his glove was ok. his bat was not. he was an average player who i NEVER thought would be in Houston. he was much, much better in RR this year, and i knew he was headed to MLB.
Last year I was alerted by our mutual friend to keep an eye on Maysonet. There were signs that he was starting to get it in terms of hitting. Much of what Pence is learning now (go the other way, turn on an inside pitch, look for your pitch, don't expand your zone) had to be what Edwin learned last year. Signs that he was starting to get it was raising some eyebrows last year.
That means that before that, no one believed he was anything better than a late inning defensive replacement player in the making. Had he shown more signs of being ready, it could have skewed the opinion about signing Matsui. BTW - the Astros had three second basemen in mind when they went free agent hunting: Luis Castillo, Kaz Matsui and Iwagawa. Castillo played around with the idea of seriously considering the Astros and other offers, but ultimately settled on going back to the Mets. After that, the shopping list was pretty much Matsui, who took their offer.
