Tom Tango notes that Carlos Pena’s contrary approach on 0-2 pitches doesn’t work well for him.
Pena and 0-2
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Tag Archives: Carlos Pena
Moore Shutouts
The Rays record the fourth shutout on Friday, spanking their cross-state rivals the Marlins 11-0. Matt Moore allowed one hit in seven innings, and the bullpen did not allow another as the Miami hitters mostly reached base via the walk, drawing four of those. Moore struck out eight on the evening. He struck out 17 in his last 13 innings.
The Rays did not need to hit much, as they drew nine walks, but the ten hits kept the conga line moving. Carlos Pena produced an unusual line, 0 for 1 with four walks and four runs scored. He’s batting .187 with a .347 OBP, and somewhere Harvard grad Mike Stenhouse is smiling.
Roller Coaster Pitch
Bay Guns
Tampa Bay beat Toronto 8-5 as the Rays out-homered the Blue Jays 3-1. Carlos Pena hit the biggest bomb of the night, a three-run shot that helped Tampa Bay to a 6-0 lead after four innings. Luke Scott and B.J. Upton both homered and doubled for the Rays.
Grand Return
The Rays load the bases with two out in the bottom of the first after Joe Girardi elected to walk Sean Rodriguez to pitch to Carlos Pena. Pena works the count full, then delivers a home run deep into the rightfield stands. The Rays fans go wild as Tampa Bay takes a 4-0 lead on the Yankees in the bottom of the first.
Pena Returns
Carlos Pena returned to the Tampa Bay Rays after a year in Chicago:
Pena’s contract is worth $7.25 million, a baseball source told ESPN.com.
Pena spent four seasons with the Rays beginning in 2007, then signed with the Cubs as a free agent for last season. He played in 153 games and batted .225 with 28 home runs and 80 RBIs.
Wow, ESPN is still spouting triple crown stats.
Pena posted a .357 OBP and a .462 slugging percentage. That’s good for a .354 wOBA, making him a decent offensive player. He signed cheap for a player capable of a 2.5 WAR season. I’m also guessing he missed working for a winner. This is a good move for both parties.
Cubs Carlos
The Cubs signed Carlos Pena to a one-year deal worth $10 million. The money assumes Pena’s 2010 was an outlier, and he’ll return to the performance of the previous two years.
I think he’ll bounce back a bit, however, because (a) the NL Central is way, way easier than the AL East; and (b) his line of .196/.325/.407 was horrible, but he was really unlucky, hitting only .222 on balls in play.
Carlos, however, never produced a very high average on balls in play. His drop in batting average (12 fewer hits) came almost completely from his drop in power (11 fewer home runs). Another sign that Carlos is aging as opposed to just having a bad year is that his defense also fell off over the last two seasons. While I agree he should be better in 2011, at seasonal age 33 he might not rebound enough to make himself worth $10 million.
Incremental Improvement, Tampa Bay Rays
This is a continuing series on how various MLB teams might make a small change to improve themselves for 2011. The idea is laid out in the first of these posts.
The Tampa Bay Rays finished with the best record in the American League. The Rays are an interesting team, in that looking at individual position players, a number of good ones are on the list. If you look at a summary of positions, however, you see a number of spots with low OBPs and unremarkable slugging percentages. Why the difference? One, defense matters, and on the whole the Rays play good defense. Two, there are a number of players on the Rays who move around, so no one player dominates second base, shortstop, catcher or rightfield.
Taking all that in, the biggest problems spots seem to be shortstop and first base. The easiest one of these to deal with would be first, since Carlos Pena became a free agent. The other reason to deal with improving first base comes from Carl Crawford also going the free agent route. So the Rays are losing one of their highest and lowest producing players. In general, it is easier to find offense at first base, so the Rays could work on recovering Carl’s offense in at first, and recovering his defense with a good, young player. In fact, the Rays are ready to move Jason Jennings into left, and he might even make up some of Crawford’s offense.
Losing Crawford is tough, and it will difficult to actually pull off an incremental improvement this season. I suspect the Rays should be able to break even at the position, and as Jennings matures the team should pull ahead in a couple of years. Then Tampa Bay can work on short stop for next season, or centerfield if B.J. Upton doesn’t get his power back.
Previous teams:
Triple Pena
Carlos Pena sends a ball deep to the fence in the leftfield power alley, and the carom bounces away from the outfielder, giving Carlos Pena his first triple of the year.
Matt Joyce follows with a fly ball to right. Ian Kinsler goes back for it and calls off Nelson Cruz. The ball drops behind Kinsler for an error, but that ball should have been Cruz’s the entire time. With Pena at third, Cruz coming in would hold him at the base. Kinsler’s momentum would make the throw home tough. Carlos scores on the error and the Rays lead Texas 1-0 in the second.
Update: B.J. Upton strikes out to end the inning, but a poor defensive play puts Texas in the hole 1-0 as they come up in the bottom of the second.
Update: Ben Zobrist dumps a single in front of Nelson Cruz in the top of the third with two out. Cruz is playing in the shadows, and I wonder if he’s having trouble seeing the ball? Maybe the Rays should try hitting a few more fly balls to right.
Update: Crawford strikes out to end the top of the third. The Rays still lead 1-0.
1-2-3
The Rangers go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth as Carlos Pena and Carl Crawford flash leather, showing why the Rays were the best defensive team in the AL in 2010. The Rays will try to get an insurance run as they lead 3-2 going to the top of the ninth.
Update: Carl Crawford gives them the insurance quickly as he leads off the ninth with a deep home run to the bullpen in right-center. The Rays lead 4-2.
Update: Carlos Pena hits a two-out, two-run homer off Dustin Nippert and the Rays lead Texas 6-2. That a nice lead to hold as they go to the bottom of the ninth.
Just Under the Ball
The Rays put two runners on with two out in the top of the fourth, bringing Carlos Pena to the plate. He gets ahead 3-0, then just gets under a pitch, flying out deep into the rightfield corner for the third out. That’s the closest the Rays have come to a lead in this series. They trail 1-0 going to the bottom of the fourth.
The Tip
I missed the foul tip call in the bottom of the first inning as I was traveling home. I just went back to watch it. The Rays had the bases loaded, one out, and a 2-1 count on Carlos Pena. Pena starts to swing, but holds up on the next pitch, the bat parallel to the side of the plate. The ump calls it a foul tip. Pena argues, as does Maddon, but to know avail. None of the replays shows the ball coming close to the bat. I don’t know what the umpire heard, but it wasn’t the ball hitting the bat. Given that Lee handled Pena easily the rest of the game, Cliff might have gotten out of the situation anyway. He winds up striking out Carlos, but who knows what would have happened on a 3-1 pitch. It’s a very different situation.
K-Lee
Cliff Lee strikes out Carlos Pena to end the sixth inning, Lee’s 10th strikeout of the game. That’s the most strikeouts by a Rangers pitcher in a playoff game. Pena was victimized three times today. The Rangers still lead 5-0.
Pena 4, Tigers 2
Carlos Pena drove in all four runs against his former team as the Rays keep pressure on the Yankees with a 4-2 win over Detroit. Pena homered and singled twice, raising his batting average to .216. That BA accounts for very little of his offensive value as he’s drawing enough walks for a .337 OBP and hitting for enough power to be on a pace for over 100 RBI.
Left vs. Left
Andy Pettitte gave up one home run all year to left-handed batters. That home run was to Carlos Pena. With two on in the top of the first inning, Pena takes Pettitte deep again, and the Rays lead the Yankees 3-0 in the bottom of the first.
Breathing Room
With a .201 BA, Carlos Pena was about to fall below the Mendoza line. Instead, he collected four hits Saturday afternoon, including a double and a home run to raise his batting average to .210 and his slugging percentage to .430. His power is helping to keep him in the lineup as 30 of his 65 hits have gone for extra bases. His three RBI on the day help the Rays get a game back from the Yankees 10-5.
A.J. Burnett pitched poorly and left after two innings due to cuts on this hand.
Flashing Rays
Carl Crawford is convinced that he and Carlos Pena will be leaving Tampa Bay at the end of the season.