Carlos Pena can hit Home Runs … and nothing else
Posted by: Richie Rich in 2008 MLB, Rays, Stats
Last season, Carlos Pena hit 46 Home Runs for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and was the AL Comeback Player of the Year and the AL winner of Home Run Derby’s Andre Dawson Award.
This season, he’s leading the Tampa Bay Rays and all of the Major Leagues with six Home Runs. Making Home Run Derby players happy everywhere.
But hitting Home Runs is all that he’s doing in 2008. It’s been all or nothing for Pena.
Through 4/15, Pena is batting a sub-Mendoza .196 with a decent slugging percentage (.549) and OPS (.908) – but only thanks to those Home Runs.
But take away those Dingers …
| G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | HBP | K | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With HR | 14 | 51 | 13 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 19 | .196 | .359 | .549 | .908 |
| W/O HR | 14 | 45 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 19 | .089 | .293 | .089 | .382 |
| 2007 | 148 | 490 | 99 | 138 | 29 | 1 | 46 | 121 | 103 | 10 | 142 | .282 | .411 | .627 | 1.038 |
… and Pena hits like a gir- scratch that, he hits like a pitcher.
.089 / .293 / .089 with no extra base hits.
Holy Cow! Twelve of Pena’s thirteen RBI have come via the Home Run. And that one RBI came when he drew a walk with the bases loaded.
Thirteen RBI, and not one of them has touched the ground (6 HR and one Bases Loaded Walk). I’m not sure if anyone’s ever done that to start a season. Someone get Jayson Stark’s Useless Info Department on the case.
Mind you, Pena can do something besides hit Home Runs in 2008. He can also get hit by pitches. He’s tied for the MLB lead in HBP (4) with David Eckstein.
Entries (RSS)
April 16th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Wow! One question – how did he lose 7 runs scored?
April 16th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Oops. I fixed that.
It should have been a loss of six runs.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
His numbers will come around.
Even though he isn’t hitting well outside of the power numbers, he is still drawing a lot of walks.
As soon as he starts hitting a few more line drives this should all even out.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:19 am
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