Mike Napoli Ranked Worst Defensive Catcher in Baseball
"As for the bottom ranks... Josh Bard is at -7.3, the human swing machine, Miguel Olivo, is at -8.8, and the Living Stereotype, Mike Napoli, is at -9.7. No wonder the Angels think Mathis is a good defender."
about 2 years ago
figgifig
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I suspect
“devil_fingers” has some homeboy affiliation with Seattle.
This article was pretty well received
The guys at Fangraphs liked it a lot – I’m not saying it’s the definitive word on the subject, but it’s also received buy-in from some pretty smart folks as being a decent approximation of reality.
I believe it.
It seemed to get worse later in the season.
Do it for Nick '09
by BryanHarvey'sMoustache on Nov 22, 2009 1:26 PM PST reply actions
king conger will cometh.
What do you need a fancy suit for, Charlie, you ain't got no job to wear it to.
So Mike Scioscia's right?
Mathis IS the better catcher?
Seriously, according to this chart, Mathis ain’t that great either. But it sure makes Napoli look bad. Has anybody here discussed if Naps could be a DH only? ;)
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." - Woody Hayes
Yes. It has been discussed.
Many HHers think it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for Naps to DH full time, except for the fact that it would also mean Mendoza-line Mathis would also be in the line-up as a daily black hole. However, since we signed Abreu again, it looks like Naps will at least share the role if Vlad doesn’t re-sign.
If Conger becomes anything soon, I say we trade Mathis, and then let Naps DH. Someone here not too long ago was analyzing how Naps hits much better with more consistent AB’s. I personally would like to give him 500+ and see what he can do.
The Angels sure have changed a lot in some respects, in just a few short years. We used to always have dominant Molinas, I mean catchers, and a dominant back-end of the bullpen, but lacked a powerful offensive line-up. Now, we’ve got some bats with some pop, but weaker batteries. I guess the silver lining is that we’ve made the play-offs either way.
No matter what happens from here on, it has been a great season.
by Rally Manatee on Nov 22, 2009 2:45 PM PST up reply actions
Yes, the Napoli-for-DH campaign has many adherents.
Including me.
He DH’ed plenty in the minors, he was absolutely giddy about it when got to DH this season, and while 20 games isn’t a large sample size, I’ll take this line:
.355 avg .429 obp .597 slg 1.025 ops
Let Mathis and Wilson take the majority of innings behind the plate, make Napoli a third catcher, and let him be our perma-DH.
Yea, he's right, but he's wrong..
Normalize the ‘lost runs’ to about 6400 PA’s( essentially a full season) for each and Naps costs the team about 19 runs a year with his lack of defense…while Mathis costs the team about 5 runs.
Playing Naps full time over Mathis costs the team about 14 runs a year defensively….but gains them 3 times that much back with the stick. Baseball Reference puts Naps at 90 runs per 162 games, and Mathis at 45. So 45 more runs hitting less 14 runs behind the dish still leaves Naps at +31 runs….roughly 3 wins better per year…..
Now, I don’t call for a full time Napoli…but when will we stop genuflecting at Mensa Mike’s ‘brilliance’? Napoli is far from great, but Mathis is less than worthless..he kills the team offensively, and hurts the team defensively…and Mensa insists on playing him.
by statlr on Nov 22, 2009 7:29 PM PST up reply actions 3 recs
i think though
that Napoli might be more injury prone than we realize which would explain the extra helping of Mathis.
In 2011, a C / DH platooning of Conger and Napster could be like totally awesome!
move napoli to left field (brian downing did it) rivera to right
and abreu is the full time dh.
Downing was more athletic than Napoli
I don’t see Napoli having a zero-error season playing the whole year in LF.
"He's not a Rhodes Scholar to begin with''~Theo Epstein, talking about Papelbon
by George Kaplan on Nov 22, 2009 3:55 PM PST up reply actions
Are you insane?!
He wouldn’t last 10 minutes in LF
by SteelieD on Nov 22, 2009 6:37 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Sometimes, it looks as though he doesn't even close his mit.
He just lets the ball hit it and bounce off.
Rex Hudler For President
Yeah, well if he didn't move his glove up so much, he wouldn't confuse the umps and we'd win more games, too.
So I guess he is pretty bad.
/Sarcasm.
RIP Nick Adenhart.
"When the Babe tries to call his shot, I hope Nick puts one in his ear."
--RallyMonkey5
Yeah, that was a bunch of horse shit...
Nipples ain’t great with the glove – but one year of defensive stats that has him 15 runs worse than Mathis isn’t exactly the God’s honest truth.
RIP Nick...
Jim Scully
Jim Scully Home
On the subject of Conger's defense
According to his manager in the Arizona Fall League:
Exposito split time behind the plate for Mesa with the Angels’ Hank Conger, a 21-year-old who hit .295/.369/.424 in 123 games during the regular season with Double-A Arkansas. A hodgepodge of shoulder, back, hamstring and hand injuries have limited Conger’s time behind the plate in pro ball, but it’s Conger’s defense that struck Hyde the most.
“I was really impressed with Hank’s leadership skills and what he’s been doing behind the plate,” Hyde said. “He receives well, he blocks fantastic and he really takes control of the game. He’s a quarterback there and a leader on the field. I’ve been really impressed with his game management skills.”
by G Abbes on Nov 23, 2009 8:26 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Great to see this
The numbers all looked good, so it’s nice to see the reports catching up. The group-think on Hank has stuck with the line “he might not stick behind the plate” for far too long.
gorman thomas, dave kingman, barry freakin bonds...
on one leg played left field into his early forties, manny ramirez still plays left field. i’m not saying napoli would be a gold glove in left field but he’s at least as athletic as the guys i just mentioned. if you don’t think naps is as athletic or mobile think about who you would rather have run the bases, side salad or bonds, manny, kingman, thomas, rob deer, manny?
Talk to me about this when Napoli has Bonds' OPS
Right now, he would be minus runs in the OF, and would need to be a hitting machine to compensate. Unfortunately, as we have all seen, the guy goes into slumps. In that case, he’s be a net liability.
"He's not a Rhodes Scholar to begin with''~Theo Epstein, talking about Papelbon
by George Kaplan on Nov 24, 2009 6:41 PM PST up reply actions
right but if we like his bat (when he's hot) but his defense sucks balls
where do you put him? behind the dish, on the bench, dh (meaning abreu will have to play the field), or we give up on him and trade him away to another team who already knows his defensive shortcomings as a catcher. i think he’s more athletic than we give him credit for. would i ever promote the idea of putting the molina brothers in left field, HELL NO! soth in his playing days, NOT A CHANCE but naps might be able to pull it off.
i have used it but i don't know why it doesn't work properly
probably user error on my part but just i have used the function
Well...
Mike Napoli’s defensive skills were obviously no match for Tim McLelland’s playoff ineptitude. That’s probably what this rating stems from.
"Well make more fuckin' money. This is America. You don't make money, then you're a fuckin' douchebag." - Mr French "The Departed"
"You gotta have nuts." - Torii Hunter
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