Carlos Pena

[Sammy Sofa]

Ugh. Here we go. WSR has some new competition.

[CUBZ99]

Ugh. Here we go. WSR has some new competition.

 

You think that the Cubs should continue to start him regardless of production?

[Little Slide Rooter]

Ugh. Here we go. WSR has some new competition.

 

I dont know why I have to be dragged into this, but my preference is to keep starting Pena, hope he heats up, trade him for what we can in July(assuming were out of it by then) and sign Pujols or Fielder in the winter. Colvin and Lahair need not apply, unless were talking about a 2 month filler from July-September.

[Sammy Sofa]

Ugh. Here we go. WSR has some new competition.

 

You think that the Cubs should continue to start him regardless of production?

 

This early in the season? Of course.

[Hawk4Hall]

He's off to a terrible start but you have to hope he's going to hit home runs. Jeff Baker will probably get some more time at 1st until Pena starts driving the ball. So far he's been terrible but there is too much money invested in him to beach him.

 

As I said before if he's still in a slump at the end of the month, then you can seriously start the discussion to reduce his playing time a great deal.

[dew1679666265]

Need to get more left handed. Carlos Pena pops out to the warning track on those rare occasions he actually makes contact.

 

I don't remember them signing Pena to "get more lefthanded." In fact, I don't recall any good right handed options at first base this offseason. You had Dunn, Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Johnson and Pena as the best options there (that I recall). All lefties.

 

Assuming we couldn't/wouldn't match what the Red Sox gave up for Gonzalez, our best two options were Dunn and Pena. Dunn cost a ton and is unproductive so far, Pena cost a little and is unproductive so far.

[dew1679666265]

Ugh. Here we go. WSR has some new competition.

 

You think that the Cubs should continue to start him regardless of production?

 

Who do we have who is likely to be more productive than Pena potentially can be? In fact, I'm not sure we have anybody who, starting on a regular basis, is a good bet to outproduce what he's done so far.

 

We simply don't have any good first base options outside of Pena and, with his history, he's our best bet to get good production.

[NeifiIsMyHomeBoy]

Need to get more left handed. Carlos Pena pops out to the warning track on those rare occasions he actually makes contact.

 

I don't remember them signing Pena to "get more lefthanded." In fact, I don't recall any good right handed options at first base this offseason. You had Dunn, Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Johnson and Pena as the best options there (that I recall). All lefties.

 

Assuming we couldn't/wouldn't match what the Red Sox gave up for Gonzalez, our best two options were Dunn and Pena. Dunn cost a ton and is unproductive so far, Pena cost a little and is unproductive so far.

 

Hendry, to my knowledge and memory, never entertained the idea of signing Berkman. I don't mean to say that he would be duplicating the season he is having with the Cardinals, but it is looking like a major mistake that the Cubs did not even consider him as an option.

[Sammy Sofa]

Need to get more left handed. Carlos Pena pops out to the warning track on those rare occasions he actually makes contact.

 

I don't remember them signing Pena to "get more lefthanded." In fact, I don't recall any good right handed options at first base this offseason. You had Dunn, Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Johnson and Pena as the best options there (that I recall). All lefties.

 

Assuming we couldn't/wouldn't match what the Red Sox gave up for Gonzalez, our best two options were Dunn and Pena. Dunn cost a ton and is unproductive so far, Pena cost a little and is unproductive so far.

 

Hendry, to my knowledge and memory, never entertained the idea of signing Berkman. I don't mean to say that he would be duplicating the season he is having with the Cardinals, but it is looking like a major mistake that the Cubs did not even consider him as an option.

 

Meh, it's one of those things that seems to make sense in hindsight when going back to the off-season when both were looking at 1-year-deals after coming off of bad seasons.

[SouthSideRyan]

Is LaHair even younger than Pena?

[Guest]

Need to get more left handed. Carlos Pena pops out to the warning track on those rare occasions he actually makes contact.

 

I don't remember them signing Pena to "get more lefthanded." In fact, I don't recall any good right handed options at first base this offseason. You had Dunn, Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Johnson and Pena as the best options there (that I recall). All lefties.

 

Assuming we couldn't/wouldn't match what the Red Sox gave up for Gonzalez, our best two options were Dunn and Pena. Dunn cost a ton and is unproductive so far, Pena cost a little and is unproductive so far.

 

Hendry, to my knowledge and memory, never entertained the idea of signing Berkman. I don't mean to say that he would be duplicating the season he is having with the Cardinals, but it is looking like a major mistake that the Cubs did not even consider him as an option.

 

Meh, it's one of those things that seems to make sense in hindsight when going back to the off-season when both were looking at 1-year-deals after coming off of bad seasons.

 

Wasn't Konerko an option as well? Not that I would have been in favor of that particular signing either, but I'd expect Cubs brass to have a good handle on who they are adding to their team through deep scouting and game films, etc... Milton Bradley and Carlos Pena are not making these decision makers look too good right now.

[CubColtPacer]

I'm much more optimistic about Pena than I was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago Pena was striking out a ton, hitting the ball on the ground, rarely driving it to the deep outfield, and hitting very few line drives. Now his LD percentage is up to 20 which is a very good percentage (and only has a BABIP of .234 to show for it), his strikeouts are back to his historical levels, he's hitting more fly balls which is key to his success, and his fly balls are reaching the deep parts of the outfield pretty consistently.

 

So unless there is something physically that has zapped his power when he makes good contact with the ball, Pena seems a great bet to bounce back. There's nothing in his numbers (unlike Ramirez last year) that is different from previous years other than the fact that he's had several balls caught at the warning track this year that went over the fence in previous years.

[Sammy Sofa]

Need to get more left handed. Carlos Pena pops out to the warning track on those rare occasions he actually makes contact.

 

I don't remember them signing Pena to "get more lefthanded." In fact, I don't recall any good right handed options at first base this offseason. You had Dunn, Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Johnson and Pena as the best options there (that I recall). All lefties.

 

Assuming we couldn't/wouldn't match what the Red Sox gave up for Gonzalez, our best two options were Dunn and Pena. Dunn cost a ton and is unproductive so far, Pena cost a little and is unproductive so far.

 

Hendry, to my knowledge and memory, never entertained the idea of signing Berkman. I don't mean to say that he would be duplicating the season he is having with the Cardinals, but it is looking like a major mistake that the Cubs did not even consider him as an option.

 

Meh, it's one of those things that seems to make sense in hindsight when going back to the off-season when both were looking at 1-year-deals after coming off of bad seasons.

 

Wasn't Konerko an option as well? Not that I would have been in favor of that particular signing either, but I'd expect Cubs brass to have a good handle on who they are adding to their team through deep scouting and game films, etc... Milton Bradley and Carlos Pena are not making these decision makers look too good right now.

 

Come on, Konerko? What are the odds he was going to sign with anyone but the Sox? He wanted to stay there and they wanted to bring him back and ended up getting a 3-year-deal from the Sox. Who would want the Cub's to top a 3 year, $37.5 million deal to a 35-year-old Paul Konerko?

 

And come on, are we really going to get pissed that they didn't pick Berkman over Pena? Yeah, at this moment I wish we had Berkman, but it's a 1-year-deal for two post-32-year-old players coming off crappy years.

[dew1679666265]

Wasn't Konerko an option as well? Not that I would have been in favor of that particular signing either, but I'd expect Cubs brass to have a good handle on who they are adding to their team through deep scouting and game films, etc... Milton Bradley and Carlos Pena are not making these decision makers look too good right now.

 

I did forget about Konerko, but again I don't recall them ignoring Konerko because he's not a lefty. It was likely much more because he had no real interest in leaving the White Sox and that he was 35 years old looking for a long term, big money deal - which he got.

 

Mojo pretty much articulated my problems with both Konerko and Berkman. Pena was a better option - at the time certainly and I'd agree going forward still - than Konerko because of age and contract demands and the difference between Pena/Berkman were pretty slight. At the time Pena looked like a better option because he appeared to be more likely to bounce back than Berkman, but it'd be hard to fault management for preferring either to the other with the information available at the time.

 

As for Bradley and Pena highlighting poor decisions by Cubs management, there are far better examples than them. If you use hindsight only, sure the Bradley deal looks horrid and the Pena signing looks pretty bad. However - and keep in mind I was no fan of the Bradley deal at the time - there was no possible way to expect it to be that bad. I didn't think he'd live up to the contract, but there was nothing to indicate he'd be downright horrid. With Pena, he's been very good more often than he's been bad and there was a ton of reason to believe he'd bounce back well this season - and as CCP showed, there's still plenty of reason to expect a bounce back.

[dew1679666265]

Is LaHair even younger than Pena?

 

Yep. LaHair is 28 (29 in November) and Pena is 32 (33 in May).

[Guest]

I think you could have had all star caliber 1b's available via free agency that hit right handed, and the Cubs would have taken a lefty anyway. And that was basically my point. And I wasn't opposed to picking up Pena. Just disappointed in the results.

[CUBZ99]

I think you could have had all star caliber 1b's available via free agency that hit right handed, and the Cubs would have taken a lefty anyway. And that was basically my point. And I wasn't opposed to picking up Pena. Just disappointed in the results.

 

Don't forget the emphasis on Pena being a character guy and a good teammate.

[Guest]

Ugh. Here we go. WSR has some new competition.

 

You think that the Cubs should continue to start him regardless of production?

 

Unequivocally yes.

[Sammy Sofa]

I think you could have had all star caliber 1b's available via free agency that hit right handed, and the Cubs would have taken a lefty anyway. And that was basically my point. And I wasn't opposed to picking up Pena. Just disappointed in the results.

 

How do you know they would have taken a lefty regardless? It's basically between him and Berkman (Konerko was never a realistic option for the Cubs), and there are definitely very good reasons for signing Pena over Berkman besides him being LH (besides, LH power hitters ARE valuable, so it's not like this a Grabow-type situation where a guy is getting signed and paid way too much pretty much just because he's a lefty). Hell, for all we know Berkman wouldn't have accepted having his salary deferred.

[rocket]

let's hope the floodgates have opened now.

[MWV]

BOOM.

 

 

 

 

 

It begins.

[Derwood]

he only saw 10 pitches in 4 plate appearances? and on PA was a walk? yikes

[dew1679666265]

I think you could have had all star caliber 1b's available via free agency that hit right handed, and the Cubs would have taken a lefty anyway. And that was basically my point. And I wasn't opposed to picking up Pena. Just disappointed in the results.

 

Any reasoning behind you're assumption or is it just making an assumption for the sake of making an assumption? I haven't heard Hendry say a word about "getting more lefthanded" for at least a couple years now and probably more than that.

 

Basically, you're saying that if Pujols and Pena were both available, the Cubs would only have pursued Pena? Do you have anything at all to back this up?

[Guest]

I think you could have had all star caliber 1b's available via free agency that hit right handed, and the Cubs would have taken a lefty anyway. And that was basically my point. And I wasn't opposed to picking up Pena. Just disappointed in the results.

 

Any reasoning behind you're assumption or is it just making an assumption for the sake of making an assumption? I haven't heard Hendry say a word about "getting more lefthanded" for at least a couple years now and probably more than that.

 

Basically, you're saying that if Pujols and Pena were both available, the Cubs would only have pursued Pena? Do you have anything at all to back this up?

 

I don't really feel like digging through old articles looking for it, but I could swear they were focused on getting a lefty power bat in the middle of the line up. If it was never, ever said this offseason, then I am wrong and will admit so. Can't say it would have even been the wrong thing to do considering that most of the best free agent 1b bats were left handed, and the Cubs line up was already dominated with righty bats in Castro, Ramirez, Soriano, Soto and Byrd.

 

They couldn't afford Pujols, so it's not even worth discussing that. I was glad they signed Carlos Pena, so I don't even wish to continue this discussion, but unless he turns things around, we all end up with egg on our faces for thinking he still had something left.

[Prizefight]

What's Wrong with Carlos Pena?

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/whats-wrong-with-carlos-pena/

 

While Pena has had empty swings against changeups and curveballs in the past, he is now missing fastballs more often.