In five years in the Mets system, he has a .991 FLD% in 2118 total chances, a tic better than Pena. I know pitchers love throwing to the guy for his receiver and blocking skills. But we are truly nitpicking here as Pena is also an outstanding receiver, and both players call their own games, and take great pride in their ability to work with a pitching staff.

The main difference defensively between the two is throwing out base-runners. Gronauer is pretty much in the average range with a lifetime 33% CS%. But his arm is not as good as Pena’s these days.

In 2010, when Pena was 20, he broke his foot and missed the whole year. Coming back in 2011, he had only a 25% CS%. But this year he has made tremendous strides in that department with a 48% CS%, and a 31/29 SB/CS. Gronauer has never matched those kind of numbers in his career.

But the biggest problem for Gronauer is that at age 25, he is going backwards in the system. While Pena tries to push the envelope at AA, Gronauer has had two wasted seasons in a row.

After a career year with the bat in 2010, he had an injury marred 2011 and rather than get back on track this year, he has moved further backwards, being demoted to St. Lucie where he is hitting just .200 with one home run and six RBI in 30 at-bats.

In Pena’s six year minor league career, he has thrown out an average of 30% of base stealers.

In 2012 at St. Lucie he went 17/14 SB/CS for a 45% CS%

In 2012 at Binghamton he has gone 14/15 SB/CS for a 52% CS%

For his career he has a .986 FLD%