Agree. the leg kick removal and newly developed monster 2-strike approach puts him in all-star tier if some new hole doesn't develop.
I know you’re joking but a 2022 Willy Adames season (~.240/.300/.450, 25 HR and 4.5 fwar) is a reasonable for Pena next year.
Can't give rookie of the year to a mf veteran World Series MVP champ! He should be offended to even be a top 3 finalist...
I forgot who it was on MLB Network, but they compared Pena to Derek Jeter. We can only hope this is his career path. With all the rings to show for it.
Development is not linear. Also, just because he was raking for a month in Oct/Nov doesn't mean it will carry over completely to next season. In fact, I'm fairly confident he may start next season slow, and half the board will be complaining on how he had a lucky stretch he will never match.
Why do you think he will start slow? It wasn't luck that made him have a good Oct/Nov. He made a significant change in his batting mechanics that gave him more time to see the ball. That's how he started staying off of those sliders. Here's a great video showing the change in his approach that I have posted before:
While I agree Jeter was not a good defender and was gifted his gold gloves by the NY media, hype, and general ignorance, he was still a special player overall. If Jeremy has a career comparable to him the Astros will be extremely pleased.
Pena was a rookie at a premium defense first position replacing an all time great Astro. I'm sure they were trying to keep pressure to a minimum including in season adjustments and expectations. Everyone is different and sometimes what works for a player is not what was expected. There are several possible reasons but I'm glad he figured that out. Still, due to the nature of baseball, I expect the league to adjust and Jeremy to have only a moderate improvement over this season. And continued inconsistencies as pitchers adjust and he adjusts to those changes. If he hits 2nd all season ( and I would expect that) he scores more runs but continues to NOT steal in front of Yordan.
What makes you think that they didn't? They could have been working with him on tweaking his swing, and he finally decided to give it a try during the Ohtani at bat.
You think that him struggling mightily at the plate is less pressure than the coaches working with him to improve offensively?
I have no idea if they did or didn't. I only know what quotes Pena gave in the interview. A quick google search didn't turn up anything.
This dude could be on his way to multiple all star appearances, and even MVP contention. Or This postseason can be a fluke hot streak and he will go back to being a nice player, that's it.
