hit another in his final 33 games that season.  Overall, he hit .254 with 28 doubles, a triple, 13 home runs and 70 RBIs.  Playing about two thirds of his games at first base, he had an overall fielding percentage of .989.

Before the start of the 1989 season, Benzinger was traded with Jeff Sellers and Luis Vasquez to the Cincinnati Reds for Nick Esasky and Rob Murphy.  Sellers would pitch in one minor league game for the Reds, and would never pitch in the majors again.  Vasquez would never make it to the majors, but he did give AAA Nashville 47 games, compiling a 15-19 record for them.  On the other end of the trade, Esasky gave the Sox one season, hitting .277 with 30 home runs, 108 RBIs, and an 18th place finish in the American League MVP voting.  Murphy would be bullpen filler for two seasons for the Sox, throwing 142 games, compiling a 5-13 record with 16 saves.

Unretires, becomes Marlins
new first baseman.

Benzinger set out to prove the Red Sox made a horrible decision in trading him, a journey which ultimately failed miserably.  Now a full time first baseman, he was hitting .225 at the end of April, with no home runs, six RBIs and four walks vs. 12 strikeouts.  By the midpoint of the season, things hadn’t gotten much better.  Pretty much the highlight of the first half was his grand slam hit on June 27th.  He would add another grand slam in the second game of a double header on August 18th, but that was about the only significant thing he did in the second half.  He finished the season hitting .245 with 28 doubles, three triples, 17 home runs and 76 RBIs, with 44 walks and 120 strikeouts.  He was intentionally walked 13 times, with six of those occurring in the last month of the season.  This was a first baseman with an on base percentage of .293 and a slugging percentage of .381.  For reference, Juan Pierre’s career slugging percentage was .361.  If Pierre could have gotten 150 more bases over the course of his 14 year career, he would have had the same slugging percentage as Benzinger.

I can't believe I found this on the internet.
Actually, I can.

Benzinger had one thing going for him in 1989.  Health.  He played in far more games (161) than the second place player on the team – Davis with 131.  The 1989 Reds had 20 players play in 40 or more games.  That number in 2014 was only 14.  Even the 2014 Rangers, probably the most injured team in the game this year, only had 16 players play in 40 or more games.  With health on his side, and a low walk rate, Benzinger led the league in at bats with 628.  In addition, he was fifth in the league in games played, fourth in plate appearances, seventh in strikeouts, and third in sacrifice flies, putouts, games at first base, and fielding percentage.  Despite his efforts, he accumulated -0.5 WAR on the year.  Fun fact – I remember looking at the back of Benzinger’s baseball card in 1990, studying the stats, and found it interesting that he had the exact same number of at bats – 628 – that he did in the previous two years combined – 223 and 405.  So if you want to know where my love of baseball is rooted, this is what I did for fun as a child – studied the backs of baseball cards of the ilk of players such as Todd Benzinger.

A combination of health and talent, or lack of both, would conspire to ensure Benzinger would never post anything close to his 1989 numbers again.  In 1990, he actually was on fire to start the season, hitting .339 in April, and he was still at the .300 mark as late as June 3rd.  A month later, it looks like the injury bug hit.  At the time, he was hitting .281 with four home runs and 39 RBIs.  He had only missed three of the Reds first 74 games to that point of the season.  After that point of the season, he would only play another 47 games, with only 25 starts, hitting .190 with one home run and seven RBIs with three walks and 26 strikeouts.  For the season, he hit .253 with 14 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 46 RBIs.

Fortunately for the Reds, prior to the 1990 season, they acquired William Harold (Hal) Morris from the Yankees.  Through the first half of the season, Morris played sparingly.  As of June 19th, he was only hitting .222.  Between June 20th and July 22nd, he hit .508, raising his batting average to .419 on the season.  The rest of the way out, he hit .309, and had completely replaced Benzinger at first base.  Both players were now World Series champions, but they were headed in opposite directions.

1991 would be Benzinger’s last season in Cincinnati.  On Opening Day, he went 3-4 with four RBIs, only a home run shy of the cycle, in a 6-5 victory over the Houston Astros.  Over his next 50 games, through July 7th when he was traded to the Kansas City Royals for Domingo Mota and Chris Gwynn, he hit .168 with two doubles, a triple, a home run and seven RBIs.  The change of scenery seemed to be a boost to him, as for the rest of July for the Royals, he hit .347 with four doubles, a triple, two home runs and 18 RBIs.  This included a grand slam on July 23rd, which proved to be the game winner in an 8-7 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.  Over the final two months of the season, he played mainly replacement level ball, hitting .275, but he didn’t hit a single home run, which wasn’t exactly ideal for an American League first baseman.  For the season, he hit .262 with 18 doubles, five triples, three home runs and 51 RBIs.

In December of 1991, Benzinger was traded yet again, this time to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  He probably assumed when he was traded that he would be replacing Eddie Murray at first base, after Murray signed with the New York Mets.  That assumption would be false, as the Dodgers had a young Eric Karros coming up.  Karros hit .316 with 22 home runs and 101 RBIs at AAA Albuquerque in 1991.  Karros would go on to win the NL Rookie of the Year award at first base for the Dodgers in 1992.

In 1992, Benzinger wouldn’t even get his first RBI of the season until May 17th.  His two hit performance that day raised his average to .207.  He would try to make the most of his playing time, as a week later, he would hit his first home run of the season, kicking off a five game streak where he knocked in 11 runs, including a grand slam on May 27th.  During that streak, his average hit a season high of .265.  For the most part though, he was in the .230s and .240s the entire season.  The only other meaningful thing he did that year was hit another grand slam as a pinch hitter in the top of the ninth inning on September 4th.  That briefly put the Dodgers ahead, but they still lost to the Pirates when they put up three runs in the bottom of the frame, winning 6-5.  Overall, Benzinger hit .239 with 16 doubles, two triples, four home runs and 31 RBIs, splitting his time between the outfield and first base.

Benzinger would head north in 1993, signing with the San Francisco Giants.  Not sure what he was exactly thinking with the first base position locked down by Will Clark, but whatever.  Through the first two months of the season, he played in only six full games, and he was only hitting .189.  The next two months saw only four complete games, but he had brought his average up to .244.  In the final two months of the season, Benzinger actually played in 21 full games, and over that span, he hit .326.  This included a pair of two-home run games on August 30th and September 18th.  The Giants would win 103 games, but that was only good for second place, as they finished one game behind the Atlanta Braves.  For the season, Benzinger would hit .288 with seven doubles, two triples, six home runs and 26 RBIs.

Benzinger would return to the Giants in 1994, this time with the starting first base job in hand after Clark signed with the Texas Rangers.  Unfortunately, his second half magic from the previous season couldn’t carry over into the new year, as in the first half, he only hit .249 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs.  That’s an average month for Adam Dunn, but when you’re talking about three months, that’s not very good for a first baseman.  He had mostly the same results for most of July, but towards the end of the month through the final game on August 10th, he hit .516 over his final 31 at bats.  Benzinger was sad to see the season cancelled by the strike, just as he was getting hot.

Benzinger once again was with the Giants to start the 1995 season.  Unfortunately, the Giants had now decided that the Todd Benzinger era at first base was over, and J.R. Phillps was the future.  Benzinger’s first seven games of the season all featured one hitless at bat.  On May 13th, he would play in his final complete game, and a day later, he would play in his last career game.  Fittingly enough, Benzinger was intentionally walked in his final career at bat.  It wasn’t a good idea in 1989, and it wasn’t a good idea in 1995.  Darren Lewis singled home Royce Clayton to beat the Pirates 2-1 in the bottom of the 10th.  The next day, the Giants released Benzinger.  At the time of his release, Phillps was batting .119.  That’s how committed the Giants were to the idea that Benzinger was not part of their future plans.

Ten days after being released by the Giants, Benzinger signed a minor league free agent deal with the Yankees.  At AAA Columbus, he only played in 12 games, but despite hitting .280, he only had one home run.  An AL first baseman in the mid-1990’s was going to need to hit more than 13 or 14 home runs in a season, so on June 9th, the Yankees released him, ending his professional career.

For his career, Benzinger hit .257 with 135 doubles, 18 triples, 66 home runs and 376 RBIs.  He only had 181 walks vs. 552 strikeouts.  In the field, he had a .994 fielding percentage in 622 games.  About 75% of those were at first base, and the remainder in the outfield, except the one game he played third base – for one inning.  But he didn’t make an error!

In his magical 1989 season, he led the National League in at bats and outs made.  He was third in sacrifice flies and putouts, fourth in plate appearances, and fifth in games played.  His fielding percentage of .994 at first base is actually 32nd best of all time, right between Adam LaRoche and Wally Joyner.

After his playing days were over, he managed A ball Dayton in the Reds farm system.  A .404 batting average will make you immortal.  A .404 winning percentage, especially in A ball, will make you unemployed.

There you have the life and times of Todd Benzinger.  Sadly, “Mercedes” as he was known, probably didn’t ever make enough to actually buy a Mercedes.  He did, however, lead the league in at bats in 1989, and that means something to someone – 11 year old Charles Wood.