Adding Up the Worst Trade Ever: 5 Fewer Wins for $8.65 Million More in 2011

Vernon Wells was a force this year, and your stats and numbers mean nothing to my GUT INSTINCT.

Terrible article.

Also, shouldn’t Mathis WAR be even worse? Whomever is tabulating these WAR stats are being awful nice to Jeffy. -0.3 WAR should be more like -30 WAR

Where do we get his replacement? There is no one of his caliber that is available. I’ll be satisfied if the team gives Conger a shot next year by playing him full time. Let’s see what he can do with regular playing time.

the money is only marginally relevant: 1) Ticket prices are still among the cheapest in baseball, 2) Arte has always been consistent that he won’t let money stand in the way of an opportunity. If everything else lines up he’ll pay what it takes.

Unless I missed it, Kendrys Morales is not mentioned in this article, neither are Trumbo, Conger, Wilson, or Abreu.

How about we talk about the difference in wins due to Morales absence? Or how about we talk about the positions that people still think Napoli would be playing for the Halos?

Morales was projected to return as well when that deal was made, and Trumbo was ready to come and fill in if Morales needed days off. And look what Trumbo ended up bringing.

Scratch 1B.

Conger and Wilson were ready to move forward, and Napoli didn’t work hard enough to take the catcher’s job in the first place.

For the most part, scratch C.

Wells was inserted into LF to stabilize the position, especially at defense, in place of Rivera, which also moved Abreu to full time DH. Had Morales played, Trumbo would be filling in at 1B and would also be finding AB’s at DH as well.

Scratch DH.

It’s a good article with a lot of information, but it still doesn’t tell me exactly what Napoli would be doing for this team if he had not received the big kick in the ass he deserved when he was traded.

I like Napoli. I met him at a bar. He’s a cool guy. But there were issues between he and Scioscia, and he wasn’t working hard enough behind the plate, and he got the boot.

That’s why Napoli rocked this year. He finally stepped up.

Btw, Reagins could’ve gone out and got some offensive depth to replace any voids left by that trade. He could have easily acquired a couple of good bench players, especially one who could make production look better out of the corner OF positions before Trout was to be called up.

I think people are dwelling on this Napoli issue way too much, and for the wrong reasons.

I think it’s time to move on, especially now that our GM is finally gone!

you’re on the short list of GM candidates, right Matt?

Claiming he didnt work hard enough to compete with conger and wilson is ludicrous. From what i have read, Napoli ranks among the top of the league which is where his so called “need-for-improvement” was needed. His framing of pitches ranked well ahead of Mathis and the halo battery crew. As of now, Wilson hasnt stepped up and is just barely an improvement of Mathis. Conger is deserving of a shot but I would have gladly traded him were Napoli still with us.

Napoli would have been a dangerous weapon in the lineup, one that would have surely won us the Wild Card if not the West.
 From no where I read stated that Napoli changed workout regiments or “stepped it up” He has always been the beast he was this year. The reason his cERA is improved over previous years is because of who he is catching, not him. As most of us recall he caught Pineiro, Kazmir, and Santana. Not to bash on Pinata or Santana, I love to watch them, but they arent of the caliber that Haren and Weaver are (at least not last year, Santana is making his case stronger every outing). Nobody could expect a decent CERA out of that. His improvement is much more based on his utilization instead of his personal stepping up.

You cant say he didnt work hard either. He went into a position he had never played before or had little experience in 2010 and emerged with a new position under his belt. He improved on his defense and WORKED so hard that he supplied acceptable defense, that I would even compare to our full time first baseman, Trumbo.

People are right to dwell on the trading of Napoli, it was the worst trade in recent history. Losing a player the caliber of Napoli is crushing to an organization and crushing to the fanbase. Most of us can easily agree Napoli was one of if not the best catchers in the game currently. Better than Avila, Yadier, Mauer.

Alas, we should indeed rejoice on the firing of Reagins and should pray for the return of Napoli next off-season. He is a true game changer, definitely on e of the best Halos of recent times.

Ryan Krol

It is complete conjecture to state that Trout would have displaced Rivera in LF. And this conjecture is in defiance of Scioscia’s past deference to his established position players.

While it may make absolute sense to us fans, and somewhat substantiated in hindsight given what Trout was able to reveal as promise at the MLB level, I don’t see Sosh suddenly changing his mind on the value of that level of production he had been getting out of Rivera in LF and handing that role over to what would still be a 19 year old.

He was aquired by the Angels for the ‘78 season, but when he played poorly the first month (batted something like .150 for the month of April) he tried to give back that month’s salary.

Vernon, are you reading this?

First off, Ryan Krol, thank you so much. We have been missing the “drunk retarded village idiot” persona around here for quite some time. I relish absolutely destroying your baseball arguments, logic, self esteem, and views on life in general in the near future.

Secondly, Napoli was traded because he was viewed as a potentially expensive backup to Mathis. Napoli was seen as a backup because Sosh is unable to develop the catching position with any sort of effectiveness, makes poor emotion based decisions when dealing with catchers, and effectively has proven that will not change.

The worst trade is possibly the history of baseball was because we have an idiot, backwards thinking GM/manager. Napoli should have never been viewed as a backup in the first place and seen as expendable.