Saturday, May 14, 2011

Baseball busts and disappointments - No. 11 Wily Mo Pena

Once traded for Drew Henson, Pena is still young enough that he should get another opportunity to play in the Major Leagues - or at least in end up in Japan to put up some video game numbers.

He's playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks AAA team in Reno and so far in 2011 - he is hitting .366 with a slugging percentage of .777 and an on-base percentage of .429 in 112 official at-bats.

I think there is some curiosity with professional athletes who never quite to get to the top - especially when you had a 'physical specimen' like Wily Mo, who would have been labeled a 'toolsy' player with lots of work to do besides just show up ready to play.

I just had a handful of Pena's early cards during his prospect days with the New York Yankes and was hoping he'd turn out to be Sammy Sosa lite - unfortunately, he turned out to be Frankenstein's monster.

Wily Mo got a chance to play in the Major Leagues from the mid 2000s but it seemed like there were some issues in just letting the guy play - maybe it was lack of conditioning, maybe it was lack of baseball aptitude and just inability to put it together, but he kind of washed out of the Major Leagues two or three years ago.

DISAPPOINTMENT

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