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Transaction Oracle— A Timely Look at Transactions as They Happen
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Angels - Demoted Mathis
Los Angeles Angels - Optioned C Jeff Mathis to Salt Lake; recalled C Mike Napoli.
The way the Angels has handled Jeff Mathis has been very disappointing. The Angels couldn’t even give Jeff Mathis more than two weeks to show his stuff, allowing him all of 44 plate appearances to prove himself. If they were concerned about Jeff Mathis’ confidence, I would think a better strategy would be to actually give him a chance to play instead of half-heartedly giving him a couple of starts a week because Jose Molina is so damn awesome. Double standards and ageism and demotions aren’t confidence boosters in any way I’ve learned. Sure, if they keep him down for more than 30 days or so, they’ll save a year of service time, but if they won’t give him a real shot, who cares? Mike Napoli, like Jose Molina, is an inferior player to Jeff Mathis every day in the past, present, and future.
Dan Szymborski
Posted: May 04, 2006 at 03:31 PM | 14 comment(s)
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1. Los Angeles Waterloo of Black Hawk Posted: May 04, 2006 at 05:28 PM (#2003828)Of course, Napoli is less ready than Mathis.
Given that Mathis was on the team, his playing time made sense. He was being eased into the lineup, and in each of the last two minor league seasons has slumped as the season progressed, hinting (to me, anyway) that he has been tiring and should be rested more earlier in the season.
By this, I mean it's obvious that he'll hit a home run in his first at-bat.
Kotchman has no power, Dallas Mac can't hit, now Mathis?
maybe they all have mono.
Woohoo!!!!! I've been talking this guy (Napoli) up since he was in high school - I feel slight vindication!
Napoli's defense improved a lot in the last year and a half - he'd been considered to have a solid arm but lousy footwork (bad enough that he might have to move to first one day - there were injury concerns with him behind the plate as well) - he's since tightened up that aspect of his game (leading to a good kill rate in the Texas League) and is reportedly a solid pitch caller. His swing has holes in it (he'll probably never hit for a great average), but he tries to draw walks (and does!) and has good power. It is far from out of the realm of possibility that Napoli will become an above average major league catcher one day.
What's the treatment for that?
The low end for Napoli is something like being the next Mike Rivera. If you say "who?", well, that's my point.
I don't know about long term, but seeing him homer in his first AB brightened my day. Good luck, Mike, on sticking in the bigs.
Maybe Mark Parent?
http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/parenma01.shtml
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