Baseball Talk

According to ESPN, Toronto Blue Jays catcher Mike Napoli was traded Tuesday for the second time in four days. This time, Napoli will rejoin the American League West, as he was traded to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, January 25, for relief pitcher Frank Francisco and cash.

“The 29-year-old Napoli had been acquired by Toronto along with outfielder Juan Rivera from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for outfielder Vernon Wells on January 21. The right-handed hitter batted .238 with 26 homers and 68 RBI in 140 games with the Angels in 2010, his fifth season with the club. Napoli set career bests for games, at bats (453), hits (108), doubles (24), homers, and RBI. He led the Angels in homers and slugging (.468), tied for fourth in doubles, and ranked fifth in RBI. Napoli also batted a team best .305 (43-141) vs. left-handed pitching.” See the full story here on espndallas.com.  

Mike Napoli with the LA Angels. photo from: http://piatpattoes.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/mike-napoli-claimed-on-waivers/

The story is newsworthy for multiple reasons. First off, as stated before, Napoli is coming off of one of the best seasons of his career. Secondly, he adds much needed depth to the Rangers’ catching staff. Last season Texas aquired veteran catcher Bengie Molina, who helped it reach the World Series with his ability to handle its pitching staff. But the Rangers decided not to re-sign the 36-year-old catcher, so Texas’ three other catchers will compete for the back-up spot on the opending day roster. Napoli, with his good track record as a catcher in Los Angeles, will most likely be expected to some what mentor the Rangers’ other catchers. Since Napoli can also play first base, the other catchers, Taylor Teagarden, Yorvit Torrealba, and Matt Treanor, will most likely compete for two spots in Texas’ lineup during spring training. All three catchers saw playing time last season and all showed promising signs for the future, so the competition should be great once the team reports to camp. Check out the Rangers’ current 40-man roster to see the situation yourself.

The story also makes a good news story because it is interesting and current to the fans. It also impacts one of baseball’s top catchers so it is prominent as well. The fact the Napoli has been traded twice in a span of four days makes for an interesting story itself. And the fact the he is going back to the same division (AL West), where he spent most of his previous playing days, makes the story even more interesting. I believe that most fans, along with myself, are excited to see what Napoli can bring to the table in Texas when he and the rest of his new teammates report for spring training next month.

Thomas Schmeltz

What’s up everyone! My name is Thomas Schmeltz and I am a sophomore journalism major here at BGSU. Here’s a little bit of background about myself: I’m from the small town of Pemberville, and attended Eastwood High School, just outside of Bowling Green. While in high school I played baseball and golf. Not only do I love those two sports, but I also love nearly every other sport. I find almost all competiton to be very compelling. Now that my baseball playing days are over, I have decided to begin coaching. I coached one year of little league baseball with my bestfriend and BGSU football player, Clay Rolf. After that season, I decided to begin helping my uncle coach the American Legion baseball team in my hometown of Pemberville. Coaching the American Legion team is a great experience because it allows me to be around the game that I still love, and it allows me to meet great, new people when we are on the road for our trips. Prior to attending BGSU I studied journalism and promotional communications at Cleveland State University for one year before moving back to the Bowing Green area. Living in Cleveland had its ups and downs. On one end of the spectrum, it was really nice to be out living on my own, but on the other end of the sepctrum, i realized how much I missed my friends from back in my hometown area. That’s basically the main reason I came back home and decided to go to BGSU. Plus, the education here at BG is much better than at Cleveland State, so it worked out in my favor both ways.

Since moving back to the area and enrolling at BGSU, I was recently hired as a sports writer for The Sentinel-Tribune newspaper which is based here in BG. For me, this is a huge thrill because it is the perfect job for me. I have aspired to be a sports writer since I was in the eighth grade, and now that I have already achieved that goal, I cannot help but be excited to see what my future has in store for me, as I now have bigger and better goals to achieve. At the newspaper I mainly cover high school sports, but sometimes I get the opportunity to write feature articles on people and/or BGSU events. Just an example; I wrote a feature about the men’s club rugby team being ranked No. 1 in the nation. By the way, all of my work can be found at the newspaper’s website.

As you might have noticed from reading before, my favorite sport is baseball. Therefore, I will be basing this blog on current news in the world of baseball from free agent signings, to trades, to rumors, all the way to teams that are playing well/not so well. This should be a pretty fun blog that is intended to keep readers informed in the world of baseball, so I will do my very best to serve its pupose. Enjoy!