1/6 of the way through the season he's on pace for 8 fWAR. And as you say, no indication it's fake at all; quite the opposite. I'm absolutely giddy about this kid. He's not looking like a 2.5 - 4 WAR / year above-average shortstop. He looks like a damn superstar. It's possible that after the WS last year, Click went to Jim Crane and said "Listen, sir, we are going to get blasted by the media and the fans for this, but we need to make Carlos a throw-away offer to show we tried and then move forward with the 24 year old rookie who has played 100 games above A ball as the starting shortstop of a world series contending team because he's actually that dude." If that was the calculus all along, Click is GOATED. My operating assumption was that they genuinely tried to resign Correa, were involved with pursuing Story, looked at other options, etc. But looking back, by all indications after Carlos said no to the 6/140 the Astros FO said fine we are rolling with Jeremy. And that was a helluva call.
May be true... but they actually made their initial offer before the season, and kept it on the table (with a slight adjustment in $/year) at the end of the season (with no adjustment after the lockout). Pena is having a tremendous debut however we do need to pump the breaks a little and let him make adjustments as the league invariably will. For now, he's got a great team/lineup/pitching staff to support him so that very little pressure is on him to figure it out as quickly as possible.
Siri is trying to hit a homerun at every at bat by swinging out of his shoes. Pena never looks off-balance like Alvarez and Tucker. It's more of a natural power though he definitely has worked at it a lot.
Nothing earth shattering, but another national publication with a Pena article. https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor.../?itm_source=premium_bundle&itm_medium=onsite
https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/st...ngs-which-young-star-impressed-most-one-month Anyone with insider access that can post the article, Pena made the front page of ESPN mlb page today
Here's the intro and their take on Pena: When four of the top 10 prospects in MLB started the season in the majors on Opening Day, there was buzz that this could be one of the top rookie classes of all time. One month into the season, that hasn't exactly been the case -- but there are some first-year players standing out from the crowd. Which one tops the list of the 10 best through the first week of May? We asked ESPN MLB experts David Schoenfield, Bradford Doolittle and Kiley McDaniel to rank their top 10 rookies, in addition to detailing what each one has done so far. They've also predicted the rest of each player's 2022 season, as well as their long-term outlooks. 1. Jeremy Pena, SS, Houston Astros What he's done so far: Replacing Carlos Correa is no easy ask for a rookie, but Pena has excelled on both sides of the ball. He came up through the minors with a strong defensive reputation and already looks like a Gold Glove candidate, leading the major league among shortstops in defensive runs saved, plus a 97th percentile ranking in Statcast's outs above average. The bat has been the bigger surprise as he's already slammed six home runs with Statcast measurements to back up the power, ranking well above average in both hard-hit rate and barrel percentage. -- Schoenfield Predicting the rest of his 2022: Pena has already shown he can barrel up fastballs and generate elite exit velocity when he does so. He's likely to start seeing more breaking and offspeed stuff, against which he hasn't done much so far. Pena will have to show he can adjust, so there might be some up and down periods, but the power on contact is real and his defense means he's going to be adding value no matter what he's doing at the plate. -- Doolittle The long-term outlook: Pena has always been a strong defensive shortstop and started emerging as an offensive force in 2019. However, due to the pandemic and injuries, he only played 30 career games above A-Ball entering 2022. He's outperforming projections right now, but not by that much; he was 48th on my Top 100 because this kind of breakout was in play. -- McDaniel
Pena looks like the real deal. He has some improvements to make, but I haven't seen any reason to doubt that he will be able to make those improvements. The two biggies are he needs to work on 1) laying off those sliders, and 2) hit to the opposite field. It is still very early, but he looks the part no doubt.
If he is going to **** around and put up an iso of 250 there is no way he won't be a plus player with decent to great (beware defensive metrics from 27 games!) defense at SS. The 210 average needs to improve if he's going to be a bat we rely upon at the top or in the middle of the order, but if that profile continues he will be a good 7th or 8th hitter that can be feast or famine and win you some games that way. There's nothing saying he has to hit in the middle of the order but ideally you'd like to see him be able to hit 5th or something like that going forward. My ideal lineup for next year would be: Altuve Tucker Bregman Yordan 1B Pena LF Meyer Lee If Pena gets that average up he could hit 5th easy enough, which would mean you need less from FA or minor league replacements in FA. If not then you could see him hitting 8th if Meyers hits and we go outside the farm system for 1B and LF.
What is the proper way to string together Mui Haliente and Pena (Very Hot Trouble)? I'm looking for an alternative for Hello Pena Popper.
