Thursday, October 27, 2011
How good has Mike Napoli’s World Series been?
Posted by Shlomo SprungWith the World Series having shifted to St. Louis for good, we won't be able to hear the catchy "Na-Po-Li!" chant echo throughout Arlington anymore. However, Texas' catcher will still be heard and felt in a big way for the rest of the series and will likely be named series MVP if the Rangers close out their first world championship.
Mike Napoli has been so strong offensively in the eighth spot in the Rangers lineup that he's outperformed every player in this series except, perhaps, Cardinals hitter Albert Pujols. Even Pujols' batting average, RBI and slugging percentage don't match up to Napoli's production over the first five World Series games. In fact, if we look back at the cleanup hitters in the past five Fall Classics, it seems like Napoli has out-produced them all.
Slash Line HR RBI R XBH Napoli 2011 .308/.389/.846 2 9 2 3 C. Ross 2010 .235/.381/.471 1 2 5 2 Guerrero 2010 .071/.125/.071 0 2 0 0 A-Rod 2009 .250/.423/.550 1 6 5 4 Howard 2009 .174/.240/.391 1 3 3 3 Howard 2008 .286/.375/.762 3 6 3 4 C. Pena 2008 .118/.250/.176 0 2 1 1 M. Ramirez 2007 .250/.333/.313 0 2 3 1 M. Holliday 2007.294/.294/.471 1 3 1 1
Pat Borders 2.0?