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Things are bad for the Toronto Maple Leafs right now, but things are even worse for a few fans. The Leafs’ nightmare of a season continued Monday night, as they lost to the last-place Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on home ice. Fans were none too pleased with their team dropping its fifth consecutive game and 13th in its last 16, and four especially disgruntled folks didn’t hide their disgust as they tossed their jerseys onto the Air Canada Centre Ice.House For Sale Lake Blackshear Georgia They likely regretted that decision almost instantly, though. Aircon Cleaning Service AntipoloThree of the four men were ticketed for their actions, removed from the arena and, if that wasn’t enough, also were banned for a year from Air Canada Centre. Yorkie Puppies For Sale Victoria

(But you could argue that’s not such a bad thing with the way the Leafs are playing). It’s not a criminal offense, but the men likely will face a fine of $125, the Toronto Star reported. There’s no denying frustration is reaching new heights in Toronto this season, but the players, namely Nazem Kadri, believe more should be done to prevent this type of behavior from fans. “I don’t how that happens, what security or the ushers are doing,” Kadri said, per the Toronto Star. “It seems like we’re giving the guy an extra couple minutes to flip everybody off and to mock our real fans. “I don’t know how that guy’s not taken by his shirt and dragged out of there, but what do I know?” If the Leafs really want the jersey throwing to stop, though, they might want to start winning some games. Thumbnail photo via John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports Images on March 07, 2016 at 6:00 AM, updated Andrew Benintendi walked through the Red Sox spring training complex at JetBlue Park after workouts one warm day last week, wearing a solid red T-shirt and jeans, a red baseball cap and a backpack.

He blended into the mass of minor leaguers roaming the complex. Outside the park, Benintendi could have been a student at any one of the local colleges in southwest Florida. But no, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound, 21-year-old outfielder, drafted by the Red Sox last spring No. 7 overall in the MLB amateur draft, is anything but average. With just 54 professional games to his name, Benintendi has established himself as one of the most exciting and promising prospects in the game. When the annual top 100 baseball prospect lists came out earlier this year, Baseball America ranked Benintendi the 15th top prospect in baseball; ESPN's Keith Law had him at No. 18; put him at 26; and Baseball Prospectus pegged him at 46. Benintendi, a draft-eligible sophomore, jetted from one of the best seasons in college ball last season where he was named the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Year and Southeastern Conference Player of the Year as well as winner of the Golden Spikes award and Dick Howser trophy.

He did all that, was drafted by the Red Sox, helped his Arkansas Razorbacks to the College World Series and when they were eliminated, he officially signed his first pro contract on June 29. He made his pro ball debut on July 3 in Short-Season Class A Lowell. The whirlwind could have knocked the steam out of Benintendi, but instead it fueled him. In 35 games for the Spinners, the left-handed hitter batted .290 with a .948 OPS with seven homers and 25 walks compared to 15 strikeouts. The Red Sox decided to test him at the next level and he rose to the occasion at Single-A Greenville hitting .351 with a 1.011 OPS four homers and five doubles in the final 19 games. Despite the advanced level of pitching, if by a small margin, he still managed more walks than strikeouts, 10 to 9, showing an aptitude for pitch recognition. But setting such a high baseline so early in his career can be dangerous. Expectations create a perilous precedent and even more so in Boston where prospects aren't given much leeway and the spotlight is intense.

The rise in interest of prospects over recent years is rampant. But once a player performs well, any backward movement is often viewed by those outside the organization as failure. So far, Benintendi has taken his success in stride. "Each day is going to be different," he said, sitting at picnic at table outside JetBlue Park. "You're going to struggle. You're going to do well. You can't really let the past or the day before — whether you had a good day or bad day — dictate the day you have that certain day." But just ask ask former supplemental first-rounder Jackie Bradley Jr., one of Boston's four first-round picks in the 2011 draft, about performing to expectations. "At that particular time you're just grateful to be able to play at the next level," Bradley said. "I think everyone goes into it with an open mind. I was just excited to get my professional career started. I honestly wasn't even thinking about first-rounder he has to do this, has to do that. "But everyone wants to show the reason they got picked so high is because you were a pretty good ball player and apparently they were a team that thought so, otherwise they wouldn't have chosen me so high," Bradley said.

"So you want to go out there and prove they were right for picking you." Bradley never had an OPS lower than .800 in his first three years in the minors, but struggled in 2013 upon making his major-league debut. He battled through 2014 and 2015 before a promising end to last season. The Red Sox try to help their minor leagues manage the increasing pressure, but part of the player evaluation, even before they are drafted, is determining how well a player handles attention, competition and distractions, among other things. "The beauty of player development is you can build all the routines and programs that you want, but at the end of the day, it's a game played by human beings and there's things that happen in Boston at the major-league level, with regard to pressure, with regard to distractions, with regard to playing in front of 40,000 fans every night," Red Sox director of player development Ben Crockett said. "Things you just can't recreate or simulate at the minor league level, but I think every opportunity we get to expose guys to what they may see at the big league level, we're going to do."

In recent years, the club has held a rookie camp in Boston prior to spring training for players who are on the cusp of entering the majors or have limited major-league experience. The camp is designed to prepare young players for an everyday major-league lifestyle. In recent years, Rusney Castillo, Brian Johnson, Eduardo Rodriguez, Henry Owens, Christian Vazquez, Blake Swihart and Travis Shaw have all participated. This year, the team decided to forgo the camp with the next tier of prospects, including Benintendi, Yoan Moncada and Rafael Devers, at least a year away from their major-league debuts. Betts aside, almost every young player that's reached Boston in the last three seasons has struggled. Red Sox manager John Farrell, a former farm director for the Cleveland Indians, has dealt with the transition for young players from the minor-league player development side to the current Red Sox roster with several entry-level major-leaguers. "It's a challenge that I think everywhere in the game with first-year players, you're dealing with," he said.

"There's so much hype and billing at times for young players. There's an expectation that is set. Some would think they did this in Double-A and Triple-A, so automatically they should do this at the big league level. If they haven't met that, are they deemed a failure? And yet every player is going to transition individually, what their mental capacity is, what their resolve is when they struggle. Is it the first time they've struggled in their pro career at the major league level? All of those factors are independent to the person. "We do talk to our players at the minor league level, make them aware of distractions, challenges, things they might have experienced for the first time," he continued. "And we try to create a support system for them. But ultimately, between the lines, the game is the greatest teacher. That can't be duplicated at the minor-league level." Part of Benintendi's promotion to Greenville was exposing him to advanced level because he seemed to have mastered Lowell.

Another part was adding him to a lineup in Greenville that featured the rest of the organization's top-notch talent. Benintendi hit clean-up in all 19 games for Greenville, recording a hit or walk in all but one game. Moncada, Michael Chavis and Devers made up the top of Greenville's lineup. "There were a lot of good players throughout the order and that made me want to elevate my game and with them hitting around me it was fun. (Playing with) guys like Moncada and Devers, who are obviously highly touted, I felt like they raised my game and them being there made me play better," Benintendi said. If Benintendi follows the trajectory of Cubs' top draftees Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, who both reached the majors with just one full year in the minors, he could be in Boston by next season. The Red Sox have a crowded outfield at the moment with Bradley, Betts and Castillo, but Benintendi could create more competition soon enough. One of the biggest parts of Crockett's job is managing the progression of Boston's minor leaguers.