Willie Who??

Pence is better than misplaced Burke in CF. Good move!

defense is not bad - at least he almost never takes bad routes to balls the way willy did.

of course he's not as fast - he looks it bcause he got these real arms and legs flying everywhere.

but the local media absolutely ADORES him so you never hear bout misplays.

truth is that burke was really NOT that bad - the local media and fans just hate him so what can you do?

gonna be interesting to see how long the adoring of pence is gonna continue when he slumps

Pence actually has a better zone rating and range factor than Taveras this year. It's a tiny sample, of course, but Taveras was always overrated as a fielder.

Don't bother asking about the bat. Pence's OPS is more than three hundred points better than Taveras' this year - and Willy is having a good year by his admittedly awful standards.

I might miss my guess, but Pence could easily end up with a career OPS 200+ points higher than Taveras, considering Hunter's composite .932 OPS in the minors. At that point, who cares about the glove?

Lisa, I didn't find that the media/fans hated Burke. Quite the contrary, they wanted him to succeed, most loved him. Then Pence burst on the scene in spring training, and he lost a few fans, but they were still willing to see what Burke could do.

He struggled offensively and defensively, and thats when everyone turned on him, and rightfully so. He was playing very poorly, and should have been removed. In general I think the fans and media would like him to work out, he seemingly works hard and has a good attitude, but that only carries you so far when you've got the top prospect tearing it up.