I won't be surprised either way, and I don't pretend to know. I would still love him. I was right there with you, never expecting anything like this. I just think there's a time for us to suck up our pride and acknowledge that we were unqualifiedly dead wrong, and the radio yahoos were unqualifiedly dead right.
i do not think that at all. i do not believe he was ready for the big leagues when he came up. he shows us every now and then that he still is not in certain aspects of his game. what he can do is swing the bat, and Garner did a masterful job of getting him in and out of the lineup and keeping him in a low pressure situation until he started getting his feet under him. opposing pitchers, inexplicably, have tried to pitch him in rather than away, which helps him hit.
when Cedeno came up at 19, he was awful at the plate. it took him awhile to adjust, and then he was fine. we see Pence adjust every day, and his BA blurs your vision and makes you overlook his obvious deficiencies as a player. the radio yahoos do not get any deeper into analysis than the sound of their own voices. i doubt any of them could have picked him out of a lineup or had ever seen him play.
i have no pride about this. i have been wrong many times about many things, baseball included. i do not think Pence was ready when he came up, but his hot streak--which is WAY better than he was doing in AAA--made everyone think immediately of Roy Hobbs. Hunter Pence was just another player in RR and had only 20+ games to settle in at AAA. he had shown no one he was ready for a promotion. he benefitted from panic in the owner's box and has been truly outstanding. good for him. i hope he hits .600. he seems to be a great, hard-working kid who listens and wants to learn. that is refreshing in this day of "look at me. i know it all."
i wonder what Pence thinks about his readiness after 20 AAA games? i know what Albers thought. he told us all. i know what the Express thought. i know what you think.
