Dernell Renauld Stenson, born on June 17th, 1978 in LaGrange, Georgia, was found dead Wednesday in Chandler, Arizona. Wire reports indicate he was shot, run over, and possibly dragged to his death. Chandler police have arrested a man on suspicion of Stenson's murder, as well as another man, who was discovered driving Stenson's SUV, so based on the emerging details of this incident, Stenson may have been the victim both of a carjacking and a hate crime.

Stenson's death ends a young life in a most unfortunate way while forcing us to confront certain issues in his career that continue to puzzle us.

Drafted out of LaGrange High School in the 3rd round of the 1996 draft, Stenson signed on July 10th of that year and immediately headed to Boston's Rookie-level club in the Gulf Coast League. He stumbled to a .216/.358/.330, yet considering his 16:26 BB:K in 97 AB, as well as the fact he turned 18 less than a month before he signed, only the weak batting average looked like an obvious worry.

Stenson truly emerged as a solid prospect in 1997, when he played for Michigan of the Midwest League. He posted a .291/.400/.469, along with a 72:105 BB:K in 471 AB, a remarkable accomplishment as few teenagers smack 52 extra-base hits while posting a .400+ OBP in such a pitcher-friendly circuit. A .78 contact rate again suggested future struggles, but Stenson seemed quite prepared for a steady ascent through the system.

Consequently, Boston's double promotion of him past high-A to AA Trenton of the Eastern League likely came as a surprise to the 19-year-old Stenson. However, he only slipped slightly in 1998, posting a .257/.376/.446 and an 84:135 BB:K in 505 AB. With another 46 extra-base hits and great .17 walk rate, a .73 contact rate hardly obscured his rising star. Managers voted him the second best prospect in the league, and the following year Baseball America ranked Stenson as Boston's best prospect, as well as the 22nd best prospect in all of baseball.

Mo Vaughn departed the organization over that winter, and Boston acquired Mike Stanley and Brian Daubach as temporary replacements. With Troy O'Leary and Trot Nixon seemingly set at the corner outfield spots indefinitely and no promising first base prospect near the majors, the Red Sox shifted Stenson to first base.

The experiment was a miserable failure. Stenson committed 34 errors at first base in 1999, and by 2001 Boston had gradually shifted him back to the outfield.

Fortunately when at the plate in 1999, Stenson seemed able to ignore his defensive lapses, posting a .270/.356/.456 line with a 55:119 BB:K in 440 at-bats for AAA Pawtucket(IL). He smacked another 48 extra-base hits, leading International League managers to vote him the second best prospect in the league, Stenson's second consecutive similar honor. While his walk rate slipped from .17 to .13 and his contact rate dropped from just above .73 to just under that level, his overall numbers appear very impressive considering so many 21-year-old players struggle to post an .800 OPS in A-ball, forget about the International League. He looked nearly ready to emerge as Boston's next offensive stud.

Stenson entered spring training of 2000 as Boston's top offensive prospect, as well as a member the 40-man roster for the first time after Boston purchased his contract at the end of 1999 to prevent his selection in that fall's Rule 5 draft. Only Steve Lomasney placed ahead of him in Baseball America's ranking of players in the Red Sox's system. He remained on BA's Top 100 Prospects list, falling to #66 overall at the beginning of 2000.

Despite all this positive press, Boston gave him less than 20 at-bats in Spring Training. The Red Sox then optioned him to Pawtucket, where wrist and hamstring problems limited him to 380 at-bats. Of course, Stenson still hit .268/.349/.487 while posting a 45:99 BB:K. His skills essentially remained the same compared to the previous season, but as he turned 22 that June, Stenson's status began to dim in the eyes of the Red Sox.

Boston promoted him to the majors on July 7th of 2000.

The Red Sox demoted him a week later without giving him a single at-bat during that week.

At no point during the season did either the organization or manager Jimy Williams give him a real chance to unseat Brian Daubach, Mike Stanley, or Jose Offerman at first base or an opportunity to steal any at-bats from Daubach, Dante Bichette, Scott Hatteberg, Morgan Burkhart, Stanley, or Offerman as designated hitter.

Only the depletion of prospects in the later years of Dan Duquette's reign led Baseball America to name Stenson Boston's top prospect once more in the spring of 2001. After his initial ranking at #22 among their Top 100 Prospects in 1999 and subsequent drop to #66 in 2000, BA now ranked Stenson down at #77 in 2001. However, instead of finally giving him the long look in spring training he merited given the organization's significant investment in his development, Stenson received only 11 at-bats in the spring.

He reached base safely in just one of those eleven at-bats.

Before the start of the 2001 season, Duquette optioned him to Pawtucket. Struggling to earn the attention of any organization, Stenson compiled a .237/.302/.384 and a 43:166 BB:K in 464 at-bats while turning 23 in June. With his walk rate under .10 and his contact rate down to .64, Boston could have freed him at the end of 2001 simply by outrighting his contract. They instead kept him on the 40-man roster for another winter.

Baseball America dropped Stenson all the way to 19th on Boston's prospect list, as well as out of their Top 100 Prospects. Freddy Sanchez replaced Stenson as the best hitter for average among Sox prospects. In the spring of 2002, with Mike Port now Boston's interim GM and Grady Little managing, Stenson batted 27 times.

He registered only three hits in those 27 at-bats, including a double and a homer. Three years without any real hope of promotion had led to an erosion of his formerly impressive batting skills.

Before the start of the 2002 season, Port optioned him to Pawtucket. Struggling to earn the attention of any organization, Stenson compiled a .250/.321/.383 and a 37:96 BB:K in 368 at-bats while turning 24 in June. With his walk rate barely above .10 and his contact rate only up to .74, Boston could have freed him at the end of 2002 simply by outrighting his contract. They instead kept him on the 40-man roster for another winter.

Freedom arrived for Stenson the following spring after Theo Epstein's promotion to GM. Epstein designated Stenson for assignment on February 15th of 2003, and the Reds claimed him off waivers 10 days later. Cincinnati gave him another 20 at-bats during spring training, where he unsurprisingly managed only 4 hits, including a lone double. The Reds successfully outrighted Stenson to Louisville in the middle of March.

Departing Boston to join Cincinnati gave Stenson his first new start in seven years. Tim Naehring, the Reds' farm director, followed the strategy we increasingly recommend for stalled prospects: he dropped Stenson back a level, allowing him to find his lost confidence, as well as real success at the plate.

He posted a .306/.371/.503 and a 39:74 BB:K in 356 at-bats for AA Chattanooga in the Southern League, and then hit .237/.292/.542 while compiling a 5:10 BB:K in 59 at-bats for AAA Louisville back in the International League. With the entire Cincinnati starting outfield on the disabled list and Stenson's power apparently back, the Reds purchased his contract on August 13th.

Stenson made his major league debut that night against Arizona, pinch-hitting for Chris Reitsma in the 9th inning and flying out to left field.

Over the next six weeks, Stenson emerged as a regular starter for the Reds against right-handed pitching. Thanks to a solid performance that included a .247/.333/.420 with an 11:24 BB:K in 81 at-bats, he even looked like the favorite to win a pinch-hitting job in 2004 heading into this winter. Wily Mo Pena's desire to play winter ball in the Dominican Republic led Cincinnati to replace Pena with Stenson on their AFL squad, so he headed to Scottsdale a few weeks ago to secure his status in his new organization.

Today, Dernell Stenson lies dead in Arizona, the victim of a heinous crime, with a .394/.453/.500 performance in 66 AFL at-bats standing as his baseball valedictory. His .394 batting average ranks him second in a league one final time.

While many businesses can willfully ignore the well-being of their employees, baseball, as well as all professional sports, must take special care to nurture talented prodigies, both for the good of the sport and individual franchises. During Stenson's seven seasons with the Red Sox, Boston systematically ignored him and eventually reneged completely upon the unspoken agreement into which they entered upon drafting him out of high school.

Implicit in the signing of a contract to play professional baseball with an MLB club, and especially obvious for players picked in the top few rounds of each draft, is the organization's expectation that the signee will contribute to their big league team. Youngsters can contribute to the team by developing into productive major league players, establishing themselves as prospects who the team can deal for other players, and filling out the lower level affiliates, helping each organization maintain a full development system.

Until the day of his death, Stenson remained a prospect, still defined as a rookie by MLB as he had not accumulated more than 130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched, or 45 days in the big leagues prior to September Roster Expansion.

Even though he repeatedly excelled at most minor league levels as one of the younger players at each level during the first few years of his career, the Boston organization never gave him a fair shot to win a job in the majors.

In 2000, Boston refused to let Stenson represent his country by playing for Team USA, then they didn't promote him in September.

Despite over three years spent on Boston's 40-man roster, the Red Sox never recalled him during September, even merely to help him grow accustomed to the big league experience for a week or two. Keeping him in the minors, aside from Spring Training and that brief week in 2000, is the best indication that Boston never seriously intended to play him in the majors. He may have never produced the outstanding AAA season that could have guaranteed nearly immediate employment in the majors, but the organization repeatedly held the carrot of a big league job in front of him, and then yanked it just out of his grasp.

Stenson's dominion over his professional life largely ended a month after he turned 18. Under a fairer and more equitable system, Stenson should have spent at least portions of the last few seasons in the majors, rather then continually needing to prove himself in surroundings like the Arizona Fall League.

Baseball teams can control players completely for nine seasons under some circumstances without ever promoting them to the majors. The system does not differentiate in any significant way between 16-year old foreign prospects and 24-year-old college graduates. Despite the obvious difference in background of such players, baseball refuses to realize that older signees deserve the same right as foreign-born prospects to shop their services to different franchises before they turn 30.

Penalizing North Americans in this way for their country of birth is as ridiculous as paying millions of dollars to foreign youngsters just because the current CBA lets them evade the MLB draft. While an international draft is largely unfeasible, that argument only should reinforce the need to abandon all drafts rather than force everyone into a broken system. Allowing each team a maximum amount to spend on amateur players each year is a sensible alternative that appears more in line with the freedoms we hold dear.