Dreams and Nightmares: Mike Napoli

As I get ready for my trip to Arizona for some Angel spring training games, I've decided to take a look at the range of possibilities for Angel players using the brand new percentile projections of the CHONE system.

I'll start with the man behind the plate. Mike Napoli had an excellent 2008 when he was able to get into the lineup, and followed it up with a pair of homers off Josh Beckett in the only Angel postseason win.

A Napoli dream season looks like 276/401/568. That actually isn't much different than Mike's actual rate stats from last year. The dream is that he does it while staying healthy. In 456 at-bats, he'd hit 33 homers while taking 85 walks.

The nightmare is a .195 average as his swing for the fences approach results in little contact, and injuries prevent him from ever finding a groove.