The Case for Mike Napoli

Every year the fall classic brings out the best in some previously unknown player. Last year, Cody Ross stole the show for the San Francisco Giants. This year, Mike Napoli has proven to be a legitimate big-game player. Going into this World Series I swore that Adrian Beltre would prove to be the MVP of the series. It looks like I may have to eat those words as Napoli is just feeding them to me.

In the 5 games he has played thus far Napoli has compiled the following stat line: 13 at bats (18 total plate appearances), 2 runs scored, 4 hits, 1 double, 2 home runs, 9 runs batted in, 3 walks and he has struck out twice. His batting average is .308 while his on-base percentage is .389. His slugging percentage is .846 and his OPS is 1.235.

What does that all translate into? He is first on the Rangers in OPS, Slugging and OBP. He is 3rd in batting average (2nd if you only quantify players that have played in all 5 games.) I need to repeat this, he has 9 RBI's - that is as many as Michael Young (3), Adrian Beltre (2), Nelson Cruz (2) and Josh Hamilton (2) combined. He has become an offensive machine.

On the other side of the ball - he has not allowed the St. Louis Cardinals to steal a base on him, throwing out all 3 attempts: Allen Craig twice and Jon Jay once.

While Napoli's star is surely shining bright right now, the question is, why haven't we noticed him before? The obvious answer is that he is buried on a team full of offensive and defensive weapons. But, Napoli is single handedly destroying my case for the Texas Rangers needing to/being in the hunt for Albert Pujols. Now, allow me to clarify here, I am not saying that Napoli is as good as Pujols, but what I am saying is that Napoli is good enough to not need Pujols.

First of all, Napoli is only 29 years old. Pujols is 31 - not a huge difference in age, but nevertheless, a difference exists. Napoli is capable of both catching and playing first base as well as DH'ing if need be. Pujols can play first or DH. Those are the plain eyeball examinations of the players, but lets take a quick look at the meat and potatos.

During the 2011 season Mike Napoli's stat line looked like this: 113 games played, 72 runs scored, 118 hits, 25 doubles, 30 home runs, 75 RBI's, 58 walks, .320 batting average, .414 OBP, .631 slugging and 1.046 OPS.

During the 2011 season Albert Pujols' stat line looked like this: 147 games played, 105 runs scored, 173 hits, 29 doubles, 37 home runs, 99 RBI's, 61 walks, .299 batting average, .366 OBP, .541 slugging and .906 OPS.

For arguments sake, Prince Fielders 2011 stat line looked like this: 162 games played, 95 runs scored, 170 hits, 36 doubles, 38 home runs, 120 RBI's, 107 walks, .299 average, .415 OBP, .566 slugging and a .981 OPS.

In 34, and 49 fewer games played respectively, Napoli put up fairly similar numbers to both Pujols and Fielder. Of course, on the free agent market, both of those gentlemen will command big dollars and long term contracts. The Rangers have Napoli arbitration eligable for the 2012 season and he becomes a free agent in 2013. According to SI.com, the average salary for a catcher is $2,160,425.94. The Rangers have something special in Napoli and if they are wise, their biggest signing this off-season could be a nice contract extension for him. Not bad for a guy who was traded to the Blue Jays, stayed there for all of 4 days and was turned around and traded to the Rangers last winter.

After all that, I need to offer up 2 mea culpa's... first, Mike Napoli, not Adrian Beltre will win the World Series MVP. Second, the Rangers do not need, nor will they sign Albert Pujols, they're gonna be just fine without him.

The Hebrew Hammer... Just in Time For Easter!

I swear to you that just this past Monday I was starting a rough draft for my next article, which was to be on Ryan Braun.

The topic was going to be regarding Braun's team-friendly 8-year $45 million contract in comparison to the 7-year, $140 million contract just signed by Carl Crawford. Looking at their statistics and what they bring to their respective teams and comparing the dollar for dollar benefits.

For the sake of well, Carl Crawford, I was not going to include any of this seasons statistics. My argument was going to be a great stat by stat comparison and conclude with the argument that Ryan Braun was now the most underpaid player in Major League Baseball.

I was going to do that. Then, I saw this article on FoxSports.com posted by Ken Rosenthal yesterday: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Ryan-Braun-Milwaukee-Brewers-contract-extension-details-042111.

That's right folks, Ryan Braun is getting what he deserves, a nice, fat, contract extension keeping him (theoretically) in Milwaukee until 2020. That would be 5 years, $105 million for those keeping score at home. This works out to $21 million annually for those years, making him a higher paid performer than Carl Crawford. In my opinion, deservedly so. Braun is only the third player in Major League history to sign a deal worth an average of at least $20 million a year at age 27 or younger. The others were Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer last year and Alex Rodriguez in 2001.

Braun has been picked to start each of the last three All-Star Games. In his first four seasons, Braun is only one of five players in history to hit at least 125 homers and post a .300 batting average, joining Joe DiMaggio, Chuck Klein, Albert Pujols and Ted Williams whom also share that feat. That's pretty good company, 3 Hall of Famers and 1 future Hall of Famer.

The best part of this deal, Milwaukee is maintaining viability. They have locked up their centerpiece in Braun. Rickie Weeks is developing into a premier second baseman and they may very well re-sign Prince Fielder... who knows? What I do know is that it is nice to see a deserving player get a contract that should keep him with one team for his entire career.