The Angels signed Gary Matthews, Jr. to a five year, $50 million deal. This is a ton of money for a guy who’s had his first big year at the age of 32. Matthews made the news with that amazing over the wall catch for the Rangers and he combined that with his best offensive campaign of his career. His 2006 OPS of .866 was over 100 points higher then his career mark of .755 (which includes 2006) and he set career highs in just about every offensive category outside of stolen bases.
And at least Baseball Prospectus doesn’t give his glove much credit. According to them, he was below average out in the outfield. I haven’t gotten my Bill James Annual yet, but I’m curious to see what the Fielding Bible numbers look like for him.
I think when it comes down to it, this is a lot of money for along time and it’s for one good year. I hope this doesn’t come back to haunt the Angels, but it very well may be.
