THEIR YA GO NAPOLI....Love this kid...on pace for a 20HR season, kid is the future of this Angels team...him and Santana....Santana has thrown a gem except for that 2 triiple inning that I thought would throw him off his guard, but no sweat he is pulling together....Napoli is the next Piazza IMO ... and how ironic that he begins his career in the same city that Big Mike did, but with the hometown rival....look at Napoli's minor league #'s his 2 full seasons before being called up:
2004 A-Rancho Cucamanga- .282 BA/29 HR/118 RBI in 132 games, HUGE minor league numbers even though he strick out 166 times in his 482 at bats...he either struck 1/3 of the time, or got on base the other 1/3 of the time...pure POWER hitter
then 2005 with AA-Arkansas
while only hitting .237, Napoli still hit 29 Bombs and drove in 99 RBI's in 43 less at bats, but still struck out 140 times...
This kid is the real deal...He has proven that when he does hit, he does damage. A few years in the bigs and with Scoscia showing him some patience at the plate to where he can wait on the right pitch instead of swining for the fences each pitch, I can see a number of 35+ HR's/125+ RBI seasons under his belt. The kid is a pure power hitter, and being that the Angels are my fav team (I gave up on my pads when they traded away Oli Perez and JASON Bay and another rising star for Giles, who had just finished leaving his prime...the guy sucks now, he gets on base at a high rate, but he doesnt do any damage or bring in even 2/3's of the RBI's we expected him to bring with his line drive type of hitting)...Hopefully the Angels move Napoli to first base in a couple years so they dont lose a future 40HR hitter because of cather knees