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The Mathis effect


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Mathis spent years here contributing nothing but headaches to many Angels fans. Yet, he was constantly defended by Scioscia as if the fans should just ignore the bad and focus on the good of the rest of the team. As hard as us Angels fans would try, that name popping up in each lineup just made everyone cringe and want to complain again and again how he doesn't belong on the team and he is a cancer to every lineup.

 

Amazing how life imitates art.

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so, if we had kept him we wouldn't be in this mess?

 

i'm not really sure of your point here.

 

ERA's for Weaver, Haren, and Santana went up by nearly a full run after Mathis left.

 

Not only that, the Angels' most successful interval of time occurred when current catcher Chris Iannetta was on the DL, and a majoriy of games were being caught by Bobby "Fat Mathis" Wilson and John Hester. As soon as Iannetta returned shortly following the all star break, every single pitcher on the Angels went into a simultaneous tailspin, including newly acquired rental Zack Greinke.

 

 

 

note: this post is tongue in cheek. I've actually seen serious threads on other boards though blaming Chris Iannetta as the primary culprit for the team being terrible right now.

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Most fan reactions are too high or too low, they way overreact.  They jump on the bandwagon when things go right with a player, and when things go wrong they run the issue into the ground.  To use Mathis as an example, I don't think he was as bad as many made it sound on here.  He is what he is, a poor hitter with good but not great defensive skills, had good communication with the pitchers, worked hard, and had above average athletic skills.  His poor hitting got magnified by the extra base hits that Napoli accumulated.  Once a player's poor skills are exposed, the fans go over board to ridicule the player in general.  Mathis wasn't the first, and won't be the last.  This year's edition - Hamilton.

 

Fans, in general, are impatient and not really supportive of many players.  Part of it is the salaries they make compared to the general population. There really isn't much empathy when players struggle in almost any organization. 

 

That's also partly why some fans have a problem with Scioscia, he's even keel and doesn't overreact either way - to the good side or bad.  Fans go overboard both ways, but mostly on the bad side of things.

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Admittedly, Mathis pounced on bad pitches well and called pitches solidly. 

If only he could throw the ball to 2B with any success, and hit just well enough to at least be over say a .650 OPS.  

Yep, pouncing was his specialty, and he made some nice throws - to Bourjos.

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" To use Mathis as an example, I don't think he was as bad as many made it sound on here."

He was worse. Seriously? Mathis is not a MLB catcher. At best he's a backup whom you pray never has to play full-time. Such an asset has hardly any value.

 

LOL  Typical stat guy comment ... Mathis intangibles far out weigh what you see in a stat line. Doubtful that you ever played the game.

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Mathis was certainly the best defensive catcher we have had here over the last several years. His pitch calling and framing is noticeably better than Iannetta's who is not that great in this department. I am 100% sure that the Mathis to Iannetta transition has cost the team several runs on the defensive end.

 

The sad thing is I did not notice significant difference between Mathis and Napoli in terms of pitch calling and framing, and this team is still better off as a whole having Iannetta behind the plate rather than Mathis. 

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