Dollar a day: Cliff Pennington

image
A guy who’ll love Chase Field after O.co

Seven hypotheticals

Cliff Pennington may hit .220.
-Cliff Pennington may lose his job as Arizona’s shortstop to young Didi Gregorius within a month.
-Cliff Pennington may injure his left shoulder in a freak accident.
-Cliff Pennington may steal 20 bases.
-Cliff Pennington may field the ball at a superb level again this year.
-Cliff Pennington may even reach double-digit home runs in wet, humid Chase Field.
-Cliff Pennington may be the 29th most valuable shortstop in 2013.

Seven expansions upon seven above hypotheticals

-Cliff Pennington is a lifetime .249 hitter: one who faced some miserable luck last year while hitting under .220, but also one who stopped making the considerable contact he’d been used to.
-Cliff Pennington is not the shortstop of the Diamondbacks’ future, the title of which belongs to a young Didi Gregorius (6-foot-1/185), a minor-league level hitter at current state with a Gold Glove-worthy leather to flash; young Didi, for now, is bothered by an elbow injury, which could linger.
-Cliff Pennington probably won’t injure his left shoulder in a freak accident, and his generally solid health actually might tip the job competition in his favor.
-Cliff Pennington was on a 20-steal pace last year but played only 125 games, after averaging roughly 152 the previous two seasons.
-Cliff Pennington can flirt with league-average production with the stick—and would certainly appear to be a better hitter than Gregorius—but is generally regarded as a slick fielder; if he can have another plus year on the dirt, he may stick around enough to tally some golden counting stats.
-Cliff Pennington’s aforementioned golden potential previously has been limited to his speed, and speed alone. With a move to Chase Field, he has the chance to tap into his modest power (6.67 homers per year over his last three years) and push his longball total to double digits.
-Cliff Pennington is being drafted as the 29th shortstop, per Mock Draft Central, but with any semblance of playing time, he’ll best that slot; so if you have a patchy middle infield, take a flier on Pennington with the last pick of your draft.


Comments are closed.