As others have said, this is the Pena thread. We can move this discussion to the general thread and I'll happily engage.
National media love for Pena today. Gammons: https://theathletic.com/3291931/202...rce=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/sports/baseball/jeremy-pena-astros.html
https://theathletic.com/3291931/2022/05/04/houston-astros-jeremy-pena-gammons/ It wasn’t as if Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña grew up watching his father Geronimo, whose major-league career ended in Cleveland in 1996 a year before Jeremy was born, play a role on early ’90s Cardinals teams that included Ozzie Smith, Todd Zeile and more. While Peña, who spent most of his early life growing up in Santo Domingo, had baseball in his bloodlines, his own passion for the sport intensified when he moved with his family to Providence, R.I., at the age of 12. Yet that combination of determination and genetics only seemed destined to take him so far. Yankees scout Matt Hyde, who had Peña at a tryout as a sophomore, remembers him as a kid who weighed no more than 135 or 140 pounds, dazzled in the field, ran a 6.5 second 60-yard-dash, but projected to be too small for a sustained major-league career. Yet University of Maine coach Steve Trimper recruited him “because I loved his feel for a ground ball.” Fast forward nearly a decade, as the 24-year-old rookie has emerged as one of the early bright spots of the 2022 MLB season, replacing free-agent departure Carlos Correa in the Astros’ starting lineup despite only playing 182 minor-league games before his major-league arrival. Peña missed a full year of development when COVID-19 shut down the minor leagues in 2020, and last season was limited to a total of 37 games in rookie ball and Triple A due to a wrist injury that required surgery. In fact, those were his only games and at-bats in U.S. organized baseball since 2019, to this point his only full professional season. “Growing up, he always played with older kids,” says Geronimo Peña. “In leagues as a teenager, he was almost always the youngest. He loved pressure. He loved the important plays, the toughest plays. Whatever happened, he was always working towards getting better. He amazed me.” While the younger Peña never saw his father play, he did benefit from his dad’s big-league experience under managers Whitey Herzog and Joe Torre, whose implementations of the Cardinal way were indirectly passed down. “He wasn’t a natural burner,” says Geronimo Peña. “But he promised he would improve his speed. He worked relentlessly in the gym. I would throw to him and hit ground balls and while he wasn’t big, he was surprisingly strong. His core was very strong.” He did get drafted out of Providence’s Classical High School by the Braves in the 39th round of the 2015 MLB draft, but he was still approximately 150 pounds and wanted to go to college. While Trimper left to coach at Stetson (the alma mater of former college infielder Jacob deGrom) after Peña’s freshman year at Maine, the young shortstop made an impression. “Jeremy was really good at the tough plays, and never shied away from trying to make them,” Trimper said. “His worth ethic was incredible. After practice he’d pull those sleds. Most of all he was reliable. He loved to work, he loved to play and he was as reliable as anyone I’ve coached. With his hands and the ability to play shortstop, I believed he had a chance to be a major leaguer. The bat was interesting.” Peña hit .283 as a freshman at Maine after playing the summer in Torrington, Conn., in the New England Collegiate League. As soon as the Maine season ended in 2016, he played for Plymouth, Mass., in the Futures League. He batted .319 as a sophomore, then played the summer for Chatham in the Cape Cod League. The Astros drafted him in the third round of the 2018 draft, the 12th shortstop selected. Owen Miller, picked by San Diego two slots in front of Peña, made his major-league debut with Cleveland in 2021. To make up for time lost in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, he played each of the last two winters for Estrellas in the Dominican League, totaling 60 games and 239 at-bats under manager Fernando Tatis Sr. By the time spring training finally got rolling after this offseason’s MLB lockout, Correa was with the Twins and Peña had first dibs on the job held by one of the sport’s iconic players for the past seven seasons. “I can’t play someone else’s game, I have to play mine,” Peña says. “I am who I am. But let me tell you something, I consider Carlos not only a superstar player, but a superstar person. When we were in spring training together, he helped me all the time. He showed me things, he told me to come talk about playing shortstop and dealing with big-league pressure. He never was worried about some kid shortstop (three years younger) coming to take his job. He knew I was just a minor leaguer hoping to play somewhere with him.” So far in 2022, Peña has more than filled the gap. Correa’s WAR and OPS+ heading into Tuesday night’s games? 0.5 and 98. His replacement? 1.2 and 124, despite a batting average currently sitting at .215. Astros manager Dusty Baker talks to Peña about his own ups and downs when establishing himself as a young player with the Braves in the early 1970s. Baker warns him that he will learn there will be good times and bad times. On April 9, with his parents being interviewed live on television, Peña launched his first major-league home run against the Angels. A little more than two weeks later, he hit a walk-off home run off Toronto closer Jordan Romano — who had converted 31 consecutive save opportunities — for an 8-7 Astros win. When the Astros returned home to face the Mariners eight days later, his batting average was down to .211. Fortunately, he was playing for Baker. “He’s going to get better and better every year because he knows what he needs to know about his strengths and what he needs to improve,” Baker said. “He has a strong desire to be the player he’s dreamed of being since he was a kid and what he needs to do to eventually get there. He’ll get there.”
Pena getting attention from the New York Times (reprinted in the Chronicle) https://www.chron.com/sports/articl...m&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=referral
Glove looking good. Made some great plays. But at the same time, has a few errors. But positive outweighs the negative.
Pena's errors have been extra noticeable, at least to me, because I'm used to Carlos and he did not make errors like Pena has made so far. I think all four of Pena's errors so far are him totally flubbing routine ground balls. However, for comparison's sake, Pena currently has a fielding % of .960. Carlos his rookie year had a fielding % of .967 and now his career fielding % is .981.
Fielding % is an awful way to gauge infield defense. Jeter consistently had an excellent % but was an awful infielder. Good fielders make difficult plays look routine and don't need flashy jump throws.
I expected ups and downs from Peña and said as much, and we’ve certainly seen some downs. But the ups have been higher than I expected. As a 24 year old not on top 100 lists in the minors that isn’t generally a path to stardom, but he pretty clearly has that as an upside to him. Much bigger than I thought and hits the ball harder than I expected. the way he turned on that ball on Monday was super impressive. Comparing to Correa I thought that was the one flaw in his game- he just didn’t get out in front of the ball and yank it enough, with as much power as CC has having a career high of something like 25 HR’s isn’t good enough. I think he will do this more as he ages but damn, Peña already is doing that.
Should we talk about CC's most painful error ever? Happened as a rookie? In the Post Season? ALDS Game 4? Cost us the Series? Against the eventual WS Champs? Carry on.
We should not. That never happened. It has been blocked out of my mind forever and ever, much like my first marriage and the seinf half of the 2021 Ut v OU football game. What were we talking about? Things that never happened? I will just wander off mildly perturbed with a sense of disquiet even though I don’t know why because none of those things ever happened.
He was definitely on FanGraphs Top 100. I think BA's Top 100 as well, but lower than FanGraphs closer to 100 than 1. Keith Law didn't have him as a Top 100, but his write up on Pena described Pena very well and read like he was talking about a Top 50 guy.
Just watched the "highlights" of that game. Correa was a monster offensively, 4-4, 2 HR, HBP, 4 RBI. That error was a tough chance, the ball hit the mound and changed up the trajectory just enough. Bases were loaded and no outs so a run would have still scored making it 6-5 Astros with a runner on 3rd.
