In 1973, the Red Sox had the 41st pick in the amateur draft. The club used it to select Fred Lynn from USC. He played centerfield on the Trojans for four years, and all four years his team won the College World Series.
Side note: In 1973, USC played in maybe the most memorable college game ever. Dave Winfield had 15 strikeouts for Minnesota, had allowed just one infield single through eight innings, and led 7-0. A blown double-play call by the first base umpire opened the door for USC, who scored eight runs in the ninth inning to win 8-7, eliminating Minnesota from CWS.
Jackie Bradley Jr. at USC
As a 21 year-old college graduate, Lynn spent the remainder of the summer of ‘73 playing for the AA Bristol Red Sox at Muzzy Field. When Lynn was 22, he spent the season in AAA and made his first appearance in Boston that September.
In the 2011 draft, the Red Sox had the 40th pick. They selected a centerfielder from another USC (South Carolina) that won the CWS twice with him in the lineup, Jackie Bradley. Bradley might actually have outdone Lynn in Omaha, because he was named CWS Most Outstanding Player in his sophomore year.
The Red Sox of 2011 held back Bradley’s progress by only having him play in 10 games while he was 21. Fred Lynn played 53 games in AA when he was at the same age in 1973.
In 2012, Boston has started Jackie Bradley in the A Advanced Carolina League, where he has batted lead-off for the Salem Red Sox. His numbers have been off the charts.
He currently has an OPS of 1.056, hitting .369 with 21 RBI and 11 stolen bases. Bradley led off the game on May 8th with his third home run, and has more walks than strikeouts on the season. Jackie, a left-handed hitter, is batting .440 against lefties.
At age 22, Bradley seems so far away from Fenway, and Lynn was so close when he was the same age.
I can’t guarantee Bradley will have a year like Lynn did when he was 23, winning both ROY and MVP in a pennant winning season, but why not give him a chance?
At age 22, it seems as if the Red Sox would never bring Bradley to Boston, even if he batted .400 and had 50 stolen bases.
In other sports, if your resume said “Most Outstanding Player at the NCAA Championships”, you probably would begin your pro career directly on the team that drafted you.
Baseball, and the Red Sox in particular, always wait too long to bring up young talent.
In fact according to Gordon Edes, only two position players in the past 20 years have made it to the big league the same age or younger than Will Middlebrooks. They are Nomar Garciaparra and Dustin Pedroia.
Before that, you need to go back to 1975 to find Lynn and his partner in left field, a 22 year-old outfielder the Red Sox brought up to Boston named Jim Ed Rice. Rice, the other half of the “Gold Dust Twins”, was selected by the Red Sox as an 18 year-old with the 15th pick in the first round of the 1971 amateur draft.
Maybe the Red Sox will turn over a new leaf and bring up their next rising star, Jackie Bradley, and send him right to Boston.
The new Gold Dust Twins in 2012 could end up being Middlebrooks and Bradley. Unless they give the kids a chance, we will never know how good they might be.