With Astros first baseman Brett Wallace off to a hot early start, and a score of people looking for some small speck of positivity in the Houston organization, the two sides have coalesced nicely into "Brett Wallace, the bright spot." Ken Rosenthal warns not to bet against Wallace, and then compares him to Boston Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia. Uhm. Well, okay.
↵↵↵Both, though, endured criticism from scouts, even ridicule, at the outsets of their careers. And Wallace, 24, seems primed to defy his critics, just as Pedroia did.
↵Wallace, traded three times in just over 12 months, finally is settling into one organization, and his level of comfort shows. He is fifth in the NL in batting at .339 and eighth with a .402 on-base percentage.
↵Yes, he has a thick lower half. Yes, he has hit only four home runs in 253 career at-bats. But at a time when numerous clubs are desperate for offense, the man can hit.
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So what you're saying is that he has the offensive skillset of Pedroia, only without the speed, defensive ability, or the ability to play an important position on the diamond. Let me put that into my player comparison calculator real fast.
↵I think I found out who Brett Wallace is: he's our new Lyle Overbay. A perfectly cromulent first baseman, but likely not much of a power threat and someone who is going to be as valuable as his batting average lets him be.
↵That's not a bad thing. He's no Pedroia, but things could have been much worse after his uninspiring debut last season.
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