I miss Mike Napoli

[FireThemAll]

I miss him too. He was so under-appreciated. Dude has a career 130 WRC+. He would be the second best hitter on the Angels by a fair amount, and he quietly played very good defense at 1B this year. It's sad that he's probably going to outproduce Pujols the next 4-5 years. He's also a far better player than Mark Trumbo (the guy who "replaced" him).

 

 

I won't even get into Wells, we all know that was a terrible move from the beginning. 

[Angel Oracle]

Ghost Albert Pujols is done as a good player!

Napoli>>>>Ghost Albert Pujols!

Make me eat my words, Ghost Albert Pujols!

Edited October 18, 2013 by Angel Oracle

[FabulousFabregas]

I met Nap once and he was cool. I remember on Angels Weekly once he pulled out fan mail and discussed how much his fans meant to him, along with his Mom (he had a picture of her in his locker). Nap was great at getting on base for us and had tremendous power. I'll always root for his personal success while rooting against his team if it's a Boston/Texas type team.

[Jay]

Players come and go, but my hatred of the Red Sox endures forever.

[yk9001]

Players come and go, but my hatred of the Red Sox endures forever.

 

 

I am with you w the Sox hatred, but I still like Napoli.

 

As others have pointed out, perhaps he has flourished more since he left here because he doesn't have a redass, sh*thead manager banging him about "squatting" and CERA anymore.

 

Unbeknownst to Arte Claus, that's why other teams fire their manager... because players can flourish in better, different environments.

[YouthofToday]

LOL, don't worry full circle, I'm sure naps will still let you blow him.

Nice the "part-time" player brigade has entered the conversation. Hilarious.

[mtangelsfan]

It's like it's three years ago all over again.  Only it's three years later.

 

http://screen.yahoo.com/denise-show-heartbroken-brian-000000788.html

[Jay]

Good, I haven't seen the label "napsacker" used in awhile

[yk9001]

It's like it's three years ago all over again.  Only it's three years later.

 

http://screen.yahoo.com/denise-show-heartbroken-brian-000000788.html

 

 

Nobody's obsessed with him.  Its only that the playoffs are going on, and he's always in the playoffs, and a lot of times hitting home runs, so he gets talked about here, while our crack management team is having aggressive meetings.

[full circle]

LOL, don't worry full circle, I'm sure naps will still let you blow him.

Clearly that time of the month, you should go take your midol pronto. It's funny to think back on all those arguments you made about Mathis playing over Napoli and seeing how stupid you all look now.

It was really sad how you "turned your back" on Napoli when he was a pretty good player for us, you just had to find a reason to complain about him. Sorry just channeling my inner whiny mtangelsfan for a second there.

[Angelsjunky]

Naps was inconsistent with the Angels.  Wish he could he could have put it together with them.  

 

I'm tired of people still pining for him three seasons later.  Get over it.

 

I'm over Napoli, really, but what I'm not over is what Napoli reminds me of: How poorly this organization has been run over the last 4-5 years, petty much since Stoneman left (and even his swansong, i.e. Gary Matthews Jr, was pretty atrocious).

 

The Angels are a badly run organization. I was excited about Dipoto because I thought he had enough brains to turn things around, but so far the results are not encouraging. I guess we can still hope that with less meddling from Arte, and some lessons learned from Jerry, that we'll see positive developments in the next year. But year after year of bad decisions have left the Angels where they are now: a mediocre franchise, when just five years ago they were one of the premier franchises in baseball, or at least in the 2nd tier below the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Braves, etc.

[Angel Oracle]

Angry Arte AND J. Pierpont Reagins did what AL West teams couldn't do very often to the Halos in the 2000s:  beat them down!

 

We have become the #*&$#&$^@ Cubs and Mets! 

%$%#@*U%#((*$

Edited October 18, 2013 by Angel Oracle

[YouthofToday]

I'm over Napoli, really, but what I'm not over is what Napoli reminds me of: How poorly this organization has been run over the last 4-5 years, petty much since Stoneman left (and even his swansong, i.e. Gary Matthews Jr, was pretty atrocious).

The Angels are a badly run organization. I was excited about Dipoto because I thought he had enough brains to turn things around, but so far the results are not encouraging. I guess we can still hope that with less meddling from Arte, and some lessons learned from Jerry, that we'll see positive developments in the next year. But year after year of bad decisions have left the Angels where they are now: a mediocre franchise, when just five years ago they were one of the premier franchises in baseball, or at least in the 2nd tier below the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Braves, etc.

I totally agree.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Well put AJ.

Its not so much naps the player. To be fair his peripheral numbers were slipping a bit thay last year, and at the time (and I was pissed about the move), I thought maybe they knew something we didnt, a la figgins.

The move blew up in our hand. So be it. But its more the several moves since then. We haven't been on the winning end of too many (to put it nicely).

To be fair, we do have a pretty dexent offense now, in contrast to a lot of the stoneman years. But the pitching isn't close to what it was under him.

[bloodbrother]

Nobody's obsessed with him.  Its only that the playoffs are going on, and he's always in the playoffs, and a lot of times hitting home runs, so he gets talked about here, while our crack management team is having aggressive meetings.

 

Yep.

[YouthofToday]

It's also still hilarious to me how many full-time posters liked the Wells trade partially because we were trading a part-time player.

[2002_halos_II]

I thought Naps played 1st base when he wasn't catching (his last year here?).

[Hollyw00d]

I remember him DHing a lot, I don't know about first base. Don't think so

[Lifetime]

2010 

 

1B =70G - 67GS

C = 66G - 59 GS

DH =2G - 1GS

[Season Over]

He played plenty of first in 2010 after Morales got hurt.

[FireThemAll]

Napoli is a way better 1st baseman/DH than the guy the organization essentially chose over him (Trumbo). Then they went and compounded an already horrendous decision by signing Albert Pujols. Now look where that has got us -- Pujols is arguably the worst contract ever, and Napoli is still mashing for a rival. It's just 3 straight offseasons of unbelievably bad decisions made by this org (Wells, Pujols, Hamilton). If it happens once, I'm fine chalking it up as a bad decision, and I was glad they fired Reagins. The Pujols and Hamilton signings only reinforce the simple fact that the owner is the root of the problem for this team. He's the same idiot who hired Tony Reagins in the first place.

[Lifetime]

Lather, rinse, repeat

[bloodbrother]

Saying Napoli was better than Pujols doesn't say much. A lot of players were better than Pujols last year

[Blarg]

Holy shit, comparing Napoli to Pujols. Napsackers have taken the nut swinging to a new level.

Pujols played this season on one foot and you want to make a comparison?

Why not put the numbers side by side since 2006 then start flapping your gums just how great Napoli is.

[CardsFanVegas]

Napoli is a way better 1st baseman/DH than the guy the organization essentially chose over him (Trumbo). Then they went and compounded an already horrendous decision by signing Albert Pujols. Now look where that has got us -- Pujols is arguably the worst contract ever, and Napoli is still mashing for a rival. It's just 3 straight offseasons of unbelievably bad decisions made by this org (Wells, Pujols, Hamilton). If it happens once, I'm fine chalking it up as a bad decision, and I was glad they fired Reagins. The Pujols and Hamilton signings only reinforce the simple fact that the owner is the root of the problem for this team. He's the same idiot who hired Tony Reagins in the first place.

 

While the Pujols contract isn't good in the later years, I expect him to have a monster year in 2014 now that his foot condition has healed.