Pence's Arrival Is All-Right With Phillies
The all-star outfielder gives the Phillies a much-needed right-handed bat.
Pence's Arrival Is All-Right With Phillies
The first thing everybody on the Phillies talked about when discussing Hunter Pence is his grit.
Pence should quickly become a fan favorite. The Philadelphia sports fan loves a player who gets his uniform dirty. And it helps when he can also play at an all-star clip.
Despite all the glowing reports from Charlie Manuel, Ruben Amaro Jr. and the players about Pence’s hard-nosed play, lost in all this is that he gives the Phillies a much needed right-handed bat.
The Phillies have been too left-handed for some people and it wasn’t too bad when everybody was hitting consistently.
Yet the Phillies are vulnerable to left-handed pitching, which is not a revelation. They entered the weekend batting .237 against lefties as opposed to .254 vs. right-handers.
This tells one thing
They aren’t killing the ball against either lefties or right-handers.
Still, Pence gives the Phillies more balance. There are holes in his game, such as the fact that he has struck out 86 times in 398 at bats, but he still comes to the Phillies with a .356 on base percentage. The Phillies on base percentage entering the weekend was .321.
Pence is a major defensive upgrade and as Amaro said, the Phillies control his rights through the 2013 season.
He may have his flaws, but Pence is an all-star who is among the top fielding outfielders in the game. And the Phillies didn’t have to give up anybody from their roster to acquire him.
Even if Jonathan Singleton emerges as an all-star and Jarred Cosart becomes a Cy Young candidate, this trade was a no-brainer.
The Phillies have acquired a top-flight player. And better yet from their perspective, a right-handed one at that.
It won't take long for fans to get excited when they see the style of play that Pence will bring...100% effort personified. His only downfall is he's a Fort Worth kid, so he's probably a stinkin Cowboys fan.— bearsfriend- I think the RH bat thing is more important for late-game situations than it is in general. It allows Charlie to balance the line-up a little more so that it makes it harder for opposing teams to throw those situational lefties in there against us.— JimG
- Protecting Howard. Critical.— DennisM
- This move will enable Howard to go on one of his late season hot streaks... good times.— Mo Biggsley
- I really want to see how this affects Howard, who's coming off the worst July in his career. It should help. Utley's definitely heating up against any pitcher not named Lincecum. It's time for The Big Piece to start firing up the late season boiler.
— s - The kid dove for a ball in-between innings warming up as a rookie. He plays like a madman we will love him here.— MOJR
- It would have been better for the organization to trade Halladay over Cosart for Pence I guess David Herndon will have to pick up some more of the slack.— lonewolf 10
- Brilliant! Have you lost your mind??!!?? IF Cosart actually makes it to the majors, let's see how many Cy Youngs he wins and how many no-hitters and PERFECT GAMES he throws. Ridiculous comment... — PhillyGuy54
- It's just part of lonewolf's schtick...like the doodoofresh character. Ignore him like everybody else.
Following the Phils has been really fun so far, and it looks like it's going to get even better.— akh - Hopefully this will psyche up Howard— shawnmac
- heard the guy on a sports radio interview in miami... awesome personality and not your everyday typical jock comments... phils added a smart guy.— Theo1980
- Like the Pence deal a lot, still could use another arm in the Pen.— jss31
- Now Brown can go down, and learn how to play baseball. To keep him up is to waste any hidden talent he may have.— phineas
- If we win it all, Wade deserves a ring.— Ed3
- Hunter Pence is a Chase Utley type player...he plays real hard every minute, plus he hit 25 home runs for the last 3 seasons, and is hitting .307 now.
Plus he will hit 30 home runs and 100 rbi's in this lineup and small ballpark for many years to come.
Great job Amaro for getting the All-Star Pence!
— frank105 - Tough to give up young potential but as Philly fans we know that a championship is better than having a good team around with hope for one (I.e. Eagles). The NOW part of this trade is what it is all about. Good for Amaro and the Phillies owners who are the same group for decades but they must have had a mid life crisis a few years ago and decided that winning is more fun than pinching pennies!— psubrian
- The real question here is...IS HUNTER PENCE BETTER THAN JASON WERTH? well for starters hes 4 years younger than werth. well pences best year was last year he hit .282 25 hr 91 RBI as opposed to werths best year was in 2009 (might i add hes older then pence and on the decline) he hit 36HRS 99RBI .268 avg now if you consider the sandbox pence will play in now..i bet he hits 15 hrs btw now and the end of the year for us...but basically u have better defensive version of werth and u get very similar if not better power numbers than werth plus hell also hit for AVG. plussss we own his rights for 2 yrs after this year...i think were much better off with HUNTER PENCE than JAYSON WERTH— Cliff Martin
- Realistically speaking, Citizens Bank Park shouldn't help Pence that much. Remember, he's been playing in Houston with that short left field porch. So, that aspect of it is probably a wash. Good move by the Phillies though...a definite upgrade.— SteveS11
- Pence is certainly better than Jayson Werth THIS year.— SteveS11
- Three cheers for our GM who seems to make all the right moves. Rueben, you ARE the Man !!!— soprano50
- Domonic Brown celebrated the addition of Pence by throwing a ball into the Hall of Fame section— stoky
- Great move! Living in Texas I have seen him play a good bit. Totally reminds me of utley in a sense. I also think a guy like Pence will really kick up the power and production #s in this lineup and Citizens Bank Park. Ruben did a great job when you think about it, we got pence for half the year, let Werth go and signed Lee. Salary will be ok with Raul off the books next year. Exciting times— philsfan in the atx
- Phils hot on a HR threat off the bench now?— MFPhils
- If the Phils don't have the necessary call-ups from Reading or Lehigh Valley or Lakewood, we can always fill a roster need from our other minor league affiliate - the Houston Astros! (see Brad Lidge & Roy Oswalt & now Hunter Pence).
The Phils couldn't have picked up a better addition than Hunter Pence.
He's a 2 time All-Star and has that Pete Rose/Chase Utley type of grit. Plus, Phils lineup wasn't exactly littered with .300 hitters before Pence's arrival.
Also, defensively, Pence won't have the adventures in the outfield that we see on a daily basis from Dom Brown
Great job, Ruben!!
Next roster change is to get rid of that stiff Drew Carpenter and his 7.70 ERA. Yikes, where do we find these stiffs!!!!!!!!!!!
— johnpaulcpa - The Phils do have guys in Lehigh Valley and Reading that could help them. Unfortunately they do not have major league experience and are not power hitters which would require that Manuel might have to learn how to manage rather than sit on his duff and watch and admire home runs?— cedara
- Pence with the high stocking. love it— righty
- How is Pence being a right-handed bat "lost" in all of this? Because he's a great guy? Please. The RH bat has been and is front and center. If he were a great guy that batted left, no one would be happy with the move. I guess they turned the lights off in the Editor's office. Anyway, Pence is 0-4 tonight so far. Someone will tell us soon enough that this trade is a colossal failure...
For what its worth, they should still move Worley and Brown for Kemp. He's controllable through 2012 and would really put the Phils over the top. A lineup of Rollins, Utley, Kemp, Howard, Pence, Victorino, Polly and Ruiz would be nighmarish.
BUT, MORE IMPORTANTLY, it would let Victorino play out his contract next year, and Kemp to move back to center and let a young guy like Mayberry move to left in 2013 and off-set the dough they'll be spending on the pitching.— guru26 - what a moronic dumb stupid cliche: phila. fans love a player who gets his uniform dirty..so what, all of the players on phillies get their uniforms dirty and fans don't love" all of them..try watching a game and you will see dirt on players uniforms a lot. howard was warming up before pence arrived..he usually hits as the weather gets hotter.— only 9
