Numbers suggest that Pennington has been better than Goins over the past few years, but that Goins is better this year. That may be a playing time issue, and defensive stats are notoriously iffy, but the stats suggest they're both good. Pennington, however, has a career .315 OBP, and Goins has a career .258 OPB.. They both strike out at roughly the same pace (Goins has cut his K% down from his career numbers, Pennington is about at his career norms), but Pennington walks a lot more (both are above their career averages this year, but Goins is up to 7.7% from 4.7(!)%, and Pennington is at 10.2%, up from 8.5%) Couple it with Pennington's ability to switch hit, and he's PROBABLY a more valuable player, though neither are guys you build teams around.