I wouldn't trade Lopez for Berkman.
Looking closer Pena is pretty much every bit as good, younger, cheaper, and will likely cost less to acquire and almost certainly far less to extend.
2007-2009:
Pena - 935 OPS
Berkman - 932 OPS
Naturally Berkman has the OBP advantage so his offense has been slightly more valuable but this doesn't get into the league switch (hitters on average lose around 5 runs), the park advantage Berkman has, or Pena's BABIP last year. Overall offensively you can consider them basically a push.
Defensively they are about the same - Pena rates higher by most metrics though. Pena GDPs about 4-5 times less per year (worth about 2 runs). I'm too lazy to look at their baserunning numbers right now..
For whatever reason Carlos Pena is really underrated. I think it may be due to the fact that hes hit for really low averages the past couple seasons and strikes a ton in general. He also didn't become an elite hitter until 2007.
Add new comment
1