What Napoli does behind the plate matters most

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ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Being a catcher under Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia is kind of like playing point guard for Larry Brown. The expectations are immense, but they're not necessarily what the casual fan might expect. Which is why Mike Napoli can be tied for second in the American League in home runs, after hitting his ninth and 10th and driving in five runs Sunday against the Dodgers, and still have no assurance that his name will be on the Angels' lineup card Tuesday night in Toronto. "Mike's playing a position that's very important for us -- and it's defense first," Scioscia said after the 10-2 victory. "One of the reasons Jeff (Mathis) was getting a long string of games was because he was catching as well as anybody could possibly catch. That's something we look at very closely." This figures to frustrate all of those experts who populate message boards and have all kinds of solutions for propping up the Angels' struggling offense. The popular logic: If a guy has 10 home runs and 23 RBI in just 27 of the team's 46 games, why, what could he do if he played every day? Here's an alternative view: Napoli and Mathis combined (Nathis? Mapoli?) have 13 homers, 31 RBI, a .248 batting average -- and a 26-20 won-loss record, 11/2 games ahead in the AL West. The latter is Scioscia's ultimate criteria. "Our catchers are evaluated on a lot of things defensively," he said. "The most important is how many runs they give up when they catch, and do we win or do we lose." For what it's worth, the Angels are 13-8 when Mathis has started this year, 47-26 dating back to last season. They're 13-12 when Napoli has started, and his contributions Sunday were tangible indeed. Defensively, he steadied Jered Weaver, called the right pitches and threw out Juan Pierre trying to steal in the first (though the Dodgers pulled a double steal with Pierre and Russell Martin in the fourth). But he won this one with his bat: a three-run bomb into the bullpen on Derek Lowe's 0-2 pitch in the second, an RBI single in the fourth after the Dodgers had scored twice in the top of the inning, and a solo homer off Scott Proctor in the sixth. That was his 23rd hit -- and 23rd RBI. It gave him 12 RBI in his past 13 games and raised his average to .258. "Awesome," Weaver said. "I came up with him in the minor leagues, and it was always solid to see him hitting homers and hitting balls in the gap. I always knew it was there, and he's definitely shown it this year." Napoli led the Class A California League in homers and RBI in 2004 (29 and 118 at Rancho Cucamonga), and duplicated the feat in the AA Texas League in '05 (31 and 99 at Arkansas). In his first two seasons in Anaheim he had 16 homers in 99 games and 10 in 75 games. "Me and Mick have worked on standing a little taller, using some leverage, just trying to be a little more quiet" in his swing, Napoli said, referring to hitting coach Mickey Hatcher. "I'm just trying to hit the ball into the gaps hard, just trying to put good swings on pitches." Maintaining that stroke would seem tremendously difficult when you don't play every day. Yet this is the situation he must live with, and even five or six more two-homer games in the next couple of weeks might not change Scioscia's mind, except maybe as a tiebreaker. "I come in every day and look at the lineup card," Napoli said. "That's how it goes. I just come in here and get mentally prepared like I'm playing every day. If I'm not, I just go get my work in at the cage and down on the field. "It's always been the role since I've been up here. I mean, 'Sciosh' likes to use his catchers, and we have two good catchers here. I just roll with it." And as if the message hadn't already sunk in, Scioscia pounded it home after maybe Napoli's best offensive day as a big leaguer. "After the game he was like, 'Good job -- on the catching side,' " Napoli said. In other words, Napoli might want to keep checking that lineup card every day.(Contact Jim Alexander at jalexander@PE.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)