Kind of ironic that of that impressive list of Freshmen AA’s who played at Arkansas, nowhere to be found are Dallas Keuchel or Andrew Benintendi.
That would be one of the two Cy Young winners Arkansas has produced lately (the other being Cliff Lee - who came in as a Juco so could not be on the list), and the only Golden Spikes/Dick Howser winner we have produced.
Both well deserved and they earned it! Let’s hope we have a couple come in next year and follow as all Americans.
Heston and Casey will anchor the line up next year! Fletcher will also be huge.
Benny had an OK freshman season (all-SEC Freshman team) but frankly not what his hype coming out of high school in Cincinnati would have suggested: .276, 27 RBI, 17 steals, and ONE homer. Spent the summer in the weight room instead of summer ball, putting on 20 pounds of muscle, and just exploded in his second year.
As for Keuchel, he had a 5+ ERA as a freshman and 3.92 as a junior. And the Astros came very close to releasing him before he put it together and found out he didn’t have to throw strikes to win in MLB.
I never suggested that they should have made Freshman All America. Just noted that they are arguably our best former players, and neither was among the impressive list of Freshmen AA’s we have had. Hence, the usage of the word “ironic”.
