Chris Glover swoops in and grabs a COW honor with his Jessie Spano impression. After Travis broke the news of Carlos Pena’s return, Chris wrote:
Travis, this comment just got me fired up for baseball again. With the mild distraction of football about to end I was wondering how I would pass the time here in Toronto as the snow gets deeper, but you saved me! Time to start getting pumped for next season!
Why Jessie Spano? Because, like Chris, I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so…..scared. (Chris, do they have Saved by the Bell in England or Canada? Do you get the reference?)
I am ecstatic to have Pena back. My wife and kids think he’s great so, his return means we have 162 games locked into the family calendar. Also, he is just a fun guy to root for and he has the potential to dramatically improve our offense.
But, Pena’s return also freaks me out. We know he’s going to fan at an incredible rate. We know he probably won’t face lefties. And we know we don’t have an obvious platoon partner for him.
So, yeah. Pena’s return is a mixed blessing. But, in the final analysis, if this is going to be our year, I’d want Pena in the clubhouse when it happens.
Something to consider, not that this is necessarily a good thing, doesn’t Pena make every at bat exciting? Yes he fans, A LOT, but he also destroys the ball when he does connect. When you look at his home runs, they are almost all monsters. Kotchman was a nice story last year, he hit for average but with no power. I often caught myself leaving the sofa for the fridge when he was at bat, it was ho hum. Don’t get me wrong, consistency is a great thing, but where is the excitement? Where is the pay off? I like rooting for Pena because he is that kind of lovable underdog, the Rays picked him up when many teams didn’t want him. He rewarded them with golden glove defense, a powerful bat, and leadership. While I do worry about the strike outs, average, and lack of a platoon partner, I would take Pena over a lot of a first basemen out there. To me, he is the perfect kind of player for Maddon’s system. He compliments our core players well, and I actually catch myself wishing we had signed him for a few years, I imagine he would have taken a little less money per season had we signed him to 2-3.
Good news for our defense, but it won’t help jersey sales.
Maybe he’ll change his number? Then we’d all need new Pena jerseys. Right?
When I saw this news Friday I couldn’t go pick up my son fast enough. Mark may or may not remember when I first joined Twitter last year ( @MerrillFraz ) but I had told the twitterverse about when Pena signed with the Cubs and I told my 6 year old and he literally cried. Ask him who Dadddy’s favorite player is and he doesn’t hesitate to say #23-Carlos Pena!
In the 2010 playoffs, I was on Channel 8 news watching ALDS game 4 against the Rangers from Ferg’s and screaming, “My boy Pena is CLUTCH”. All of Tampa Bay knew I loved him at that point.
It’s one of those things that’s not even tangible…I just love him as a Ray. Something about him being a Ray makes me think the team will just be better. And my son about blew his top when I told him.
That is a great story. Hopefully he has the kind of year that cements that legacy for your boy.
I’m just glad that pitchers and catchers will be showing up soon. Time for some baseball.