Kuzul

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has created another tempest in a teapot by stating that Asian players get “privileges” that Latino players don’t receive—particularly with respect to teams providing translators for Asian players, but not providing translators for Spanish-speaking players.

Once again, Ozzie has stated a basic truth, but done so in a way that is profoundly off-putting.  Ozzie’s point is that since Asian players are routinely provided with translators, Spanish-speaking players should receive translators or language assistance in some form, as a matter of basic fairness.

However, by referring to Asian players getting “privileges,” Ozzie makes it sound as if Asian players are unfairly getting special treatment they don’t deserve.

Ozzie’s statement also fails to address the fundamental realities of baseball.  Asian players who come to the U.S. are much more likely to be established professional stars in the Asia, who command higher salaries and bonuses than Latin players, who generally sign at age 16 or 17.

As such, the cost of providing translators is a relatively small item relative to what Asian players cost in terms of salary, negotiation rights and bonuses.  Also, when American players go to play professionally in Asia (Japan, Korea or Taiwan), they are routinely provided with interpreters, so there is an expectation that the same courtesy will be extended to Asian players playing the U.S.

Meanwhile, while a few of the top Latin amateurs sign for $1 million-plus bonuses, the vast majority likely sign for bonuses in the $3,000 to $15,000 range.  Rightly or wrongly, major league teams are unlikely to provide a translator for a player signed for $5,000 and $1,200 a month (if that) for a four month season in the Dominican Summer League.

In fact, even the bonus babies, if given the choice, will likely take a bigger cash bonus rather than signing for $50,000 or $100,000 less and getting a translator to assist them.  If a bonus baby wants a translator, better to hire one’s own out of a larger bonus.

That being said, Ozzie is right that MLB ought to provide at least one Spanish/English translator for each minor league team, and should provide English language classes for young Latino ballplayers to take in their spare time.  The cost of doing so would be de minimis, and it would certainly aid Latin players in their development, which is the entire point of the minor leagues.

I suspect that MLB’s failure to provide Latin American players with language assistance is more an act of omission than commission.  While it is obviously very difficult to learn English if your first language is Japanese, Chinese or Korean, there is a perception that it’s relatively easy to learn English if you speak another Western European language.

Also, there tend to be a certain number of Spanish-English bilingual players around, since many Hispanic Americans play professional baseball.

When you cut to the chase, though, MLB needs to make an effort to provide Spanish-speaking players with language services if it is going to provide those services to other non-English speaking ballplayers.  That’s basic fairness, no matter how poorly Ozzie Guillen might frame the issue.

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As the trade deadline approaches, a lot of people want the Giants to acquire the big power bat they need to shore up their sputtering offense.  At this point, however, I just don’t see any way the Giants can put together a package for the kind of player who might actually make a difference without weakening the team just as much somewhere else, as they head into the last two months of the season.

Yes, an Adam Dunn or Prince Fielder would make a big difference in the lineup, but what exactly are the Giants going to have to give up to get a player of this caliber?  The answer is obvious—one of their starting pitchers: Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, or Madison Bumgarner.

If that trade is made, who are you going to make the Giants’ fifth starter?  No one that I can see, unless you are willing to take on Carlos Zambrano and the potential headaches and enormous future contract commitments he brings with him.

Or the Giants could trade away their future in the form of Pablo Sandoval or Buster Posey?  Do you really see that happening?  I don’t.

The problem is the Giants really don’t have much top-flight talent in their minor league system.  I like Brandon Belt, who is still hitting a ton (.360 with a 1.130 OPS after 86 ABs at Class AA Richmond), but he’s a former fifth round pick with less than a season of professional experience.  No one really knows if he’s for real yet.

I like Thomas Neal, also at Richmond, but he isn’t exactly murdering the ball (.289 batting average, .792 OPS as I write this).

Daryl Maday?  Getting his brains beaten out at AAA Fresno.

Lefty Eric Surkamp at A+ San Jose?  He’s on the DL for an indefinite period after injuring his hip fielding a ground ball on July 18.

Charlie Culberson is looking good in San Jose, hitting .327 with a .904 OPS, but he’s a long, long way from the majors.  Even more so with young right-handed pitching prospects Jorge Bucardo and Jose Casilla.  You don’t give up proven major league talent at the trade deadline for low, full-season Class A pitchers; there’s too much risk they’ll get hurt before they ever really amount to anything.

I could mention a few other guys I kinda like, but what’s the point?  No GM would accept a prospect package centered around any of them.

So what’s left?  Joe Rosenthal of Fox Sports thinks the Giants have some interest in the Marlins’ Jorge Cantu, although Giants beat writer Henry Schulman doesn’t agree.

At first blush, the thought of going after Cantu has a certain appeal.  He might, in fact, be an extremely cheap acquisition, because Cot’s Baseball Contracts says he will be a free agent at the end of this year.  If Cantu continues to play the last two months of 2010 the way he played the first four (he currently has .716 OPS), he won’t be a Type-A free agent, and in any event the Marlins won’t offer him arbitration for fear that he might accept.

As such, the Giants could conceivably acquire Cantu for less than what the Dodgers gave up today to obtain Scott Podsednik from the Royals (more on that below), particularly if the Giants are willing to assume the approximately $2 million left on Cantu’s 2010 contract.

So what if the Giants do acquire Cantu—does it really help them?  Not much that I can see.

Cantu can play three positions: first base, second base, and third base.  At third, his .716 OPS isn’t significantly better than Pablo Sandoval’s .706 OPS and is worse than Juan Uribe’s .776 OPS.

At second, Cantu beats Freddy Sanchez’s .660 OPS, but Freddy’s .328 on-base percentage is twenty points than Cantu’s.  Also, Sanchez plays appreciably better defense, and the Giants aren’t paying Freddy $6 million this year to be a back-up, at least not to someone who isn’t significantly better.  Of course, Juan Uribe can also play second.

At first, Cantu, a right-handed hitter, has a .722 OPS against left-handed pitching, while Aubrey Huff, a left-handed hitter, has a .929 OPS against left-handed pitching.  The Giants also have Sandoval, Buster Posey, and Travis Ishikawa for platoons or when they want to play Huff in the outfield to get another bat in the lineup.

In short, Cantu would be unlikely to provide the Giants with much more than depth.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers move to get Scott Podsednik looks like a good move for both teams.  Podsednik has a .353 on-base percentage so far this year, matching his 2009 mark.  He still runs well, Mso he still has value as a top of the lineup hitter.

However, at age 34, Podsednik isn’t likely to be a good player long enough to help the Royals when they finally put together a winning team.

The two minor leaguers the Royals got aren’t great, but they aren’t terrible either.  Catcher Lucas May is described as the best catching prospect in the Dodgers system by ESPN.com, but he’s unlikely to develop into a star.

May turns 26 in late October and currently has an .848 OPS at AAA Albuquerque, a good place to hit. My guess is that he develops into a useful back-up catcher at the major league level.

The Royals also received RHP Elisaul Pimentel.  He turned 22 about three weeks ago.

Pimentel has a 9-3 record with a 3.49 ERA with good ratios in the Class A Midwest League.  He’s another good young arm, but he’s nothing special.

If nothing else, the Royals turned an oldster into minor league depth, which they can certainly use as they continue to build for the future.

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I’m sure that tonight many Twins fans are again ruing management’s decision to send Matt Garza to the Rays before the 2008 season.  The deal has definitely played out better for the Rays so far, and the Twins could sure use Garza’s strong right arm this season. Nevertheless, Twins fans still have plenty to be hopeful for in this deal.

One of the things that frustrates me about fans and the media is their inability to see the long term—beyond the present season or the next season at most.  The key piece in this deal for Minnesota was obtaining Delmon Young. 

While he was disappointing his first two seasons (and he really wasn’t that bad either season), he’s now hitting .328 with an .895 OPS after tonight’s 19-1 pounding of the Royals in which Delmon got four hits including two doubles.  The thing is, Delmon’s still only 24 years old.

As I said, the Rays got the better end of this deal, because Garza has been the best player of the bunch.  Going forward from this moment, I’d still rather have Garza than Young, because, even though Garza, as a pitcher, has a higher probability of getting hurt, he may have an additional season before he becomes a free agent.  I’m also concerned about whether Young can be consistently good as an offensive player due to his inability to draw walks.

With that being said, Young’s talents are obvious, and he could easily be an All-Star each of the next two seasons.  Young had a reputation as a hot-head early in his career, mainly due to an incident in the minors in which he earned a 50 game suspension for throwing his bat into the chest of an umpire. 

However, the fact that he’s still in Minnesota after two-plus seasons with the Twins, who highly value “character” and don’t put up with a lot of guff in the clubhouse, suggests Young has matured considerably.

As for the rest of the deal, it has been kind of a wash.  Jason Bartlett had a great year in 2009 (.879 OPS), but his OPS as a Ray in 2008 was a mediocre .690, and he has a meager .665 OPS this season.  At age 30 this year, he isn’t likely to reach a .775 OPS again in any full season going forward.

Brendan Harris has now played his way out of the majors this season, but he had a solid season for the Twins in 2008.  Although his defense wasn’t particularly good anywhere, he gave the team some flexibility by playing 2B, SS, and 3B that year.

The final players in the deal, OF Jason Pridie and RHP Eddie Morlan, are no longer with either team.  Pridie is 26 this year and now playing for the Mets’ top farm club, the Buffalo Bison.  He doesn’t look like a future major leaguer, but he’s close enough and young enough that he could get lucky.

The Rays released Morlan after a poor start at AA Montgomery, which doesn’t really make sense given that Morlan is only 24 this year.  The Brewers picked him up and he’s now pitching pretty well for their AA team in Huntsville.  Given his age, he’s still a prospect, but he hasn’t shown any improvement since reaching AA ball in late 2007.

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The Dodgers’ Kenley Jansen is a good example of why MLB teams like guys with tools. 

Jansen is a big (6’6″ and 220 pound) 22-year-old right-hander from Curacao (Andruw Jones’ birthplace) who just got called up to take Justin Miller’s place on the Dodgers’ major league roster.

Jansen started his professional career as a catcher, but after more than 1,000 plate appearances at or below the Class A+ level, Jansen proved he just can’t hit (.647 career minor league OPS).

Live arm: the Dodgers converted Jansen into a pitcher this year, and after only 22 appearances at the AA level (1.67 ERA and 50 Ks in a mere 27 IP), the Bums decided he is major league ready.

Actually, I don’t think Jansen is major league ready just yet. His command is suspect—17 walks in those 27 AA innings pitched—although he clearly has electric stuff.

If I were the Dodgers’ GM, I would have promoted Jansen to AAA Albuquerque.  With 65 games left to play, the Dodgers are six games back of the NL West lead and only only 2.5 games off the wild card.  Too early to promote projects.

Albuquerque is a tough place to pitch, and it would be a good place for Jansen to learn that he has to attack the zone to keep those extra runs from scoring.

(I contend that Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux won and won again in hitters’ parks in large part—they did had great stuff—because they attacked the zone.)

Meanwhile, Justin Miller once again gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop.  His 4.44 ERA isn’t Dodger Stadium worthy, but his other numbers are good (24.1 IP, 22 hits, eight walks and 30 Ks—his four gopher balls killed him).

Justin Miller is either highly unappreciated, or he has a problematic personality that hasn’t been adequately reported since he’s a bottom-of-the-bullpen pitcher. 

Another possibility is that teams (the Marlins, Giants and Dodgers) just don’t think his stuff matches his results.

However, Miller’s results over the last three and a half seasons are such the teams should look only at the results.

Like Kiko Calero, who was recently cut from AAA Albuquerque despite a 3.00 ERA after 15 appearances, the Giants might want to consider Miller for a minor league contract.

P.S.  They play professional baseball in Holland.  Like Italy, the pro league plays a 42-game schedule each year (what does that prove?). 

About half of the players in Holland’s pro league come from Holland’s Caribbean possessions, mainly Aruba and Curacao. 

Baseball is as popular there as the Latin American Caribbean nations: Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Venezuela, Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico.

Baseball is also popular (and major league ballplayers have come out of) the English-speaking Virgin Islands.

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Buster Olney passes on a rumor that the Giants had scouts eyeing the Royals’ Jose Guillen. Sigh!

One of the definitions of an idiot is someone who cannot learn from his mistakes.  Guillen isn’t worth anything more than a single B-grade prospect, if that, but he’s exactly the type of overrated psuedo-power hitter Giants GM Brian Sabean has overrated so many times in the past.

Guillen is 34 years old and having a good season for him (.800 OPS so far this year); but even at this rate of performance, he really isn’t worth two lumps of sugar, when you consider that he’s playing his home games in one of MLB’s best hitters’ parks (although I will acknowledge he’s hitting a little better on the road this year than at home).

Guillen’s outfield defense is so good at this point in his career that he’s played all of 19 of his 93 games this season in the field. 

The Giants are already playing Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell in the outfield way more than can be considered desirable, because the team’s hitting is so bad.

Since the Giants now have Pat Burrell, who they are paying the major league minimum and cost them nothing in terms of talent sent away, why in the world would Jose Guillen even be on their radar?  It just doesn’t make any sense in a rational universe.

If you haven’t notice, we don’t live in one.  Every time I read about the Giants’ reputed interest in Guillen, I have flashbacks (in the PTSD sense) of Shea Hillenbrand. 

This was one of Sabean’s worst moves, even though Jeremy Accardo only had one good season as a Blue Jay.

Hillenbrand wasn’t just bad: he actively hurt the Giants the last two plus months of 2006 with his sorry offensive performance as the everyday first baseman.

Hillenbrand was an awful lot like Jose Guillen: a downright mediocre player who thought he was a star and had the attitude to go with his mistaken, unjustified self-image. 

Another ex-Giant, Neifi Perez, comes to mind when thinking of this kind of player, but at least the Neifster could pick it on defense.

These kinds of guys are a pain in the ass from the get go, and if you are stupid enough to bring one of them on board, you deserve what you get.

I would feel a lot better about it all if Brian Sabean hadn’t traded away talent for turkeys like these so many times in the past.

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The Yankees brass were pretty hanked off after they thought they had a deal for the Mariners’ Cliff Lee, centered around 20-year-old catcher Jesus Montero. But the M’s went ahead and sent Lee to Texas for a package centered around first baseman Justin Smoak. 

The Mariners may have done the Yankees an enormous favor.

In his last 10 games, Montero is hitting .484 (15 for 31) at AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre with four doubles and four home runs.  Montero now has the 12th highest OPS (.821) in the International League. 

There aren’t many 20-year-old catchers you can say that about.

River Avenue Blues says the Yankees should consider calling up Montero right now to fill the hole the Yankees have at DH since the injury (who could have seen it coming?) to Nick Johnson. 

They have a point: Montero is arguably ready for prime time.

One thing is certain, however.  There is absolutely no reason at this moment to think that Montero would not be a worthy successor to Yankees catcher Jorge Posada.

Posada has one year after this one on his current contract, which is approximately the amount of time (the 2011 season) for Montero to serve as the Yankees’ back-up catcher and learn at the master’s hand.

The Yankees absolutely need to develop at least a few of their stars in-house.  Even with all the money the Yankees have, it’s not unlimited, and they have an enormous amount of future salary commitments to players in their decline phase.

As fangraphs.com’s Dave Cameron notes, the Yankees have $174 million committed to Alex Rodriguez over the next seven years, and A-Rod’s having the worst season of his major league career (currently an .827 OPS). A-Rod has better years ahead of this one, but I don’t think he’ll have more than three such seasons in the next seven.

ARod turns 35 next Tuesday, and with Vitamin S out the game, we aren’t going to see any more Barry Bonds like players defying the immutable hand of time.

The Yankees have $115 million committed to CC Sabathia over the next five seasons, and $135 million committed to Mark Teixeira over the next six.  Both of them are now over age 30.

Derek Jeter, 36, is also likely to get a juicy extension, although his poor (for him) 2010 season is likely to save the Yankees a load of money.

The Yankees have to continue developing at least a few of their own stars, like Robinson Cano, Phil Hughes, and Joba Chamberlain, if they want to continue winning into the 2010s. 

Jesus Montero really looks like a player just too good to use as a trade chip solely to win in 2010.

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In a comment to my recent article article about Josh Lueke , someone commented that the public at large has a short memory when it comes to ballplayers’ past transgressions.  I was reminded of that fact today when I read about how Pirates’ rookie Jose Tabata’s estranged wife pleaded guilty to kidnapping today.

Not too long after the Pirates obtained then minor-leaguer Tabata from the Yankees as the centerpiece (for the Pirates) in the Xavier Nady trade, it was news that in early 2008, Tabata married a woman named Amalia Pereira, who was more than twice his age (she’s 23 years older), and that in early 2009 she had been charged with kidnapping.

I had completely forgotten about Mrs. Tabata and the kidnapping charges against her, until I noticed today’s news article.  The back-story is as follows: Amalia pretended to be an immigration official and threatened the mother of a two-month old baby that her family would be deported, that she (Amalia) wanted to help, but had to take the baby from them.

The parents were in fact undocumented immigrants, which has a lot to do with why they accepted such a crazy story and turned over the child.  However, within about six hours, with the assistance of a friend who spoke English, the parents reported the abduction to the police.

Meanwhile, Jose Tabata was reported by AP to have said that prior to the kidnapping his wife had lied to him that she was pregnant with his child.  Here’s the wikipedia article with links to the contemporaneous news articles: I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

Now, on to the part that really has some relevance to major league baseball.  In reading the wikipedia article above, I noticed this link to a recent Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article in which Pirates’ management acknowledge all the rumors that Tabata may actually be in his mid-20′s and not age 21 as claimed.

This is actually very important news as far as the Pirates and Tabata’s future development are concerned.  If Tabata turns 22 on August 12th, he’s a hell of prospect, given his past minor performance, even if he isn’t much of a major league left-fielder today.  On the other hand, if Tabata turns 25 on August 12th, he isn’t much of a prospect at all.

Tabata hasn’t shown a lick of power in his professional career to date.  If he’s 21, that’s alright, because he may add power as he matures.

Also, his one proven ability as an offensive player is his ability to hit for average.  If he’s in his early 20′s, he will almost certainly be a future .300+ hitter in the major leagues.  If he’s closing in on 25, he isn’t going to get a whole lot better than he is now: at best a .290s hitter with no power and not a lot of walks.

In other words, if Tabata’s only 21 today, he has a good chance to be the next Matty Alou, who hit .330 or better four years in a row for the Pirates in the late 1960′s.  If he’s 24 today, he’s a lot more likely to be the next Lastings Milledge.

That’s perhaps not fair to Milledge, who was the 12th player selected in the 2003 Draft and had a fine year at age 23 for the Mets in 2008; Lastings, at age 25, still has time to develop into a star.  However, the point is obvious: at this moment in time Milledge doesn’t look like he’s going to be any better than a fourth outfielder at the major league level.

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The umpires giveth and the umpires taketh away.  After getting burned by a blown call against the Mets on Sunday, which cost them the ball game, the umpires gave the Giants one back last night in Los Angeles.

In the ninth inning, with the Giants trailing 5-4, one out and the bases loaded against Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton, acting manager Don Mattingly (Joe Torre having been ejected along with Dodger starter Clayton Kershaw earlier in the game for hitting Aaron Rowand with a pitch—the third hit batter of the game) went out to discuss the situation with Broxton.

However, as Mattingly was walking back toward the dugout and had just stepped off the pitcher’s mound, he stepped back onto the mound a second time, either to say one last thing or because someone called him back.  Giants manager Bruce Boche came out and argued that stepping off and back onto the mound constituted a “second trip to the mound” and thus Broxton had to come out of the game.

The umpires agreed and the Dodgers had to pull Broxton and put in lefty George Sherrill, who’s been struggling mightily of late.  Sherrill’s struggles continued as the next hitter, Giants’ leadoff man Andres Torres, drove in the tying and winning runs with a double.

Frankly, it seems like kind of a silly rule.  It would probably make more sense to require the manager to cross the baselines twice to constitute two separate visits.  However, I’m sure the rule exists so that managers can’t come back and give the pitcher any last words of advice after the umpire has come out and told the manager to get his behind back in the dugout.

It’s also gratifying to see Ol’ Boch, who sometimes doesn’t seem like the sharpest managerial tool in the shed, burn the hated Dodgers with handy knowledge of an obscure rule.

Of more concern to Giants’ fans is Tim Lincecum’s continued struggles in last night’s game.  He pitched poorly, allowing five earned runs in 4.2 innings of work, while walking three and striking out only two.

Lincecum’s velocity and command were issues once again.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Lincecum struggled to reach 90 mph on the radar gun with his fastball, and the command issues may have something to do with lack of arm strength or changes to Lincecum’s mechanics as he tries to regain his power.

I don’t know entirely what to make of it.  According to the San Jose Mercury News, in his last start against the Mets, in which he pitched a complete game shutout, Lincecum’s first three fastballs hit 95 mph, and in the late innings his fastball was sitting on 92-93 mph.  That’s exactly where Lincecum was last year when he won his second Cy Young Award.

However, other commentators have noted Lincecum’s loss of velocity in games he pitched earlier this year.  On the other hand, while Lincecum’s strikeout rate is down from last season, he still has more Ks than IP so far this season (138 Ks in 130.1 IP).

Because of his slight stature, everyone is waiting for Lincecum’s arm to fall off, particularly after throwing just over 450 innings in 2008 and 2009 combined.  Lincecum’s 2010 numbers are still too good for anyone to panic, but there have indeed been some worrying signs this year.

We’ll have to see if it’s just temporary arm fatigue, adjustments the National League has made to his pitching, or if serious cracks are developing in the Freak’s heralded right arm.  Obviously, I’m hoping its the former and not the latter.

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Several sources (Fox’s Ken Rosenthal and the Chicago Sun Times’ Joe Cowley) say the White Sox are working hard to pry Adam Dunn away from the Washington Nationals, but aren’t having much success due to the Nationals’ exorbitant asking price.  Reportedly, the Nats want Carlos Quentin or Gordon Beckham, both of whom the ChiSox are understandably reluctant to trade away.

However, the White Sox have apparently offered up just about anyone else in their farm system, including 1B/3B Dayan Viciedo and RHP Daniel Hudson.

If the Nats could get both Viciedo and Hudson straight up for Dunn, it’s a trade the Nationals should make.

We all know Dunn can hit a ton, but his defense is widely regarded as terrible.  Also, he’s now 30 years old, and given his size (he’s listed at 6’6″ and 285 lbs), he’s not a player I would expect to age well.

Dunn is expensive already, and after the season he’s having, it’s certain the Nationals will have to pony up far more than the $12 million they are paying him this year to keep him.  Meanwhile, the Nationals are going nowhere (they’re 14.5 back in the NL East and in last place), so it’s not like Dunn is doing a whole lot for the team right now.

Dunn is also redundant.  He and LF Josh Willingham are roughly the same age (Willingham is nine months older) and have almost identical skill sets.  Dunn is the better player, but that means he will bring considerably more in trade. In addition, Willingham is cheaper (he’s only making $4.6 million this year and will make considerably less than Dunn next season, no matter what kind of a raise Willingham receives).

Viciedo and Hudson are Grade-A prospects.

Dayan Viciedo is a 21-year-old Cuban defector who looks extremely promising.  After 44 major league at-bats this year, he’s hitting .295 with a .773 OPS, after posting an .855 OPS in 238 ABs at AAA Charlotte.  He doesn’t walk much, but he can clearly hit and he has adapted very quickly in only his second season playing professionally in the U.S.

The biggest question with Viciedo is whether he’s really only 21-years-old, since he’s already listed as 5’11″ and 240 lbs, and historically it’s been difficult to verify if Cuban defectors are as young as they claim to be.

Twenty-three year old Dan Hudson also looks extremely close.  He went 11-4 at AAA Charlotte this year with a 3.47 ERA and great strikeout to walk ratios.  Hudson is 1-0 with a 5.06 ERA after two major league starts this month.

I like Viciedo as the center piece of an Adam Dunn trade better than Hudson, mainly because of the greater likelihood a pitcher has of getting hurt before he develops into a star.  If the White Sox won’t part with both Viciedo and Hudson, then a trade for Viciedo and two solid Grade-B prospects for Dunn would still make sense for the Nationals.

Even if the Nationals continue to wildly overvalue Dunn, there is nothing stopping them from trying to bring him back to D.C. this coming off-season as a free agent after his current two-year contract has expired.  In the meantime, the Nationals could sure use the infusion of premium young talent they’d receive by trading Dunn to the White Sox right now.

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Remember Wily Mo Pena?  The Padres just signed him to a minor league contract and assigned him to their AAA team in Portland.

Pena had been playing in the Independent A Atlantic League for the Bridgeport Blue Fish.  He was hitting .310 with a .851 OPS, which is solid but hardly spectacular for this level.

One suspects Pena got signed because he was once one of the top prospects in MLB, rather than for how well he was playing in the Atlantic League.  Pena was hardly the best hitter on the Blue Fish.

Steve Moss, who’s two years younger than Pena (Moss is 26, Pena 28) is leading the Atlantic League with a .351 batting average and has a .996 OPS.  In fairness to MLB, Moss never performed particularly well when he played for a major league organization.

To get back to the subject at hand, Pena looked like a can’t-miss future star when at age 22 he hit 26 home runs for the Reds in only 336 at bats during the 2004 season.  Pena continued to play pretty well through the 2007 season; however, he didn’t improve a lick over his 2004 performance.

Pena played horribly for the going-nowhere Nationals in 2008 and didn’t hit much at AAA Buffalo, the Mets’ top farm club, in 2009.   People got tired of waiting for him to develop and at 27 he was no longer a prospect.  As a result, he found himself hanging on by thread to his professional life, which is pretty much what playing in the Atlantic League amounts to.

Pena’s real problem was that he just wasn’t selective enough as a hitter to ever get any better than he was when he first hit the National League.  In 2004, he walked only 22 times and struck out 108 times; and he never really improved on those numbers.

When you have a guy who won’t force pitchers to throw him strikes, at some point the pitchers will simply stop throwing him strikes.

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