Blast from the Past
Remember Wily Mo Pena?
The hulking slugger stomped around Buffalo for a short period in 2009, but left after a disagreement with management.
It turns out that Pena has been pounding the ball out of the park for AAA Las Vegas Reno this year, with 21 homers in 225 at-bats (that’s a homer for every 10.7 ABs) and a 1.176 OPS in 60 games. Because of his prodigious power output, the Arizona Diamondbacks are considering promoting Pena for interleague play, to serve as DH.
You may wonder why a team would keep a slugger like that down in the minors. It’s probably not so much because Pena is a liability in the field, but rather because the D-Backs are leading the NL in homeruns, total bases, and doubles — they don’t necessarily need any more power. However, they could use pitching help, so using Pena in interleague play could be a way to showcase him as a trading piece.
I’m interested to see how this develops; I’ve always found Wily Mo to be a fun hitter to watch. (The rest of his game, not so much.)
The self inflicted veteran log jam is what’s keeping him in Reno, not sufficient bats in the majors.
As far as power goes there was considerable discussion (and dreaming) about acquiring David Wright or Carlos Beltran to do improve the offense.