The Power of Pena
Little known fact: When I was young, my favorite non-Met player was Rob Deer. This was before I was aware of things like on base percentage or batting average or even hits. I knew what players on the baseball cards looked cool, and I knew who hit a lot of homeruns, and Deer covered both. Like any other young, red-blooded American boy, I dug the longball. And when I would wake up, and watch This Week in Baseball, and saw Rob Deer hitting 450 feet bombs, I instantly found my guy.
There's few players who hit with straight-up power. There are guys like Paul Konerko and Moises Alou, guys who hit homeruns and that's it. And then there are guys like Deer, or Adam Dunn, or Jim Thome, who go up to the plate looking to hit a ball 850 feet and make your jaw drop with the contact they make. Those kind of guys always impressed me.
Wily Mo Pena is one of those guys.
Given the nickname "the next Sammy Sosa" back when he was 16 and Sosa was still good, Pena has somewhat lived up to that moniker. While he hasn't hit for the average, or the on base percentage, or hasn't really hit for much of anything -- his power has shone through. Every 12.9 at-bats last season Wily Mo hit a homerun. At age 22. Pena's former manager, Bob Boone, had this to say about the slugger: "His tools are almost off the chart... at the Hall of Fame, great, great player level. But he's got a lot of learning about baseball to do."
And therein lies the dilemma. In the deal that Pena signed with the Yankees in 1999, he had a timetable of but four years in the minors before being exposed to waivers. This means that any team that takes on Pena is forced to keep him on their active roster. While another season, or even two, at AAA might make Pena a better player, there's no chance of him getting that seasoning. If the Mets were to take on Pena in a trade, as Peter Gammons stated yesterday that they are interested in, he would automatically make the 25-man roster at the start of the season. Whether he played rightfield or not would be another story. The fact remains that Pena has got the tools. He's pretty fast for a guy his size (6'3", 220) , and has a Richard Hidalgo like gun for an arm. His defense is questionable, and his hitting skills are not quite MLB-ready, but both of those things he can work on. And the power is there. Oh my, is the power ever there.
Quite frankly, I want Wily Mo Pena on the Mets. I know I've said in the past that Mike Cameron -- and his defense -- in rightfield is the way to go for now. But I'm taking that back, at risk of getting ripped by guys like Jeremy and Matt. There was once a time when Sammy Sosa was 22, in the bigs before he was ready, and hit ten homeruns in 316 at-bats. At the same age, Pena has hit 26 in twenty more at-bats. I just know Pena is going to be a superstar slugger. His work ethic, and determination to better himself as a ballplayer, is similar to that of David Wright's. He's been praised as a guy dedicated to be the best he can possibly be, and with his abilities, that's something the Mets can't pass up grabbing.
I'm all for a trade for Pena, and I'm all for slotting him in rightfield next year. It may be a controversial move, and it will have it's detractors. But in three years, when Wily Mo is coming off a .280, 45, 120 season for the New York Mets, nobody will be owning up to turning this deal down.
**
Has anybody seen Matt Morris recently? Guy looks like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. It's nice to see those Beards of the 80's returning.
There's few players who hit with straight-up power. There are guys like Paul Konerko and Moises Alou, guys who hit homeruns and that's it. And then there are guys like Deer, or Adam Dunn, or Jim Thome, who go up to the plate looking to hit a ball 850 feet and make your jaw drop with the contact they make. Those kind of guys always impressed me.
Wily Mo Pena is one of those guys.
Given the nickname "the next Sammy Sosa" back when he was 16 and Sosa was still good, Pena has somewhat lived up to that moniker. While he hasn't hit for the average, or the on base percentage, or hasn't really hit for much of anything -- his power has shone through. Every 12.9 at-bats last season Wily Mo hit a homerun. At age 22. Pena's former manager, Bob Boone, had this to say about the slugger: "His tools are almost off the chart... at the Hall of Fame, great, great player level. But he's got a lot of learning about baseball to do."
And therein lies the dilemma. In the deal that Pena signed with the Yankees in 1999, he had a timetable of but four years in the minors before being exposed to waivers. This means that any team that takes on Pena is forced to keep him on their active roster. While another season, or even two, at AAA might make Pena a better player, there's no chance of him getting that seasoning. If the Mets were to take on Pena in a trade, as Peter Gammons stated yesterday that they are interested in, he would automatically make the 25-man roster at the start of the season. Whether he played rightfield or not would be another story. The fact remains that Pena has got the tools. He's pretty fast for a guy his size (6'3", 220) , and has a Richard Hidalgo like gun for an arm. His defense is questionable, and his hitting skills are not quite MLB-ready, but both of those things he can work on. And the power is there. Oh my, is the power ever there.
Quite frankly, I want Wily Mo Pena on the Mets. I know I've said in the past that Mike Cameron -- and his defense -- in rightfield is the way to go for now. But I'm taking that back, at risk of getting ripped by guys like Jeremy and Matt. There was once a time when Sammy Sosa was 22, in the bigs before he was ready, and hit ten homeruns in 316 at-bats. At the same age, Pena has hit 26 in twenty more at-bats. I just know Pena is going to be a superstar slugger. His work ethic, and determination to better himself as a ballplayer, is similar to that of David Wright's. He's been praised as a guy dedicated to be the best he can possibly be, and with his abilities, that's something the Mets can't pass up grabbing.
I'm all for a trade for Pena, and I'm all for slotting him in rightfield next year. It may be a controversial move, and it will have it's detractors. But in three years, when Wily Mo is coming off a .280, 45, 120 season for the New York Mets, nobody will be owning up to turning this deal down.
**
Has anybody seen Matt Morris recently? Guy looks like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. It's nice to see those Beards of the 80's returning.
posted by a2d @ 6:40 PM
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