Quest for Competence: Tony Pena Jr.
At least he's done this before.
If you suck at hitting, do you try to focus and practice more with your hitting coach?
Not if you’re Tony Pena Jr., apparently.
Fuck that, you try the other thing possible in baseball: pitching!
The Kansas City Royals are trying to turn Tony Pena Jr. into a pitcher, and because Tony Pena Jr. is about as good as offense as whales are at flying, this is a good, creative thing.
Royals manager Trey Hillman’s argument is sound, I guess:
“We all know about his athleticism on defense. Most of the time when you see that kind of athleticism, it usually means good body control in pitching form and mechanics. He’s got the ability to throw from different arm angles. He’s got life to his fastball.”
And, hey, maybe this will work, and ESPN can dump a 15-minute story on E:60 when Tony Pena Jr. pitches 100 garbage innings and leads the Royals to the top of the AL Central! (He did pitch one perfect inning in 2008.)
Even that, though, is an improvement on Pena’s year at-bat, which featured five hits in 51 at-bats for a sterling .098 batting average; his OPS, .250, is lower than Jeff Francoeur’s batting average.
In 2009, he has basically been the Kyle Farnsworth of batting. So why not have him pitch?
(What’s that? You say the Royals employ the Kyle Farnsworth of pitching? Sorry, Minda.)
I hear the Royals also have plans for signing a midget to a one-day deal and having Eddie Griffin, a Kansas City native, get one at-bat for the team. No word if those two stories are related.
