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April 18, 2006

Is Carlos Pena A "Slick Fielder"?

This morning, I read what I think is the 147th reference (over the last five days) about how (recent Yankees pick-up) Carlos Pena is a "slick fielder" and how he will help the team with his glove.

Will he?

Let's look at his last two full seasons in the majors as a first baseman. According to The Fielding Bible, he's a middle of the pack guy in those two seasons - at best.

In 2004, while not in the class of Todd Helton or Darin Erstad, Pena was fine - he placed within the range of Sean Casey, John Olerud, Nick Johnson, and Tino Martinez. That's OK.

But, in 2003, Pena ranked about the same as Jason Giambi, Shea Hillenbrand and Carlos Delgado. That's not OK.

So, which is it? It's not clear. Maybe we should look at his data from 2005, albeit based on a partial year in the bigs, as a tie-breaker?

In the Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2006, they use 9*(PO+A)/Innings in the Field to determine fielding Range Factor (RF).

In 2005, Carlos Pena's RF was 9.50. In 2005, Jason Giambi's RF was 9.64. So, where's the improvement? (For a further point of comparison, last year, at 1B, Julio Franco had a RF of 10.35, Kevin Millar was 9.99, Lance Berkman was 10.02, Mike Sweeney was 10.09 and Tino Martinez was 9.88.)

Granted, RF is not a perfect stat. But, it's probably safe to say that, for a 1B, anything under 10 says you're OK, at best, and not awesome.

In summary, it looks like Pena is not a butcher with the glove - but he's not the next coming of Don Mattingly either. So, why do so many say he's a "slick fielder"?

The gushing about Pena's fielding goes back to when he was a "prospect." For example, in the STATS Inc. 2002 Minor League Scouting Notebook, John Sickels wrote about Carlos:

"His defense at first base also is excellent.....he gets to balls that other first baseman can only wink at."

This was a carry over from the 2001 Notebook where Sickels wrote (about Pena):

"Pena made 22 errors, but, he gets to balls other first basemen can only flail at. With more experience, he'll be terrific with the glove."

You know, this is where it often starts - a rep, that is. A guy gets a label in the minors and carries it for the rest of his career.

All this tells me that the jury is still out on whether or not Carlos Pena is a "slick fielder." We'll have to wait and see for ourselves in New York. But, for the time being, can people stop calling him a "slick fielder" every time they mention his name? The performance results that I can find say he's not bad with the mitt - but, there's nothing to scream that he's "slick."

Posted by Steve Lombardi at April 18, 2006 08:43 AM

Comments

Posted by: Steve Lombardi at April 18, 2006 11:29 PM