['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Why?

First, look at his Memphis performance; in 2008 he made the leap from high A to AAA and actually improved offensively despite skipping AA altogether - that's no small feat. I honestly consider the jump to AA to be the hardest one to make and he took a bigger step than that without skipping a beat. Last year he started out hurt and awful, only to rebound very strongly as the year progressed.

Second, look at his swing. He's a big kid and has a nice even swing. He keeps his hands in well and takes a pretty direct route to the ball. He's not a slugger, but will get into some line drives that clear the fence. I don't think he'll peak this season by any means; a rookie learning curve is to be expected. At the same time, he's going to continue getting better as he's done at every stop through out his career.

Finally - he wan't just hitting grocery baggers. His two doubles I saw in the first game came off Matusz (best pitching prospect in the AL, likely #2 starter for Baltimore) and Mike Gonzalez (nasty left closer for Baltimore). In the Nats game he scalded the ball twice off Lannan and Bergman (Lannan is a good pitcher, Bergman's a legit ML reliever) and was robbed of extra bases twice, only to get a lucky single later. He put in a solid single against Hensley, who's had a strange career but is an unquestioned ML pitcher (180 innings in 2006 before some injuries; he looked pretty good locking up Albert for 3 ABs in the same game).

If we stick with him, we'll have a very nice player on our hands.

I'm not questioning his ability to be a solid everyday player, I'm saying it would be stunning if this happened, especially if he developed 25-30 HR power. It would be the theft of all thefts, given that we got him from SD for Edmonds, who they cut 40 games into the year.