Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninkobei
I know this is kind of a small sampling size, but Napoli played over 114 games once in his career. He played 140 games and his BA shrunk down to .238. Now the previous year he played 114 times for a .272 avg.
The guy just flat out gets gassed. And understandably so. Catching is a rough job. Why else would Wash put him at 1st base for a game in the WS? But you are right that 100 games may be too few. I would not be surprised if he played roughly the same number of games as he did this year.
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Yes, a very, very small sample size. Bottom line, he had a bad year. It started bad and ended bad. He didn't start off great and fall off as you are suggesting a long grind would cause - he just had a bad year. Hell, he ended April hitting .167.
As far as why we played him at 1B - you realize he played a lot of 1B this year right (and a lot last year with LA)? The purpose was to get the black hole Moreland off the field, get Torrealba in and still have Young at DH. Sure, they could have moved Young to 1B and Napoli to DH (and they did) but the point is that this was more about getting the best lineup on the field than it was about keeping Napoli rested. Washington had no worry about resting Napoli during the games he did play because there were so many he didn't play. If Napoli doesn't play, at an absolute minimum (barring injuries), 130 games next year - I would be
completely surprised.
Prior to last year I claimed Young would play 40 games at 1B and was basically called ridiculous. The trade for Napoli prevented him from reaching that specific number (Napoli played 35 games at 1B himself), but even with that considered, Young defended first 36 times.
I'm telling you, unless we fail to sign a stud 1B, which I really don't expect happens, he WILL have to end up playing that many games at C and he WILL play too well to take off that many games next year. Again, if he doesn't play 130, color me
very surprised. At this point, it is like assuming Kinsler would sit for 50 games next year - Nap just proved to be too important to this team and is now an absolute starter. Sure, he gets more rest than most due to his position, but he isn't a part-time player anymore.