Worth the Wait

The Angels haven’t had a history of iconic players who they could call their very own.  There isn’t a guy out there, whose storied career and great accomplishments are tied solely to the Angels.

Of the players whose numbers have been retired by the Angels - Rod Carew is better known as a Twin and Nolan Ryan, an Astro and a Ranger.  There are even members of the team’s own Hall of Fame who are better known for being a part of other franchises. 

Until Vladimir Guerrero was inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame, they didn’t have anyone representing the team in Cooperstown and Vlad put up most of his Hall of Famer numbers in Montreal.

Tim Salmon is the closest thing the Angels have to an iconic figure who played his entire career in Anaheim and although he is very much beloved by the Anaheim faithful, he’s not a Hall of Famer or an all-time baseball great by any means.  Salmon never even made an all-star game, unfortunately.

That all changed with the news that Mike Trout will be Angel for his entire career.  For the first time in the franchise’s 58 year history – they have a player who can be mentioned in the same breath as Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson and other greats, who they can also call their very own.

It’s been a long time coming and quite frankly, it’s been worth the wait.

If you’re going to wait 50+ years to find such a player – might as well have that player the greatest player in the history of baseball.  Yes, I said greatest ever.  If you want to debate that fine – but he’s at least in that very limited conversation.

The Trout extension is quite possibly, the most significant event in the history of the franchise (outside of the 2002 World Series). 

Just up the road – the Dodgers can claim ownership of names like Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Duke Snider.  Down south – the Padres can boast about Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman. 

As great as those names are – Trout’s overall statistical career is going to better than all of them.

Name a team and who comes to mind?  Cardinals – Stan Musial and Bob Gibson.  Cubs – Ernie Banks.  Reds – Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan.  Pirates – Roberto Clemente.  And now whenever anyone mentions the Angels – the one name that will always be associated with the franchise is Mike Trout.

It’s a beautiful thing.

What’s even more beautiful about all of this is that Mike Trout is even a better human being than he is a baseball player.  He does amazing things out of the public eye and away from the spotlight.  I’m quite certain we don’t even have anywhere near an idea of just how much he does for others.

I can’t think of another baseball player I would rather have my favorite team be associated with.

He may be the most humble superstar on the face of the planet.  His humbleness is even greater than his talent.  He doesn’t seek the spotlight.  He doesn’t seek accolades. He lets his play do all of his talking and his talent screams at us every time he steps on a baseball field. 

All he wants to do is play baseball.  I am beyond thankful – that he’ll be doing just that in Anaheim for the next 12 years.

Nap-oh-please make it stop

I can’t take it. It’s hard to watch and even harder to reconcile in my head. How in the world did Mike Napoli end up in Texas? Yeah, I know “how” – I should ask “Why?” Okay, I know the “why” as well; I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around it all.

Every time I hear an announcer or an analyst talk about what a fantastic hitter Napoli is with two strikes or how he doesn’t chase the high fast ball anymore or how good he’s been behind the plate, etc., etc., my head wants to explode.

If you’re an Angels fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s utterly painful to watch. It’s like being a little kid standing in your front yard while all the neighbor kids pile into a mini-van to head of to Disneyland and your left behind sad and jealous because you could have gone too, but your parents didn’t pay attention when plans were being made (not that this actually happened to me).

How did this happen? Crap. I’m doing it again. I’m asking questions that I know the answers to. I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I don’t understand it and I doubt that I ever will.

This creates a problem for me. You see, I like Mike Scioscia. Heck, I think he’s the best thing to ever happen to the Angels. Yeah, that’s right – EVER. It’s just that I can’t reconcile my appreciation for Scioscia with the fact that he let Mike Napoli go.

Now I know that no one is perfect – especially baseball managers and general managers. They all make mistakes and every move has some risk involved; but never-the-less, I can’t let this one go.

I mean if the Angels had simply decided it was time for Hank Conger; maybe, just maybe I’d understand. I mean I understood the thought process behind letting Troy Glaus go because Dallas McPherson appeared to be ready. And even though that didn’t work out, I could justify it in my head.

But… Napoli leaving to make room for Jeff Mathis? The same Mathis who could be non-tendered any day now?

If I could, I would kidnap Scioscia and lock him in a room; inject him with some truth serum and start asking questions.

Was it personal Mike? Was it really about his defense? Does his family make better Italian food than yours? Does he buy his appliances at Best Buy instead of Howard's? What was it really? I've got to know.

Face it; the complete turn-around of Napoli has been astonishing. He could always hit homeruns, but now he’s turned into Johnny Bench. He’s not the same guy he was in Anaheim and I’m not so sure he would have ever become who he is today had he stayed in Anaheim.

And about that…

What’s that all about? Is Mike Scioscia that hard on catchers? Is Mickey Hatcher really that inept? Yes, I know – I’m doing it again with the obvious questions… you think you know the answers; but do we really? No, really; I don’t want to hear the speculation of a bunch of sheep who spout the same nonsense that everyone else does. I want some real answers.

Unfortunately, I’ll probably never get the answers I want… (I’m thinking about the truth serum idea again).

Hmm.

Somebody get Bengie Molina on the phone. I want to ask him what it was like playing for Scioscia. I’m serious – Molina was the total package and I’d love to get his perspective.

Can anyone validate what happened? Anyone? Hello?

Meanwhile, baseball marches on.

As great as the postseason has been so far; and let me tell you – it’s been utterly spectacular; I still feel a little empty. Actually, make that a-whole-lot-of empty because the Angels failed to get there for the second year in a row and every time I turn on a Rangers game I see signs like “Year of the Napoli.”

Josh Hamilton even made a comment that had something to do with who the Rangers might get from the Angels this off season after watching Vladimir Guerrero last year and Napoli this year contribute to their success. That wouldn't be so funny if it weren't so true.

Seriously… this isn’t fun at all. Oh sure – Rangers fans are yucking it up pretty good, but most die-hard Angels fans are suffering here.

You hear the praise being heaped on Napoli and you sit there starring at the T.V. numb and utterly stunned. And just when you think you’ve come back to your senses – you watch him hit a homerun or throw a runner out or do something that makes you plant your face firmly in the palm of your hands.

And the truth of the matter is that you can’t really hate Napoli for his success. He didn’t choose to be in Texas – he ended up there. I have no problem booing the likes of Ian Kinsler or CJ Wilson, but I can’t muster up any animosity for Napoli at all and let me tell you - I've tried.

He was never one of my favorites, but that’s probably because I knew he wasn’t one of Scioscia’s favorites. Why Mike; why?

We see Napoli having success and we are hopeless to do anything about it.

Our nightmare has been Napoli’s dream come true. Not only did he have a fantastic season, he even put an exclamation point on it when his team ended the year in Anaheim – where he hit four homeruns in that final series. It was like watching a movie in slow motion.

It feels like Angel fans are being punished over and over and over and over and… well, you get the picture.

If Texas goes on to win the World Series I’m not going to be very happy about it (the thought just makes me want to puke), but a small part of me will be happy for Napoli (a really teeny tiny part of me). If it happens (Texas winning *gag*) my emotions will again be in conflict; happy for Nap and disgusted that it happened in Texas.

Regardless of what happens; 2011 season has been sort of a coming-out party for Napoli. It truly has been his year (just like those signs say).

It’s like he was freed from a boss he hated even though he was doing something he normally loved to do. When you hear him interviewed he seems to be having fun. He seems to have found the joy again and I can’t help but be happy for him. He probably never deserved the amount of criticism that was thrown his way; especially, when we compare how much praise has always been given to Mathis.

It just doesn’t compute and I doubt that it ever will.

So here we are… while Ranger fans chant Nap-o-li, Nap-o-li; we Angel fans watch in quiet (or maybe not-so-quiet) anguish. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

The funny thing is that even though the Angels are in the process of a massive face lift – as they go about looking to replace Tony Reagins and an-ever-growing cast of thousands (scouts, front office personnel, etc.) – I can’t get the whole Napoli thing out of my mind. It’s as if I am looking for some kind of closure; a valid explanation, if you will before I can “turn the page.”

Oh well… Approximately 124 days till pitchers and catchers report. It’s going to be a long off season. Buckle up.

Dead man walking

Okay, so I’m listening to the Angels/Mariners game on the radio last night (Tuesday) and the Angels and Marines are scoreless in the 7th and I hear Terry Smith say “The Angels need a two out hit from Jeff Mathis” and it hits me… I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more demoralizing line than that one.

And with that one line, this blog post was born.

Every time Mathis comes to the plate, my expectations drop considerably. Any hope I might have for a rally or just a simple single disappears completely. After all, Mathis has just five hits in his last 51 at bats and he’s hitting .193 on the season.

It would be one thing if Mathis actually made up for his horrible offense with outstanding defense, but that’s not the case, at least not in my opinion. I don’t understand Mike Scioscia’s man crush on Mathis; I just don’t. I know that Scioscia knows more about catching than I could ever dream of, but I still don’t see it.

The easy thing to do would be to just accept the idea that Scioscia knows more and shouldn’t be questioned, but that’s just not how I roll. I wish someone would ask Scioscia the questions that would clarify exactly why Mathis is his guy.

The way I see it, Mike Napoli is for all intensive purposes a “dead man walking.”

Napoli is uncertain about his future in Anaheim. He told Bill Plunkett of the O.C. Register “I have no idea,” Napoli said when asked what he thought the waiver news signaled about his future with the Angels. “I don’t know what my future is here. “I think it could go either way. I want to be able to play every day. I feel I have the potential to help the team out being in the lineup every day. … I’d just like to play.”

Plunkett goes on to write that Napoli said he has talked with Scioscia about playing time in the past and the conversation always turns back to “not getting it done on the defensive side.”

I’m sure smarter people than myself can tell me what it is that makes Mathis better; at least I assume as much. I’ve read all kinds of things over the past few years and none of it jives with what I see when I watch games at the stadium or on television.

My image of Mathis is of a guy who can’t throw runners out and is more likely to air mail a ball into the outfield when trying to throw someone out. He can’t hit and he can’t throw. What else is there? I guess he calls a whale of a game because I can’t imagine any other reason why he’s on a major league roster, let alone getting consistent starts over Mike Napoli or even Bobby Wilson.

Prior to the 2009 season I read about how his brother helped convert a barn on his property into a batting cage and how he worked on his hitting in the off season. The 2009 season rolled around and Mathis still couldn’t hit worth a darn. He then teased us with glimpses of a major league hitter by doing well in the play-offs and we were duped into believing he finally figured it out.

Enter 2010 and he comes out of spring training and looks as if he might pick up where he left off in 2009. After 10 games he was hitting .324 and then he suffered an injury to his wrist that put him on the DL. He never recovered and when he came back on July 19 his average continued to go down steadily (occasionally going up a point here and there) until he found himself hitting .236 on July 11. On July 15 he had three hits and his average jumped to .258 and then it was over. From July 16 on, his average never went above that .258 mark and plummeted all the way to where it is today at .193.

How bad is Jeff Mathis? A member of Halos Heaven named Suboptimal articulates just how bad Mathis is in his piece titled Jeff Mathis Making History Backwards.

If you take the time to read Suboptimal’s piece you will see that Mathis is monumentally bad. We are talking bad in epic proportions. I mean he’s one of the worst hitters in the history of baseball. Yes, he’s really that bad.

At the time that piece was written Mathis had a career batting average of .200 which ranked him 7th worst in the history of baseball for batters with at least 1,000 plate appearances which includes more than 3,000 players (a point hammered home by Suboptimal).

I’m thinking if your offense is that bad, your defense better be among the best in major league history. I’m thinking it better be more spectacular than Hall of Famer Johnny Bench. I mean we’re talking about defense that would put Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez in his prime to shame, right? His defense shouldn’t just be good; it should be Molina good as in Bengie, Jose or Yadier good.

Well, that’s not the case.

So as we look to the 2011 season (what Angel fan hasn’t done that?) I can’t help but believe that the catching situation is foggy. That being said, I also can’t help but believe that Napoli will be playing for a different team, thus the phrase “dead man walking.”

Napoli is making $3.6 million this year and despite his lack of playing time, leads the Angels in homeruns and is due for a pay increase. Regardless of whether or not that increase comes voluntarily from the Angels or via arbitration, Napoli’s salary is going up. I find it doubtful that the Angels will keep a guy making more than $4 or $5 million on their roster if they view that guy as a part time player.

If ever there was a candidate to be traded, it’s Napoli and even though his own manager might not like his game, he does have value. He can catch, play first base and DH and has Paul Bunyanesque power. His trade value is high right now and the Angels will deal him, in my opinion. It’s not something I’d like to see, but I believe it’s inevitable.

Of course the thought of Mathis as the man behind the plate makes me uneasy and it doesn’t make me feel confident about 2011. The hype behind Hank Conger seems to have faded somewhat after a good, but not great season at AAA and it seems likely to me that the Angels will keep him at Salt Lake City for another year, especially since I haven’t read any glowing reports about his defense (he’s made 13 errors). If defense is the main requirement for Scioscia, it’s likely Conger has more work to do.

That being said, Conger might be further along than I think and might play a signficant role in 2011. I suppose anything is possible.

What I do know is that the Jeff Mathis/Mike Napoli debate has been beaten into the ground on internet message boards and on AM 830’s Angels talk, but it’s a discussion that’s important to Angel fans. It’s murky. It’s volatile and it leaves Angel fans feeling uncertain and even confused.

I have no idea how it will play out, but I have to believe the catching “controversy” will have to be resolved this off season some how.