Mathis' broken hand a blow to Arizona's playoff push

[fan_since79]

NEW YORK -- Jeff Mathis was placed on the 10-day disabled list Tuesday with a broken right hand, leaving the Arizona Diamondbacks without their top catcher as they make a playoff push.

Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said it's too early to tell whether Mathis will miss the rest of the season. A 13-year major league veteran who is valued for his fine defense and leadership, Mathis was injured Monday night against the New York Mets when his bare hand was hit by a foul ball.

"We're going to miss him," Lovullo said.

Arizona began the night a half-game behind Colorado for the first National League wild card and 3½ ahead of Milwaukee for the league's final postseason berth.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20421655/jeff-mathis-arizona-diamondbacks-goes-disabled-list-broken-right-hand

[Angel Oracle]

Feel bad for him.

Have to admit though that a side of me thinks that Mathis still being a MLB catcher at age 34 should be Ripley's worthy. 

[Angel Dog and Beer]

Is this an Onion article?

[gurn67]

I wonder if the Diamondbacks' fans are as thrilled as we would have been had this happened during any season from 2007-2011

[m0nkey]

Maybe they'll bring back hank conger

[Homebrewer]

The Angels have a good catcher, who can even hit, wasting away in SLC.

PTBNL?

[tdawg87]

He can still squat like an Asian taking a shit.

[mtangelsfan]

Several GM's and managers totally wrong.  AW posters right.

[fan_since79]

...and he was trying really hard to get to the .200 career batting average mark.

Currently at .198, Mathis was hitting .223 over the past two years in a spirited effort to climb above the Mendoza line.

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

1 hour ago, mtangelsfan said:

Several GM's and managers totally wrong.  AW posters right.

Thats whats crazy. I have no clue (or anyone else on this board) how the hell hes stayed up in the bigs this long. But pitchers and pitching coaches swear by him. 

[Troll Daddy]

3 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Thats whats crazy. I have no clue (or anyone else on this board) how the hell hes stayed up in the bigs this long. But pitchers and pitching coaches swear by him. 

That doesn't surprise me

[Stradling]

5 hours ago, mtangelsfan said:

Several GM's and managers totally wrong.  AW posters right.

Exactly.  Jeff Mathis continuing to get contracts and praise from baseball people help me understand that baseball is much more than numbers.  We as fans fail to see that, but we are the ones that are wrong. 

[Brandon]

file this under a headline I never thought I would read in my life time.

[Dick B Back]

On 8/23/2017 at 2:08 PM, Homebrewer said:

The Angels have a good catcher, who can even hit, wasting away in SLC.

PTBNL?

How 'bout Perez for Goldschmidt.

[T.G.]

stopped reading after seeing "top catcher"

[ten ocho recon scout]

Something funny (sad) to think about. We hated mathis back in the day becsuse he was the black hole in a decent lineup,  batting 8th. We all wanted naps and his bat. Sosh and the pitchers raves about mathis.

Cut to the present when maldo is pretty well liked for his defense, pitch calling. We dont worry about his bat when his glove is good. And we have a whole slew of guys hitting mathis-like (esponoza, valbuena until recent, espinoza, pujols etc). I guess that shows how much our offense has slipped over the years.

Funny to look back on the hate vlad got his last year here, matsui, abreu, rivera, howie, etc. All those guys would be welcome here now. Guess we got spoiled for awhile.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Ill add to that. GA post 2003 was a huge argument on here. Same thing, id love to have him here now (his injuroes were still less than our pitching staff)

[Jobu]

Maldonado hits better and throws out runners.

 

I get your point about how the might offense has fallen, but really, Maldonado is just better at every facet of the game. Except for needing his coaches and teammates to stick up for him in the media.

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 minutes ago, Jobu said:

Maldonado hits better and throws out runners.

He hits better because mathis was so bad. That doesnt change the fact maldo is still a well below average hitter.

Naps had a great bat, but fwiw, the pitching staff seemed to do better with mathis catching. CERA was a big joke here, but makes me wonder.

My point mainly was that mathis was an AW black sheep. When in reality his bat wasnt too big an issue (we had an offense that could hide him). In the uesrs since, weve had such a week offense (after 2013/14 or so) that guys that suck arent too singled out.

Its like pujols. Hes been horrible, no business bstting 3rd, but so many other guys this year whove been shit shows themself arent getting as much AW love because we hate albert so much.

[eligrba4ever]

Jeff Mathis was batting .213 in 183 ABs. That's AZ's "primary catcher"? Iannetta (.230) has played more, by a few games.

The D-Backs obviously knew they were sacrificing a spot in the batting order to start either one of them.

Mathis' handling of the pitchers mattered more to the manager and front office because they figured Goldie and the guys up front could protect the offense..

[HaloNArizona]

On 8/23/2017 at 4:25 PM, ten ocho recon scout said:

Thats whats crazy. I have no clue (or anyone else on this board) how the hell hes stayed up in the bigs this long. But pitchers and pitching coaches swear by him. 

Because chicks (AW Posters) dig the long ball!

[Troll Daddy]

On 8/24/2017 at 4:58 PM, eligrba4ever said:

Jeff Mathis was batting .213 in 183 ABs. That's AZ's "primary catcher"? Iannetta (.230) has played more, by a few games.

The D-Backs obviously knew they were sacrificing a spot in the batting order to start either one of them.

Mathis' handling of the pitchers mattered more to the manager and front office because they figured Goldie and the guys up front could protect the offense..

Catcher is the one position you can sacrifice some batting average ... so you have a player who hits 2 out of 10 tries instead of 2.5 times

[Dick B Back]

53 minutes ago, Troll Daddy said:

Catcher is the one position you can sacrifice some batting average ... so you have a player who hits 2 out of 10 tries instead of 2.5 times

Don't we wish we could get 2.5 hits outta Albert?

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Mathis' broken hand a boon to Arizona's playoff push

Fixed.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

2 hours ago, ANAHEIMBOB said:

Mathis has Intangibles , the broken hand must be one of them.

The quality of the gumball passing in the Diamondbacks' clubhouse has gone up threefold since Mathis arrived.