Thursday, December 2, 2010

Wily Mo Pena to Diamondbacks


Many people haven't heard about any Wily Mo Pena exploits recently, as the big outfielder with a lot of pop in his bat, and not much else, has fallen off the map in recent years.  However, according to MLBtraderumors.com the Diamondbacks will sign Wily Mo to a $675,000 minor league deal with an invite to big league camp in the spring.  Apparently, other big league teams even had interest in him.  Living near Boston, I had the privilege of watching him have a decent first season for the Red Sox (off the bench) and then absolutely tank in his second season in Boston (he ended up getting traded midseason).  This is an extremely surprising move by the the Diamondbacks.  Yes, they need some help, but Pena isn't what most of their fans probably had in mind.  He last played in the big leagues in 2008 with the Nationals, hitting .205 in 206 at-bats with a whopping 2 homers.  This season, he managed to hit .324 with 9 homers in 142 at-bats for the Padres Triple-A team.  Not bad for the Pacific Coast League.  It's a good thing the Diamondbacks only wasted a minor league deal on Wily Mo, but even that is a stretch.  The only thing he has shown in recent years is that he can't be a productive player in the bigs.  Arizona should have passed and found help elsewhere.

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