Angels fans, I gotta ask this?

Question

Do you have any confidence in your upper management after the Gary Mathews signing?
Look at his career stats
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/stats/mlb_individual_stats_player.jsp?playerID=150439

At 32 unless he's juicing this year was a fluke. So offensively he's a dud. Defensively nothing special. He's Angel's payroll for the next five years. Nobody else is going to take him off the Angel's hands.

Do you believe that Angel's management has a clue about baseball?

I've only seen him play live a couple times. Nothing impressive in either game. Statistically he's not that good defensively. His assists per inning and put outs per inning are at best average for a center fielder. His fielding percentage is very erratic. Maybe this year he had a great year. I don't see so many teams giving up a really talented defensive center fielder, some releasing him as they could not trade him at points if he was that special defensively.

Chang almost every year somebody in the majors has a fluke season. It's often more politely called a career year. Circumstances happen that allow them to play way above their head that single year. I cannot think of a single hitter over the age of 30 who who had a beak out year. The difference is that after a break out year a player continues to produce and often gets even better. 100 years of baseball history says that break out years do not happen for a hitter in the 30s. Good players get better in their early 30s. Some players are actually washed up by 32 or 33. Nobody suddenly learns how to hit in their 30s. Nor is Angel stadium the hitter friendly park the Rangers play in.

As for defense. That's a very subjective issue generally. I've watched Andrew Jones make highlight reel catches on what should have been easy plays, but he consistantly was out of posisition when the ball was hit. I watched Julio Lugo when he was a Stro make some very impressive plays. When all the dust settled it turns out Lugo wasn't as good as the twenty games I saw him play made him look like. While defensive stats are iffy at best, what isn't is chances per 9 innings of play. A defender playing outfield in a spacious park will get a few more chances. Outfielders on teams that lack good pitchers or have fly ball pitchers will get more chances. So it's not perfect. Mathews played on a team with disasterous pitching. He should have led the lead in put outs and assists for CF. He wasn't even close. Despite having a strong arm he didn't have alot of assists. He had no reputation to prevent runners from trying him. So why did he have so few assists?

Answer 1

Stoneman is stoned.

Seriously, THAT is their answer? Man Ram better be coming, because they're giving that chump $50 million?!

He's been on WAIVERS half a dozen times.

At least the Dodgers got a guy who is 29 and hits .300 for that kind of money. Hell, Matthews is a decent fielder, but hitting .247, how does that help?

I love the Halos, but what the hell is that? I'd rather they bring up a rookie than some washed up reject from Texas.

I'm with you. I don't get it.

Answer 2

As a Rangers fan, I hated seeing GMJ leave after the Rangers finally found a solid CF. That being said, from an outsider's perspective, I think the Angels are a good organization, especially Scioscia, and that they made the right move here. "Defensively nothing special" could not be further from the truth - GMJ saved the Rangers many many runs with his range and arm. The fact that he didn't win a gold glove shows how much of a farce this postseason award is. He'll put up another .300-100-20-80 season next year, minimum, plus he'll be on your side this time for the bench-clearing brawl. :)

"He should have led the lead in put outs and assists for CF. He wasn't even close. Despite having a strong arm he didn't have alot of assists. He had no reputation to prevent runners from trying him. So why did he have so few assists?"
Um, he missed about 20 games at the start of the season due to injury. Strong arm usually means few chances (see Ichiro). Again, unless you watched most of the Rangers games like I did last year, you can't truly assess his defense based on fielding statistics alone, which are very subjective to begin with.

Answer 3

They over payed for him thats for sure. He isnt a great offensive player at all...his defense is among some of the best tho so you are wrong about his defense. You say you have only watched him play a few times and ur judging him by a few games? Defensively he has ALOT of range and can make ALOT of plays with an above average arm.

The thing is...they had to get somebody and didnt wanna drop 80-90 mill on a guy like Carlos Lee so this was not a bad pickup at all. Especially if he produces like last year (his best season by far). Personally they could have picked up a guy like Juan Pierre (who was cheaper) and he is just as good and is a starter on offense, one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball and one of the fastest players in baseball....but wasnt a BAD pickup...it was not bad at all.....


FROM a Houston Astros fan so its not biased...

Answer 4

He's never hit more than 20 homers in a season or had over 100 RBI's in a season. But the BA was good and as a Giants fan I would have loved to see him playing CF for San Francisco next season.

Answer 5

Well the Angels are thinking that he is just starting to come into his own and will improve over the next 5 years!

Answer 6

Lolly Licker you just made my night. LOL I've only seen the series for the first time very recently so I don't have quotes in my head yet but pretty much - if Spike or Giles said it I was probably rolling

Answer 7

He didn't last to long with the Cubs...he just had a somewhat good year and that is about it!

Answer 8

You have some points but I don't think it was a fluke season.

Answer 9

You idiot.. Players don't have fluke seasons. They have fluke games, if you bat .313 in over 600 at bats, you are damn talented.

Answer 10

You don't think he is good defensively? Check out his highlights. esp. Cubs