Most of you probably remember Tony Peña, the pretty good veteran catcher who played for such teams as the Red Sox and Indians.
Some of you may remember his son Tony Jr., who came up in the Braves farm system, played a few years there, and then ended up on the Royals. Tony was a weak hitting-slick fielding shortstop whose 15 minutes of fame seemed to come when he threw a 1-2-3 inning in a meaningless game. Peña continued to not hit after that, and most of you probably forgot about him.
Well I didn't. Dude actually did make the conversion to pitcher, and is now pitching at AA in the Giants organization. The funny thing? He's actually been quite successful this year...just take a look at these stats:
9 games, 13 IP, 0.69 ERA, 0.69 WHIP, 3:1 K:BB, 1 Win, 3 Saves
Not too shabby right? He's got a little bit of stamina (several multiple inning appearances), and apparently he has pretty good composure if he's closing out some games. How cool would it be if Peña Jr. really pulled off the anti-Ankiel? Especially since, by the looks of things, he might be able to do it BETTER! Only time will tell!
I always remember Tony Sr. for his crazy catching stance with his leg kicked out. When I was in little league, he did a clinic (along with a few other Pirates) for our league.
ReplyDeleteTony Sr. was the subject of a recent play at the plate post on my blog. I didn't know about Tony Jr.
ReplyDelete