Perhaps he is too patient. I think he leads the team in pitches seen per at bat. (I think I heard Kalas say that last night). Start swinging at those early fast balls down the middle. See what happens.
You can't win with a catcher hitting this bad, I don't care how good of a defensive catcher he is. The reason the offense is struggling is the 8,9,1 spots in the lineup. Look at the good teams and what their catchers hit last year.
Potentially, but Pena could have the same discipline issues. I think there's a high chance that his chase rate will go down with time and experience, but I still want to see proof of it. Some guys can never figure out how to lay off of the down and away slider their whole career and it dooms them. I'm hopeful, though, because I've already seen him make adjustments and be better with the down and away breaking ball. Odorizzi's comments last night about Pena's approach and work ethic reflect what everyone else says about him, and what my own eyes see. So I'm very, very hopeful. That being said, Carlos is a damn good hitter. Better than Carlos at the plate would mean he develops a plus hit tool in addition to the plus power he is flashing. If Pena is as good or better hitter than Carlos, he's a top 5-10 player in all of MLB and a hall of famer if he stays healthy over his career. That's pretty tough to project on a guy who has played only a month in the majors and started the offseason off of, or barely on, most top 100 lists.
I said he could be a more consistent hitter than Correa, not a better hitter overall. Correa was hot and cold. Luckily some of his hot streaks were when the playoff lights were on. From a defensive standpoint, it looks like Pena is covers more ground and has better anticipation than Correa, but he will never have Correa's cannon of an arm. The fact that we aren't missing Correa that much is a win in my book. It also nice that Pena has already hit 2 homers when the game was on the line, so I'm thinking he has that clutch gene (wanting to be in the spotlight).
I think this is a Jeremy Pena Thread that has morphed into a Maldonado thread. Back to Jeremy. So far his D is what I expected. Very Everette like range but with additional diving to stop balls at the edges of his range. A few problems losing focus on the easy ones, but that's expected with a rookie. The surprise is getting out of the gate batting at a high level. I just didn't think he could be near his potential with reduced PA over the last three years. I give him an A for April. The Astros struggles have not come at SS or CF where we expected them. They are from positions where we have veterans with a recent history of success.
What was his OPS, and what is it this year? Hint: I posted it on the previous page Now, yes I agree with the others, back to Pena. His homers have been sick to watch. Such a quick bat.
It is and has sucked. But, I was responding to the comment implying that the 'good' teams had good hitting catchers last season. he Astros were a good team last year and their catcher(s) sucked at hitting contrary to the post I responded to. But, as others have said, this is the Pena thread. We can move this discussion to the general thread.
it was a stupid example. You just didn’t know Winker’s age, the prospect cost, or the horrible contract duct taped to Winker to make the deal go. If you did, you wouldn’t be here touting it as the example of a game changing move for a “young” prospect or player. Or you really think the Astros shoulda done it and just figure out how to eat that Suarez contract and force him into 3B somehow? don’t wanna be called stupid … don’t post dumb things consistently. And no, it’s not just me. Basically everyone thinks you’re a moron. Or are you not seeing the posts to which you have no response and Go Jeremy Pena
Just taking a step back, it's absolutely amazing that Correa's rookie, barely on top prospect lists if he's on them at all, shortstop replacement is, a month into his MLB career, 10th in the AL in bWAR and 8th in the AL in fWAR. Still small sample size, blah blah, but the 7 guys ahead of and 7 guys behind him in fWAR in the AL so far this year are, in order: Ramirez, Trout, Crawford, Franco, Judge, France, Springer, [Pena], Rizzo, Alvarez, Bogaerts, Kepler, Bregman, Devers, and Straw. With the exception of Straw and Kepler, who are without-a-doubt solid big leaguers, those guys are all stars. And the thing is, there are obvious areas indicating potential improvement, such as the low BABIP and the characteristic-for-rookies high chase rate.
The tools on Peña jump off the screen. Easy to see how great an athlete he is. Quick powerful bat. Amazing that pitchers feel like they must get inside of plate. Perhaps he is showing low and outside plate coverage and discipline on tape.
Key word in that post was losing. How many runs did they score in the games they lost in that series?
I was just thinking to myself. You know what this Jeremy Pena thread is missing............. Talk about Jeremy Pena!!
