Gary Matthews Jr is the Embodiment of Evil

Or at least the embodiment of bad baseball.

Yesterday's Angels-Yankees game was ugly as sin, at least for the last two full innings. It had the potential to be a classic offensive slugfest, except the Angels took all the fun out of it by making 4 bad errors in the 7th and 8th to fuel the Yankees comeback. 9 of the Yankees 14 runs were unearned. We can debate the merit of earned versus unearned runs all day long (such as whether or not Xavier Nady's homerun should be earned because even though an error occured, it had no direct impact on his at bat, since he would have had one eventually anyway), but the fact remains that this was some ugly defense. I didn't get to see most of this game, but I've seen the highlights (lowlights?) and the play-by-play.

Aybar blew a ground ball in the 8th that by some accounts would have been a double play, but by all accounts should have at least gotten one out. Mathis threw a ball away (he's done that WAY too much this year) which directly allowed a run to score. This tied the game up. A couple of walks and a groundout later, Shields got A-Rod to ground into a tailor-made double play ball to Figgins. The Angels would have been out of the inning and still been tied (and remember they punked Mariano on Friday for the game winning run in this situation) but Figgins booted it and everyone was safe. 4 runs later and the game was out of reach. Mark Teixeira's grand slam, which SHOULD have been the focus, is left by the wayside. (Seriously, an eighth inning grand slam as your first homerun for your new team in Yankee Stadium to put your team up by one? That's movie stuff right there.)

More egregious to the folks over at Halos Heaven was the error by GMJ in the 7th, which directly allowed the tying run to get on base, and indirectly led to the 3-run homerun by Nady, which was hit with two outs. So they're calling for Gary's head on a stick sharpened at both ends (in other words, designate him for assignment).

Is that the proper move or is it just fan reactionism based on one bad play?

Here are the facts:

1. Gary will make another $43 million (including this year's salary) over the next 4 years. So he's making roughly $11 million per year for his age 33 - 36 seasons, taking him through 2011.

2. There is a no trade clause in his contract that extends through the 2009 season.

3. Gary has had one good full season in his career, which happened to occur right before the offseason in which the Angels needed a centerfielder. Nice timing there.

4. According to a metric at Baseball Prospectus based on how many plays he makes relative to other players at that position, Gary is 1.7 runs above average in CF, 4.2 runs BELOW average in LF, and, here's the kicker, 7.8 runs below average in RF (the only right fielders with more than 200 innings there who've been worse are Jose Guillen and Bobby Abreu). Add all that up and it equals extreme fielding suckitude.

5. Gary has been awful at the plate this year (70 OPS+).

So what does this tell us? Gary's 2006 season was most likely a fluke and his production will most likely continue to decline. From the Angels' perspective, this is what is called around the business world as a "bad decision." So what do they do going forward?

They sit him on the bench. If they let him go (or try to get him to waive his no-trade clause), they will have to fill his position from within. Who are the options in the minors? There are a few guys who are hitting pretty well down there: Sean Rodriguez (2B), Brandon Wood (3B), Kendry Morales (1B), Matt Brown (3B), Adam Pavkovich (OF). The first three of those guys are relatively young prospects who the Angels are still trying to develop (and they're infielders). The Halo's have been roundly criticized for their handling of Wood already, the consensus being to either bring him up and play him everyday or keep him in the minors to work on the numerous holes in his swing. Morales and Rodriguez have both struggled with the bat in stints at the major league level. Matt Brown is almost 26, so he's not really a prospect any more, but he also struggled mightily in his brief time with the Angels earlier in the season.

Pavkovich is interesting because I've never heard anything about him. He's 28, so the Angels don't have to worry about screwing up his development, but he's also never hit for this kind of power in the minors before (21 HR's this season versus 2 all of last season). If the Angels think this guy might have a chance to outproduce Matthews...

But why make that call? The Angels know what Gary does. There are no mysteries there. He'll hit poorly, walk a little bit, play decent defense in center, and steal a base or two. Matthews has value as their 6th OF. The Angels should either DH Rivera with Garret in left, or play Willits in left and DH Garret. Matthews can be a late game pinch hitting option if you need a platoon matchup. He's also a better baserunner than Rivera or Anderson if you need that (assuming Willits has already been used and Gary's knee is okay).

Is Matthews overpaid? Wildly. But they won't get squat (figuratively) back for him in trade (assuming he'd waive the clause), and they won't get squat (literally) back for him by outright DFA'ing him. If he stays? The Angels won't have to hurt the development of their youngsters by bringing them up and sitting them on the bench, and they won't have to worry about playing a complete unknown like Pavkovich in a pennant race. As bad as that dropped ball was, it wasn't bad enough to eat $30 million worth of contract when Matthews could have some value if used in the proper manner.

If the Angels maintain a 10+ game lead in the division, I would expect Gary to get a start every week to provide some rest for Anderson, Hunter, and Vlad. This could pay some big dividends come playoff time if those guys are well-rested. If the Angels start to slip, I would expect Gary to get maybe 2 - 3 innings a week as a defensive replacement/pinch runner for Rivera or Anderson. Upon no circumstances will Gary get ANY playing time in October unless Willits gets his legs stuck in a combine or something. If Scioscia has the authority (and self control) to use him this way, I don't see the wisdom in cutting him.