Red Sox: Worst outfielders in franchise history
By Rick McNair
No Mo is a good thing
What we they thinking? You traded Bronson Arroyo for who? The Red Sox are traditionally mesmerized by right-hand power even if that power has a history of being as consistent as electrical service in the Sudan. Enter Wily Mo Pena.
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You would sit in right field and see Trot Nixon play and then you would see Wily Mo. How did Pena ever have a -7.9 UZR/150 for his career? That was astonishingly lower than I thought it would be. In Boston, it was a significantly lower, especially center field. The numbers are Prozac depressing, but observing it first hand was enough to ask for a ticket refund.
Pena in the field was – to put it kindly – incompetent, but then came the hitting. Pena would smoke towering blasts – unfortunately, they are as rare as a snow-free winter in Boston. Then comes a 30.3% K/9. I lost track of the number of teams waiting for Pena to surface as a legit 40+ home run guy. Last I heard Pena was in Japan and we still managed to maintain diplomatic relations.