The speculation in this article is that Tony Pena will be the new manager of the Royals.
A couple of years ago, at a SABR meeting in Rhode Island, Ken Ryan was the guest speaker. I asked him something about catchers; I don’t remember if it was “Who was your favorite catcher?” or “Did catchers make a difference to you?” but it was something along those lines. He hadn’t thought about the question before, but started talking about Tony Pena and the other Sox catcher at that time (his name escapes me). He said that when Pena caught, he would come out to the mound and just tell Ken to throw hard. The other catcher would talk about how to pitch to this batter. By the time he talked it through, Ryan had decided the other guy was the better catcher for him.
So from that monolouge, Pena strikes me as a good cheerleader, but less of a strategist. That’s okay, sometimes you need someone to inject a positive attitude. I hope he has a good strategist sitting next to him on the bench, however.