Quote:
Originally Posted by moon
Unless Napoli someone takes a huge jump forward in his ability I don't see how they get better offensive production from him, especially since he plays the same position as a bunch of others on the team.
Rivera on the bench is a whole bunch of meh, especially since the Jays aren't competing next year.
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Here is a fact for you - Napoli over his career is a very above average Offensive catcher and is pretty good defensively as well. Part of the reason the Angels started playing him at 1B is to get him more ABs and have Mathis in the line up.
Wells on the other hand, should not be playing CF - his defensive ability is very below average for the position and should be on a corner. On a year to year basis, you simply do not know what you are going to get from him.
There are 2 things that score runs in MLB:
1) Consistent offenses (no holes in the lineup)
2) Superstars
Wells isn't a superstar. Not by a long shot, not unless he was able to become a lot more consistent season to season. However, you now add a guy like Napoli who is above average for his position and you see AA now has 2 guys in the hardest positions to get offense from (SS and C) who can hold their own.
That's a long way towards patching some of the holes in this lineup.
I do like the way AA is building this team - stacking the corners with power and getting above average guys down the middle (C, 2B, SS, CF) who are good defensively. We've still got to continue to add better pieces on the corners, but we're making progress.