When it comes to comparisons, baseball is king. Front office personnel as well as managers and coaches love to compare a rising prospect to a household name.
Rarely do those comparisons come to fruition. But, sometimes, when talking about one specific aspect of a young player's game a comparison can be spot on.
In that regard, when it comes to the prodigious power Diamondbacks prospect Peter O'Brien possesses, the names Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza and Wily Mo Pena came up in a KRNV report out of Reno.
"There's no explanation for the sound, I can't really tell you what it is," Triple-A Reno manager Phil Nevin told the TV station. "It's a different one. It almost sounds like it's a tennis ball coming off the bat.
"Mark McGwire was one and Mike Piazza is another one. Those are sounds you don't forget when you're playing against somebody on the field and when you hear those things happen when you're standing around the cage as a coach -- it catches your eye."
Reno Aces radio broadcaster Ryan Radtke offered his own comparison.
"It's almost like a gunshot," Radtke said. "You hear balls off the bat in batting practice and it's just the sound of the ball coming off the bat. When it comes off his bat you turn to look because there's that different sound. Was that a baseball? Or was that something else? It's just amazing.
"He's the only guy that I have ever compared to Wily Mo Pena. If you watch the balls that Peter O'Brien hit he has ridiculous power. It's really a lot of fun to watch."
Pena hit 21 home runs in 63 games with Reno in 2011.
