Rookies Burroughs and Pena are under pressure early
Wed Mar 13, 2:18 PM ET

By Stan McNeal - The Sporting News


Imagine you've just been promoted and your boss is moving two employees to make a spot for you. Or imagine you've finally landed your dream job, but you will be replacing the most popular person in
the company.

Now imagine doing that in the major leagues. As a rookie.

For Sean Burroughs and Carlos Pena, no imagination is necessary.
That's what they'll be doing this season, Burroughs for the Padres
and Pena with the A's. To make room for Burroughs at third base, the
Padres are displacing their two All-Stars: Phil Nevin and Ryan
Klesko. Nevin, who thought he had a home at third, is moving to first
base, and Klesko is going from first to right field.

Neither was thrilled about the changes, so Burroughs' play will go a
long way in determining his two All-Star teammates' contentment.
Considering Klesko and Nevin accounted for 71 homers and 239 RBIs
last year, the Padres want them -- the team's 3-4 hitters -- to be
happy.

Pena is facing an even greater challenge. The A's have chosen him to
be the heir to Jason Giambi, their best player and clubhouse leader
last year and baseball's poster boy for a great guy. Factor in that
Giambi left to join the Yankees, the club that broke the A's hearts
the past two years, and there's even more pressure on Pena.

There are reasons, of course, why the Padres and A's are willing to
make such bold moves. For one, taking chances is what low-revenue
teams have to do. Besides that, Burroughs and Pena have a ton of
talent. Since going ninth (Burroughs) and 10th (Pena) in the 1998
draft, they continually have lived up to their billing as two of
baseball's top prospects.

Most important, perhaps, at least for this stage of their careers,
both have shown they can handle the heat expected to come their way.
They have done so in different ways -- Burroughs with the confidence
of someone who has been in the spotlight since he was an 11-year-old
Little League World Series hero, Pena with the determination of a
player who once sent out 100 letters to college coaches to find a
scholarship -- but with the same cool results.

The American League dream

When Pena slumped in winter ball this offseason, he heard about it.
The fans didn't care if he had come back to the Dominican Republic to
play for the hometown team of his youth, the Licey Tigers. "If I hit
a home run and the next at-bat I struck out, they're booing," Pena
says, smiling.

And struggle Pena did. He started strong before finishing with a .255
average in 42 games. But with a levelheaded assuredness not often
seen in a 23-year-old, Pena says he relished those tough times as
much as the championship Licey ended up winning.

"Dealing with (the booing) is a great teacher," he says. "It was like
they were asking me, 'What are you going to do now?' I did not leave.
I stuck it out. I grew. I got strong. I love that adversity. I love
it."

After moving from the Dominican Republic to the Boston area in his
early teens, Pena attracted little attention outside of the region.
One of his form letters caught the attention of the coach at Wright
State, who gave him a scholarship. Pena, though, did not adjust to
sitting on the bench and left after his freshman year. The next
summer, his play in the Cape Cod League put him on the fast track to
the first round.

As Pena talks, he is sitting in the A's spring training clubhouse in
Phoenix. He is smiling and seems completely at ease. Those rough
moments in Dominican winter ball seem like a long time ago, though
only two months have passed. Back then, Pena still was with the
Rangers, wondering if they were going to put him in right field or
left or send him back to the minors for a fifth season. Then they
traded him to the A's on Jan. 14, and it was "almost an instant
positive."

"I could see doors closing for me in Texas," he says, referring to
the signing of Juan Gonzalez.

For the A's, who sent the Rangers four top minor leaguers, the
logical way to replace the player they consider the best first
baseman in the game was to acquire the player they consider the best
first base prospect. Since the deal, the A's have downplayed
expectations for this year, and Pena has said all the right things
about replacing Giambi -- such as, there's no way he can replace
Giambi.

"I don't worry about what's around me," Pena says. "I want to be a
great baseball player. If I fight for my dreams, for my goals, and
achieve them, I will exceed the expectations everyone has for me."

Those are quite the expectations. The A's say Pena has the potential
to be even better than Giambi. They say he already is better
defensively. Pena, a line-drive hitter for now, probably will bat
seventh this season but he possesses the power to someday hit 40 home
runs. But Pena knows that he must put more emphasis on average than
the long ball.

"I love the home run," says Pena, who has hit 51 over his past two
minor league seasons. "On the highlights, all you see are home runs.
But to be a good hitter, you have to leave your pride in the dugout.
You have to take what is there. You cannot make a home run out of
every pitch."

He learned that lesson two years ago in his Class AA year. "I forgot
about the long ball and I hit 28 homers," Pena says. "When I'm trying
(to hit homers, the year before), I hit 18."

It is the kind of reasoning you would expect from someone a year away
from getting a degree in computer engineering. It is the kind of
approach that you would expect from someone who always is asking
questions of his teammates.

"I've been here only two weeks, and David Justice probably doesn't
even want to see me anymore, I've become such a questioner," Pena
says. "I'll never grow too old to ask questions. I hope someday, if I
am in the situation, I will remember how Alex Rodriguez, Rafael
Palmeiro and the others have treated me and I will be the same way to
the younger players."