Minnesota Twins Juan Pena Has Horrific Season
Even the best of prospects struggle at times during their minor league career. Yet, those difficulties pale in comparision to the season put together by Minnesota Twins farmhand Juan Pena.
Throughout the history of the game, there have been some truly awful seasons, both offensively and on the pitching side. Even established players can have a bad year or two, especially at the beginning of their careers. It is nothing out of the ordinary.
And then, there are those struggles that are truly impressive in nature. Struggles that make one wonder how, exactly, the player made it through the season. Such is the case with Minnesota Twins farmhand Juan Pena, who has toiled in the Dominican Summer League this year.
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One almost has to see Pena’s numbers to believe them. In his 15 outings, spanning 10.1 innings of work, Pena posted a 31.35 ERA and a 5.226 WHiP. He allowed only 15 hits, but walked an incredible 39 batters while hitting nine others with a pitch. Pena even fired 28 wild pitches in those 10.1 innings. To cap off those numbers, none of the walks were intentional. Numbers such as these almost seem like a misprint than reality.
While the real like Nuke LaLoosh was throwing the ball virtually everywhere except for where he catcher was, there were a few positives. Pena did not issue a home run during his time in the DSL, which is somewhat impressive considering that he allowed 42 runs. He also displayed extreme ground ball tendencies when batters did make contact, with a 2.33 groundout to fly ball out rate.
The Twins would certainly appear to have something that they could work with here, provided that Pena can get his stuff under control. His ability to generate grounders is impressive, and if he can harness his stuff, could be an asset should he progress through the minors. Perhaps a few mechanical adjustments can help Pena become the type of pitcher that the Twins hope he could be.
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Perhaps all is not lost with Juan Pena. If the Minnesota Twins can improve his command, and he continues to generate grounders with the frequency he has been, Pena could put this past season behind him and become a viable asset. After all, Pena couldn’t have a worse season, could he?