I hate predicting greatness this early, but he takes walks, he hits it where it's thrown, and if you leave it out over the plate, he crushes it. And I mean crush it. He had one monster shot that would rival any banger in the league. And he's got a quick swing, so he's not especially vulnerable to inside heat either. Swing wise, looks like Thome, except he's not looking to pull. In total, I don't think this your typical rookie honeymoon where the pitchers find a weakness. The fact that he has a good eye and hits to all fields means he's a hard out.
I'd say drop Lopez for him, definitely. He's old and on the way down. Not sure your categories...but my league uses OBP, and over his 1st 41 games, his OBP is .436...toss in 10 HR over 115 AB, and a couple steals to boot...sickness.
The final hurdle to me is, what happens when the league learns he crushes fastballs? How is he going to adjust when they adjust and give up trying to blow it by the rook? The fact that he hits to all field and is taking walks is an extremely good sign that he's not a one trick pony, but I want to see a few more months as pitchers try new ways of going at him. particularly off speed stuff. I'm optimistic he can adjust, but I want to see it first.
I'm half hoping he's not as good as I suspect, because I don't know what keeper I can drop. It'd be great if he was great this year, but how do you drop Carl Crawford? I get real attached to my keepers and I've had Crawford since he was rook, but if Nap turns out to look like a C that can jack 40 or more, how do I drop that?
Nap should be from this point playing 4 out of every 5 games. Molina is strictly a defensive catcher. I even eard somewhere that Nap might DH on days off soon, haven't heard that officially yet.
Another homer. Unbelievable.
Why wasn't this guy on anyone's radar? Granted, he isn't going to keep flirting with .300, but he seems to have 20-plus homer potential right out of the gate.
For the past few years Nappy was supposedly the 2nd best catcher in the Angel's farm system. If that's still true, Jeff Mathis is one hell of a catcher. He is country strong. He's hit some MONSTER SHOTS.
When I see him swing, it's a lot like how Tim Salmon or Troy Glauss hit in their prime. With the exception of GA who's a natural pull hitter, nearly every hitter that comes up out of the Angels farm system is like that. They really stress hitting the ball where it's pitched in their system. He's the strongest one I've seen though.
He's got a great obp thanks to walks (he took 17 walks in 22 games in June) and he even has 2 steals. He's not fast but he's not slow like most catchers, he just picks good pitchers to run on. I don't look to him getting a lot of steals though, my guess is teams just assumed he was slow so they got lazy checking him.
Only one gripe...he seems to be a great hitter, patient, etc...but he is the anti-Oritz...most of his HR have been solo shots. He comes up last night after they intentionally walk the bases loaded with no outs in a tie ball game, and whiffs...c'mon, all we need is a fly ball here.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by johnsamo » Sat Jul 01, 2006 11:26 pm 
