Nick Senzel was the 2nd overall pick in the 2016 Major League Baseball Draft. When you’re selected that high you are going to be a talented baseball player and that certainly holds true for the former Tennessee infielder, but last night he really showed off all of his skills for the Dayton Dragons. And he did so in front of current Cincinnati Reds President of Baseball Operations Walt Jocketty who was taking in the game.
In the first inning Nick Senzel would draw a walk on six pitches. In the fourth inning he lined a ball to right field that was caught for an out on a diving catch that Andrew Guillotte made while running backwards. In the 6th inning he got to show off some of his defensive skills on a weak grounder that he charged in on, bare-handed and fired to first for the out.
The bottom of the 6th inning was a start of a comeback for Dayton in a game that saw the two teams combine for 21 runs, but more on that later. The Dragons third baseman came up with a runner on second base and singled up the middle to bring in the 2nd run of the inning. He would steal second base easily, good for his 17th stolen base of the year. In the 7th inning he came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded.
On the second pitch he saw he lined a bases clearing double down the line to clear the bases. That brought the Dragons right back into the game, making it a 10-8 deficit. After Dayton scored a run in the 8th inning that made it 10-9 for Lansing they entered the bottom of the 9th looking to at least tie the game up. After the first two hitters struck out, Brantley Bell would single to give them a chance. Nick Senzel came to the plate and it appeared that Lansing didn’t want much to do with him. After taking the first three pitches out of the zone they decided to intentionally give him ball four, pushing the tying run over to second base for cleanup hitter James Vasquez. On the 1st pitch he saw, Vasquez lined a single up the middle to tie the game up and put Senzel at second. Chris Okey followed and after a foul ball on the first pitch he saw, he lined another single into center field that brought Senzel across the plate as the winning run.
So, let’s go through the checklist:
- Strong defensive play? Check.
- Good plate discipline? Check.
- Showing off his speed? Check.
- Showing off some pop? Check.
- Using the entire field? Check.
- Coming up in the clutch situations? Check.
If you could design a game for a player to show off an entire skillset, it would be pretty tough to design a better game to do so than the one that Nick Senzel had on Monday night in Dayton.