There's certainly a lot of hype surrounding a particular baseball player named Bryce—Harper, that is, of the Washington Nationals. D.C.'s manager Davey Johnson is already lobbying to get the cocky phenom into a starting role this year with the big club.Considerably further under the radar is a Red Sox property named Bryce—Brentz, that is. He, too, is catching the eye of his manager. As the Boston Globe's Peter Abraham points out, Bobby Valentine thinks the 23-year old right-handed hitting outfielder is "different" in the way the ball jumps off his bat. In fact, last year Brentz hit .306 with 30 home runs in just 115 games at the Single A level. He is currently ranked eighth overall in the Boston system by the authoritative Sox Prospects.com.
Valentine added Brentz to the roster to face Toronto yesterday, and the kid went 1-1 with a single. Don't be surprised if Brentz rockets through AA Portland into AAA this year. And, not too long after that, he may be patrolling right in Fenway and making people forget about that other Bryce.