Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Abreu Would be Good for Angels

Here is a quick quiz: Who had more Win Shares last year between Bobby Abreu and Matt Holliday? Okay, another: Who had more Win Shares last year between Detroit's Granderson, Ordonez and Bobby Abreu? If you answered Bobby Abreu to both questions, you are a sharp baseball fan!

Abreu's Win Shares equaled 24 last year. Holliday had 23. Granderson had 19 and Ordonez, 17. Abreu had way more than Pat Burrell, had one more than Ibanez and way more than Donkey Dunn. So it's been a bit of a mystery why it's taken this long for Abreu to find a home. Yankee fans would have loved to have him back.

Abreu has age against him. He's 35 and his numbers have slightly diminished the past two years, but as the numbers show, he's still a pretty good player. He's certainly better than Nick Swisher or Xavier Nady or whoever the Yankees throw out there in right field. The other knock on him has been his fielding. But he had more fielding Win Shares than Ibanez, Ordonez, Holliday and Josh Hamilton.

If the Angels were to sign Abreu, it doesn't help them get any younger. They gave up on Garrett Anderson, an older player, only to sign Abreu, which wouldn't be that much of an upgrade. But he's an overall more useful player than Anderson at this stage of their careers as he can still steal bases (22 last year). He still hit 20 homers and is approaching 300 for his career. He already has over 300 career steals and is approaching 500 doubles. That's a pretty good career.

1 comment:

Josh Borenstein said...

Very good career. Looks like he'll probably fall a little short of 300-300. One of the more exclusive lists.