Jays trade Brad Mills for Angels' C Mathis

dagger · Post #1 » by **dagger** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:16 pm

Ken_Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal
That is LHP Brad Mills going to #Angels for Mathis. #MLB #BlueJays

rarefind · Post #2 » by **rarefind** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:26 pm

Championship time, hope Mathis plays no more than 30 games.

dagger · Post #3 » by **dagger** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:26 pm

JPA better stay healthy. Mathis hit a stunning .174 last season.

Al_Oliver · Post #4 » by **Al_Oliver** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:30 pm

not exactly what I envisoned, but a backup catcher for Mills is something...

mikero · Post #5 » by **mikero** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:32 pm

I'd rather give the backup spot to Jerolman.

On the bright side, I guess this means we could see D'Arnaud at some point this season.

rarefind · Post #6 » by **rarefind** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:32 pm

Clearly he must do something right though in regards to how much Sciosca loved him. If you hit .174 and your manager sends you out there as ofter as Mathis, you are doing something right. Assuming if JPA goes down for an extended period this would signal D'arnaud getting a shot at the MLB level. Having Mathis and Jeroloman as our catching duo would be a horrific situation.

CapeCrusader · Post #7 » by **CapeCrusader** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:35 pm

How's Mathis' D?

WpgPage · Post #8 » by **WpgPage** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:41 pm

He is one of the best defensive catchers in the game.

torontoaces04 · Post #9 » by **torontoaces04** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:44 pm

Wow, AA is THE MAN!!!!!!!!

Where do I sign up for my season tickets?!?

Osiris · Post #10 » by **Osiris** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 5:50 pm

I was initially surprised that the Angels would trade with us again so soon.

Then I looked into it a bit further and all was clear. We're obviously flipping our newly acquired Angels catcher for next year's closer shortly. So don't get too attached.

If it cost us AAAA Mills to do it, I'm fine with that.

Brinbe · Post #11 » by **Brinbe** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 6:09 pm

ewww, donotwant

Avenger · Post #12 » by **Avenger** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 6:29 pm

WpgPage wrote:He is one of the best defensive catchers in the game.

That's what the moron Mike Scioscia thinks but Mathis is absolutely not a good defensive catcher, he's actually one of the worst. I know he was ranked THE worst in 2010, I'm gonna find the numbers for 2011.

I don't care how small of a move this is, this is a horrendous decision on Alex's part, there is absolutely nothing redeeming about Jeff **** Mathis.

hyper316 · Post #13 » by **hyper316** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 6:33 pm

Avenger wrote:
WpgPage wrote:He is one of the best defensive catchers in the game.

That's what the moron Mike Scioscia thinks but he absolutely is not a good defensive catcher, he's actually one of the worst. I know he was ranked THE worst in 2010, I'm gonna find the numbers for 2011.

I don't care how small of a move this is, this is a horrendous decision on Alex's part, there is absolutely nothing redeeming about Jeff **** Mathis.

i dunno about his numbers for 2011, but the few games i watched i was very impressed with jeff mathis' defense. he does a great job keeping the ball in front of him. i dunno about his throwing ability tho

Mike Hunt · Post #14 » by **Mike Hunt** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 6:36 pm

Not looking at stats, but just in-game stuff, I noted that he seemed to be quite good at blocking really bad pitches in the dirt. Not sure it's reason to applaud the move but it's not like Mills ever impressed in the bigs.

Michael Bradley · Post #15 » by **Michael Bradley** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 6:40 pm

I'd rather have Brad Mills and Jose Molina (at $1.5M) than Jeff Mathis ($1.7M last season and arby eligible). Mathis is one of the worst players in the game. A career .194 hitter and .557 OPS in 1360 plate appearances. Even if he was the greatest defensive catcher of all-time (which he isn't) he still wouldn't be worth having around at ~$2M. Molina offensively looks like Mike Piazza in his prime compared to Mathis.

Weems · Post #16 » by **Weems** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 6:46 pm

His best (least worst?) offensive output in his 6 seasons has been 40% below average. He also accumulated his best WAR in that 2007 season (0.2). 32 and 26 wRC+ his last 2 seasons. That's 68% and 74% below average production. That's worse than a lot of pitchers, including current pitchers. He's one of the worst hitters of all-time.

Catcher defence is measured particularly poorly, but even if he was the best defensive catcher, and he's not, their manager was still incredibly stupid to trot him out there every day. New GM, horrible catcher gone. Easy.

WpgPage · Post #17 » by **WpgPage** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 6:58 pm

Hopefully he goes to AAA and helps D'Arnaud I think Jerolerman would be a better option really.

TheMainEvent · Post #18 » by **TheMainEvent** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 7:03 pm

He's crappy at offense and decent at defense. Sciocia loved the guy apparently for the decent defense and supposedly great game-calling.

I don't care much for Mathis, but he's only a backup catcher. Plus, Brad Mills isn't anything special -- I doubt you could really get much better in return for Mills.

Weems · Post #19 » by **Weems** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 7:14 pm

A major development that teams should really consider trying would be trying to get their failed/flawed/defensively challenged prospects to learn catcher. Maybe we can't do it because our system has awesome depth at C, but players like Brett Wallace/David Cooper, etc would be recent candidates from our system that would fit the mold. Solid hitters who can't hit well enough for the positions they're limited to.

I understand the stigma that catcher is a difficult position to learn, but there are so many bad defensive catchers out there and they're still major league regulars and often have nice value. Receiving and squaring pitches, blocking balls, throwing to a base, and footwork aren't really that big of hurdles are they?

SharoneWright · Post #20 » by **SharoneWright** » Sat Dec 3, 2011 7:20 pm

MikeDiGiovanna Mike DiGiovanna

Say what you want about Jeff Mathis' bat, but #Angels pitchers will miss him. Weaver/Haren preferred to throw to Mathis more than anyone.

1 hour ago
https://twitter.com/#!/MikeDiGiovanna