Sam Bennett was a good hitting OFer.
That’s about it: you hit for average, add some power, and don’t hurt the team too much defensively or on the basepaths, and you can put together a 2 decade career.
Bennett debuts in 1907, and was very rarely a full time player–perhaps only from 1913 to 1915–despite his offensive output. We’ve followed his historical record, with one exception: we’ve added a season in 1918.
He has excellent debut years, then struggles for a bit, but starting in 1912, Bennett rips off essentially a decade of being a very useful OFer for his era, with decent power to go along with a solid BA (remember, deadball era). He enjoys a resurgence in the early 1920s, as the move to a lively ball suits his skillset very well, but age eventually catches up to him, with his career ending in 1925 (at age 41).
Bennett had a little speed, but was never great on the basepaths.
He was a bit of a conundrum defensively: he started his career as a promising CF, but then lost the thread–perhaps through an injury that drastically reduced his range. He shifted to RF, and was above average there before ending his career as a surprisingly effective catcher.
It’s this last switch that makes me comfortable with the length of his career: the combination of the end of the deadball era and his increased defensive utility seems like a logical basis for him to continue to play as long as he did.
I’m not thrilled with the allocation of Bennett’s playing time. It’s hard for me not to give him another 1000 PA’s across his career. But he never was a full time player historically, topping out in playing about 3/4 of his team’s games in his most-used seasons. So there is something there–perhaps his defensive skills cost him time, perhaps he had a profound platoon split, perhaps he was heavily injury prone. Future research should shed some light on that, and we may revisit his usage at that point.
Regardless, the shape of his career feels right, and I wouldn’t see his output rates changing much, it’s just a question of whether he is given more (or fewer, although I think that is unlikely) opportunities.
| Name | Sam Bennett |
| ID / Status | benne01sam / Draft |
| Pos | CF |
| DOB / i9s Career | 03/07/1884 / 1907 - 1925 |
| Birthplace | Austin, TX (USA) |
| Height / Weight | / |
| B / T | R / R |
Batting Projections
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 1907 | 151 | 55 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 22 | 7 | 3 | 0.364 | 0.385 | 0.397 | 0.782 |
| 1908 | 379 | 121 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 16 | 45 | 15 | 6 | 0.319 | 0.347 | 0.361 | 0.708 |
| 1909 | 273 | 58 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 29 | 39 | 13 | 4 | 0.212 | 0.288 | 0.278 | 0.566 |
| 1910 | 78 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 0.167 | 0.286 | 0.218 | 0.504 |
| 1911 | 253 | 56 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 33 | 11 | 3 | 0.221 | 0.276 | 0.292 | 0.568 |
| 1912 | 391 | 118 | 21 | 9 | 3 | 34 | 41 | 21 | 7 | 0.302 | 0.358 | 0.425 | 0.782 |
| 1913 | 423 | 121 | 20 | 7 | 4 | 31 | 40 | 16 | 7 | 0.286 | 0.335 | 0.395 | 0.730 |
| 1914 | 502 | 134 | 28 | 7 | 2 | 44 | 60 | 24 | 6 | 0.267 | 0.326 | 0.363 | 0.689 |
| 1915 | 422 | 108 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 27 | 44 | 12 | 7 | 0.256 | 0.301 | 0.341 | 0.642 |
| 1916 | 359 | 108 | 18 | 8 | 4 | 35 | 34 | 13 | 5 | 0.301 | 0.363 | 0.429 | 0.792 |
| 1917 | 225 | 84 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 12 | 21 | 10 | 3 | 0.373 | 0.405 | 0.520 | 0.925 |
| 1918 | 195 | 53 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 0.272 | 0.324 | 0.374 | 0.698 |
| 1919 | 224 | 67 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 0.299 | 0.375 | 0.357 | 0.732 |
| 1920 | 154 | 39 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 0.253 | 0.331 | 0.331 | 0.663 |
| 1921 | 292 | 88 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 26 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 0.301 | 0.358 | 0.373 | 0.732 |
| 1922 | 309 | 110 | 20 | 7 | 6 | 32 | 26 | 9 | 4 | 0.356 | 0.416 | 0.524 | 0.941 |
| 1923 | 218 | 81 | 14 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 6 | 3 | 0.372 | 0.404 | 0.569 | 0.973 |
| 1924 | 153 | 49 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 0.320 | 0.358 | 0.484 | 0.842 |
| 1925 | 82 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0.159 | 0.169 | 0.244 | 0.413 |