A's Pena fitting right in while trying to replace an MVP
March 12, 2002
By Scott Miller
SportsLine.com Senior Writer

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Surprisingly, the Oakland Athletics rolled out the
baseballs here this spring. They brought some bats. Manager Art Howe
even came up with some drills, and his club is going ahead with
Cactus League plans as scheduled.

And, pssst, wanna hear the oddest part? While Jason Giambi
familiarizes himself with ATM machines near the New York Yankees'
spring facility in Tampa, Fla., the Athletics even have this long,
lithe kid in camp who -- sacrilegious as it might sound -- just might
draw Bay Area residents and underdog-loving baseball fans throughout
the country closer than ever to this Kmart club plopped in the land
of Saks Fifth Avenue payrolls.

"There's no doubt in my mind I have what it takes to be a major
league baseball player, and a good one,'' says Carlos Pena, the
former hot prospect in Texas whom Oakland acquired in January as --
the Athletics hope and pray -- the solution to the gaping hole left
by Giambi. "I have that much confidence. But I don't take it for
granted.

"Baseball is very fragile. My career is very fragile. I enjoy it, and
what I want most is to be a first baseman here for a long time. But I
don't ever think anything is for sure. I'd be choking off my talent
if I put pressure on myself.

"Basically, I'm just grateful for the opportunity. You have to learn
and understand how blessed you are. When you don't, that's when you
begin taking it for granted. If you lay back, it might pass you by
and you don't even know it. And then later, you look back and
say, 'Wow, I had an opportunity and I let it go by!' I don't want
that to happen.''

It is mid-March, a new dawn has broken over the Athletics' camp and
if you expected these guys to be feeling sorry for themselves after
the winter defections of Giambi, center fielder Johnny Damon and
closer Jason Isringhausen -- all left via free agency -- then you'd
be in the wrong place.

This is what the Athletics do. They develop players, good players,
and when those players get older and become too expensive, the
Athletics usually have developed more players to replace them. Or
they've developed prospects to dangle in trades.

They cut and paste. They patch holes. And with a young nucleus of Tim
Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito leading the rotation, Gold Glover
Eric Chavez at third base, Miguel Tejada at short and Terrence Long
and Jermaine Dye in the outfield -- plus new additions, outfielder
David Justice and closer Billy Koch -- well, guess what?

Not to diminish everything Giambi accomplished over the past few
seasons, but maybe Oakland won't miss him as much as everybody
thinks.

"We lost the best first baseman in the American League,'' Oakland
general manager Billy Beane says. "We think we acquired the best
young first baseman coming into the league.

"In our situation, that's the preferred route.''

The A's project a $39 million player payroll for 2002. The Yankees,
who have knocked Oakland out of the playoffs in each of the past two
seasons, have a payroll that will zoom over $125 million -- and one
that this season includes Giambi.

In Oakland, there is absolutely no telling what will happen over the
next few weeks, the next few months or even for the rest of the
season. Privately, though, the Athletics expect Pena to win the first
base job -- his main competition is Scott Hatteberg, Olmedo Saenz,
Jeremy Giambi and Mario Valdez -- and take off from there. But they
also are determined not to push him.

"I don't know if he's the first baseman for now,'' Beane says. "I
know he's the first baseman for the future.

"The future could be April 1 (the A's open at home against Texas on
April 1) or April 15.''

Beane pauses after uttering what has become his stock answer this
spring, and smiles.

"That saves me from saying anything outlandish or stupid,'' he
says. "Obviously, we have high expectations for Carlos.

"He's been one of the premier players in the minor leagues the last
few years. It wasn't like we had to be the greatest scouts on that
one.''

Pena, 23, was Texas' first-round pick (10th overall) in the 1998
draft and has been climbing the charts with a bullet ever since.
Single-A ball in 1999, his first full professional summer. Double-A
ball in 2000. Triple-A in 2001, followed by a brief, 22-game callup
with the Rangers at season's end.

He has shown he can hit for power (28 homers, 105 RBI at Tulsa in
2000). He has shown he can hit for average (.299 at Tulsa in
2000, .288 at Oklahoma in 2001). And, perhaps most impressive for a
kid this young with a wide-open canvas in front of him, he has
exhibited the whip-sharp mind of someone who knows how to get on
base. He led Oklahoma by taking 80 walks last summer, which helped
him compile an impressive .408 on-base percentage. The year before,
he had a .414 on-base percentage for Tulsa.

And if there's one thing Beane is on the prowl for, above all else,
it is for guys who know how to get on base. While Oakland will miss
Giambi's power and production (38 homers and 120 RBI last summer; 43
and 137 in 2000), it was his on-base percentage that the A's think
really cranked up their offense. Giambi has led the American League
in OBP in each of the last two seasons -- .477 in 2001, .476 the year
before.

When Pena steps into the batter's box, he does so with a
determination not to swing at pitches he knows he can't handle.

"I'm going to hit a baseball I can drive,'' he says. "I'm going to
take solid swings.

"I want to walk or crush a double. One of the two. That's the
philosophy I take."

Although he played in only 22 games for the Rangers last season -- he
batted .258 with three homers, 12 RBI, four doubles and 10 walks in
62 at-bats -- his approach in the free-swinging Rangers' lineup was
noticeable, to say the least.

The other day, Howe was talking with Mike Venafro, the reliever who
pitched for Texas last summer, and the subject turned to Pena.

"When he came up to bat, everybody on the team was like, 'What's with
this guy? He's taking walks,'" Venafro told Howe.

"Texas is a pretty aggressive club,'' Howe says. "They're not used to
that.''

It wasn't until much, much later that Beane ever dreamed of acquiring
Pena. One of the layers that makes baseball so intriguing is the
Ripple Effect that comes from a major trade, or a major free-agent
signing, and there were a few of those over the winter that wound up
leading Pena to Oakland -- or, vice-versa.

The first, of course, came when Giambi signed with the Yankees. Beane
was casting about for alternatives at first, playing mix-and-match,
when he traded for Justice (from the New York Mets) and signed
Hatteberg as a free agent.

Then came the whopper. In Texas, new GM John Hart was granted
permission by owner Tom Hicks to spend more money than expected and,
in one of his final moves of the winter signed free-agent outfielder
Juan Gonzalez. With Rafael Palmeiro already ensconced at first base,
the Rangers had been talking about moving Pena, their prize prospect,
to the outfield.

Gonzalez's arrival quickly caused that plan to be trashed. Knowing
that, Beane was on the phone to Hart, oh, perhaps five minutes after
he learned of Gonzalez's signing.

The trade -- Pena and Venafro went to Oakland, and four prospects
were sent to Texas (pitcher Mario Ramos, catcher Gerald Laird,
infielder Jason Hart and outfielder Ryan Ludwick) -- was completed on
Jan. 14.

Pena got the news while playing winter ball in the Dominican
Republic, and he didn't exactly need to be an engineer -- although he
did have a 3.3 grade-point average as an engineering major at
Northeastern University in Boston -- to see the way things were
developing for him.

"I was very, very excited, because I saw an opportunity to make my
career blossom in the big leagues,'' Pena says. "The only thing I
thought was that I was going to miss my friends in Texas. But I was
looking forward to making new ones in Oakland.''

Besides, it wasn't exactly as if Pena had never before picked up
stakes and moved. Although he spent most of his youth in the
Dominican Republic, his family moved to the Boston area just before
Carlos' sophomore year of high school because his parents thought the
opportunities would be better for the kids -- Carlos, two younger
brothers and a younger sister.

He graduated from Haverhill (Mass.) High School in 1995, then
attended Wright State (Ohio) University in 1996 and Northeastern in
1997 and 1998 before signing with the Rangers.

While his father spent many hours with him and taught him the basics
of hitting, Pena, 6-feet-2, 210 pounds, especially credits a couple
of Texas minor-league coaches, Butch Wynegar and Donnie Reynolds,
with helping him fine-tune his swing and hone his approach. In
Oakland, Thad Bosley is the hitting coach and Pena says he already is
picking things up from him as well.

"You also do your own research,'' Pena says. "You have to be your own
coach. Great hitters are their own coaches.''

Yes, it's the dawn of a new day in Oakland and, fortunately for the
A's, their new first baseman has all the appearances of a morning
person. He says his new teammates are "awesome" and "unbelievable",
and that fitting in has been a snap.

"I'm having so much fun," Pena says. "I smile every time I come in
here. My favorite part of the day is the morning, because I get to be
here. This is a lot of fun to me.

"There's a sense of purpose when I'm here. The environment is
conducive to succeeding. It's relaxed and positive. There are no
egos. It's like a family, I really feel that."

Long and several other Oakland players can't believe how hard Pena
works -- and, for such a big-shot prospect, how natural he appears.
Howe, charged with shaping another contender this spring despite the
defections, is thrilled, too.

"I like the way he handles himself," Howe says. "He's a solid first
baseman. He's got pop in his bat and he's disciplined at the plate.
He runs well for a first baseman.

"There are a lot of good things."

It probably is too much to expect Pena to step in and start bopping
from Opening Day, but if you listen to the scouts and judge Pena by
his progress through the minors, it certainly doesn't appear to be
too much to expect him to continue Oakland's impressive line of first
basemen -- Mark McGwire begat Jason Giambi, who, it appears, will
beget Pena.

Pena is talented, poised -- and, perhaps most rare for a kid so
young -- both completely aware of and completely at ease with the
opportunity that's out there for the taking. Howe told him early in
camp not to worry about replacing Giambi, that the A's acquired other
people -- such as Justice -- who will be expected to contribute
toward replacing Giambi's production.

Howe is planning to hit Pena down in the lineup to start -- if, ahem,
the kid winds up winning the job this spring -- and trying to keep
the pressure at a minimum.

Pena appears ready to handle the rest.

"You know what?" he says, when the subject of replacing Giambi at
first arises. "The only thing on my mind ... I have goals and dreams
that I want to make come true. I'm focused only on that. Everything
else is a distraction to me, and I try to ignore it.

"If I focus on what I'm supposed to focus on, nothing else will
bother me. And that's all I think about.''