[GBrushTWood]

Quote: Originally Posted by Misfit

Off the top of my head, I'd say Matt Stairs and Johnny Gomes are worse. Its not really important though, since Pena is bad out there no matter if someone is worse than him. If he can learn to better judge balls of the bat and eliminate the mental mistakes, he can be passable in the field (though I'd rather have him in left field vs right but there's no way Manny could play right field at Fenway). The Lee suggestion is interesting, but creates a lot of questions. If they were to get someone like Carlos Lee, where does Pena go? He can judge balls of the bat much better in center than the corners, but he doesn't have great range in centerfield and would be a downgrade from Crisp. Ortiz has the DH on lockdown and Manny is left for a few more years. Someone would need to get dealt or Ortiz would have to play first, which would then mean Lowell is gone and Youk is at third. I feel like I'm playing a Franchise mode in a baseball sim.

To address deeman first, I don't think Pena is an option at 1B, because apparently they tried him there on his rehab assignment in AAA this year. The only result I heard from that experiment was: "The experiment ended quickly". I assume this meant Wily was atrocious at 1B as well.

This is the problem of having 3 DH's on the team, and yes, I realize there are worse problems to have than seeing Ortiz, Ramirez, and Pena in your everyday lineup. The focus here is defense.

To address Misfits post, I don't think you can enter 2007 with your defense in right field resting on learning how "read balls off the bat better" and making less mental errors. Maybe if they have the guy practice every day of the off season, but isn't reading balls off the bat more of an instinct type of thing? Why has Pena not learned to read balls better off the bat so far in 2006? I just don't think you can expect Pena to improve that much defensively as he's been in the big leagues for what, 4-5 years now? To me, what you see now is what you are going to get.

I'm probably sounding harsh on Pena here, but I am strongly opposed to seeing him as the starting right fielder in 2007. I really think it will hurt the team. Obviously, you can not move around Ramirez and Ortiz so I say they decline to offer Nixon arbitration (obviously), trade Wily Mo, and sign Carlos Lee! How crappy can Lee be in RF?