You will fear any man who possesses the middle name of a Northern California suburb

April 26th, 2007 → 10:29 pm @ // No Comments

I’ve been a WMP cheerleader since last August, when he put an absolute hurt on the ball; less than two weeks ago, I once again was pleading his case.

He hasn’t been making me look good. In the days after my post, Wily Mo did indeed get into a few more games, and then, with Coco’s injury, a few more…and he looked god-damned awful. Coming into tonight’s game, he was hitting — and no, this isn’t a typo — .120. His slugging percentage was a pathetic .240. Sure, he’d only gotten 25 at bats…but he’d struck out in more than half of them.

All of which is to say I would have walked Varitek to load the bases and put Wily Modesto at the plate in the top of the eighth of tonight’s game. You had better then even odds that he’d be back on the bench without putting the ball into play, and even if he wasn’t whiffing with such frequency, you’d be setting up a possible double play with one out and a one-run lead.

Pena, of course, didn’t strike out, nor did he ground weekly to short; he did blast a game-winning granny…which should, at the very least, quiet the Fenway boo-birds for a couple of games. Unless, of course, he strikes out with the bases loaded and the Sox down a run in one of this weekend’s Yankees games…


Post Categories: Wily Mo Pena

4 Comments → “You will fear any man who possesses the middle name of a Northern California suburb”


  1. tinisoli

    16 years ago

    Maybe he had no choice but to throw a fastball because his slider was nowhere to be found and he had to throw a strike. But Chris Ray obviously didn’t get the memo that should be circulating the A.L. right now: “Wily Mo Pena can’t hit anything but fastballs.”

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  2. chris

    16 years ago

    WMP is really fun to watch, and I’m an optimist on where it’s all headed. But I’m pretty sure Modesto is far from the burbs. I think it’s more of a Central Valley farm town.

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  3. rebbe sox

    16 years ago

    It’s hard not to like the big lug, but I’m running out of patience with Wily Mo. The talk had been that his big problem was that he never had a chance to play consistently. Give him time, they’d say, and he’ll develop a better eye for the strike zone. I believed that once, but I don’t any more.

    Wily Mo’s had over 1,000 major league at bats and he still swings at curve balls in the dirt. I once thought he could grow up to be Dave Kingman — you know, a lot of strike outs but enough blasts into the upper deck to make the Ks more than worthwhile. Now, I don’t see even that. Everyone knows how to pitch this guy and he will get his 15 to 20 homers a year as a fourth outfielder only when the odd breaking ball doesn’t break … or someone is stupid or desperate enough to throw him a fastball in the zone. That’s not enough “up side” to make him proper material for a championship team.

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  4. mtalinm

    16 years ago

    4-for-4 last night…it’s the WILY MO-MENTUM!!!!!!

    Reply

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