Time on DL is all that stands between Zach Borenstein and triple crown
By Scott Barancik, editor
With one game left in the regular season, Zach Borenstein‘s numbers are stellar.
His .335 batting average is tops in the California League (Class A-advanced). He has 27 home runs, tying him for 1st place. He leads the league in slugging percentage (.625) and OPS (1.026), and he ranks 3rd in on-base percentage (.401/tie).
Borenstein won’t win the triple crown this year. With 94 RBIs, the Los Angeles Angels prospect trails league leader Andrew Aplin by 10. If he hadn’t spent nearly a month on the disabled list with a strained hip flexor, the crown likely would have been his. Through Saturday’s games, Aplin had 589 plate appearances to Borenstein’s 456.
Nothing can take away from the 23-year-old left fielder’s remarkable year, however. A 23rd-round pick in the 2011 amateur draft, Borenstein hit a combined .268 with 13 HRs and 71 RBIs in 406 at-bats during his first two years as a pro. Decent, certainly, but no comparison to his breakout performance in 2013.
Prospect-rating services have struggled to catch up. At the beginning of the season, Borenstein wasn’t listed among MLB.com’s Top 20 Angels prospects nor Baseball America’s Top 30. By mid-season, MLB.com had pushed the Buffalo Grove, Ill., native up to the No. 15 slot.
“Borenstein has never been considered much of a prospect,” said MLB.com’s mid-season report. “But he has hit everywhere he’s gone, from college to the Minor Leagues, and his breakout season at Class A Advanced Inland Empire has been too much to ignore.”
At seven games under .500, the Inland Empire 66ers are not playoff bound. Borenstein won’t be idle this Fall, though; he’s one of two Jewish prospects selected to play in the prestigious Arizona Fall League, which commences Oct. 8. He and Oakland A’s prospect Jeff Urlaub, a relief pitcher, will play for the Mesa Solar Sox.
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