alwyn96 said:
Hell, Brandon Wood, Casey Kotchman, Jeff Mathis, Dallas McPherson, Joe Torres. The Angels always seemed like they were loaded, and half the guys never really panned out.
I don't want to muck up the board with another thread, but it's absolutely amazing how hard these players failed. Part of it is the folly of having a team in the California league (sup, Lars Anderson--to an extent), but what brought me here was looking up Mike Napoli's (much more incredible than I realized) numbers.
Napoli was always a good hitting prospect for a catcher, but was never recognized by Baseball America given he wasn't never a good defender, and he was always stuck behind the younger phenom Jeff Mathias. Napoli ended up leapfrogging Mathis given that he actually could hit Major League pitching in the chances he got. To give some perspective, by 2004 the Angels had kept Napoli at A+ so Mathis could catch at AA. By 2005, Mathis was in AAA where he put up a .278/.342/.502 line while Napoli chugged along at AA at .237/.372/.508, a year older than Mathis. Napoli ended up sticking with the club in 2006, and as best as the Angels tried to replace Bengie/Jose Molina, only Napoli produced.
Mathis, always young for his league, put up a very good line of .277/.340/.446 in the minors, with enough of a glove to still allow him to be playing today. However, after 1871 plate appearances, he's managed a putrid 53 OPS+
Former #12 prospect Dallas McPherson: .932 OPS in the minors, 92 OPS+ in the majors (better than I thought)
Brandon Wood, former #3 prospect (behind Delmon "Ugh" Young and Justin Upton), .276/.340/.505 line in the minors (including .321/.381/.667 over 614 PAs between AA and AA at age
20): 40 OPS+ over 770 plate appearances
There are busts, and there are completely horrific busts like Mathis and Wood.