Abreu to the Angels?

[17 Seconds]

This cracked me up. Rob Neyer completely called out Jon Heyman

 

Nobody's confirmed the deal yet, but Jon Heyman's reporting that Bobby Abreu's about to sign with the Angels for $5 million plus maybe a little extra. Details and analysis:

 

 

Free agent outfielder Bobby Abreu and the Angels have an agreement on a one-year deal, SI.com has learned. The deal is worth a little more than $5 million and also includes incentives. --snip-- For the Yankees last year Abreu hit .296 with 20 home runs and 100 RBIs. He is a solid defensive right fielder whose one perceived flaw, a reluctance to go near the wall, became an issue last year, especially in the media. Abreu represents a nice replacement for Mark Teixeira, the Angels free-agent first baseman who signed with the Yankees, Abreu's old team. The Yankees decided against offering Abreu arbitration since he made $16 million last year and could have matched that mark in the arbitration process, based on his consistently excellent numbers, so no draft choice is attached to an Abreu signing.

 

Umm, no he's not. A solid defensive right fielder, I mean. Over the last three seasons, his average Ultimate Zone Rating was minus-12, which is hardly solid. Last year alone it was minus-26, which is simply dreadful. Maybe that number was anomalous. But probably not. He's probably just a really, really bad outfielder at this point in his career. Which is mostly why nobody wanted to pay him anything like the $16 million he made last year.

 

 

I do think he could be a pretty solid deal at $5 million, depending on the incentives and how often the Angels are able to slot him as their DH. But $5 million at this point in Abreu's career is not obviously a great bargain for the Angels; if he plays this year like he did last year, that's just about what he's worth. Funny how that worked out.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3899973&name=Neyer_Rob

[SouthSideRyan]

Abreu has very little to do with Miles, you can't expect Hendry to think "I'm going to wait on adding a crucial part to my team because the market might unexpectedly tank".

 

The problem is 1) Signing Miles at all, 2) considering Miles a crucial part of a team, and 3) paying Miles 2/5 regardless of the market conditions.

 

This is my sentiment.

 

This is the first time in many, many years that players have become the bargains they are this offseason. Hendry should not be faulted for signing Bradley regardless of what Dunn or Abreu signed for.

 

The Miles signing is bad because it's a 2-year deal for Aaron Freaking Miles, not because of the other bargains to be had.

 

I don't really think anybody is faulting him for signing Bradley in this thread. I noyl brought him up because that guy brought up outfielders and how they is no market for them. I'm talking about Miles being a bad signing.

 

 

But the Miles signing is a bad signing regardless of what Abreu got. Abreu could have gotten 4/40 and I'd still think Miles was a bad signing. Miles isn't a bad signing because we're paying him 2.5 million this year. It's a bad signing because he's Aaron Miles.

 

But it's worse in the context of the market in general. Abreu and Miles aren't a direct comparison, but Abreu's just example 99 of how bad that Miles contract is.

[CubinNY]

In the infield you either make the play or you don't. In the outfield you can actually catch the ball, you can save extra bases on plays you don't, and you can throw out runners. Especially given that, I'm not sure there's significantly fewer chances in the outfield.

 

Here's my deal with the new defensive metrics, they don't work.

 

There is a huge spread of talent when it comes to hitting, hitting with power, and speed. In other words, the SD of MLB ballplayers in those regards is pretty big. A big SD and the further away from the mythical average player the bigger the difference you make (bad or good)

 

When it come to defense, speed plays a roll in as far as position one plays but you are much more likely to see a lumbering LF/RF than you are a track star (barring late inning replacements). In addition, the spread of ability when it comes to catching a ball at the major league level is not very wide. In other words, the vast majority of guys are all bunched together near the average. With a narrow SD like that there are fewer outliers. Maybe Abreu is one of them but even if he's 1 SD or even 1.5 SD from the average player that spread isn't very far, so he's not that much worse than the average guy. I'd say the biggest difference in ability will come with arm strength and accuracy. IMO, that's where the cream gets separated, but again the spread is probably is not that big.

 

Now about IF v. OF. By the time the ball gets to the OF it's a hit or its caught. Most of the time its routine one way or the other. Sometimes a guy will have to go to the gap or head toward the wall to make a play, but that might happen 1 or 2 times a fortnight. Most of the time whatever damage was done was decided by the time the ball left the IF. The IF is different, however, guys who cannot cut it don't stay there long or they get moved to 1st. So again the spread is pretty narrow. The difference comes in as ability to get to a ball, knock a ball down, or dive substantially changes the outcome of a batted ball. That's not going to happen in the OF.

[cubbinalltheway]

The difference comes in as ability to get to a ball, knock a ball down, or dive substantially changes the outcome of a batted ball. That's not going to happen in the OF.

i dont put a lot of percentage on defense when evaluating a player, so i tend to agree with your post for the most part. i take issue with the quoted portion though. that's just not true.

[TruffleShuffle]

Was Miles paid in rupees? Of course Miles has something to do with Abreu. Every dollar spent on him was a dollar that could've been spent on any of 500 players better than him. Included in that group is Abreu.

 

If the question is whether I would rather have Aaron Miles, Milton Bradley and Aaron Heilman as my 5th starter or Bobby Abreu and Jake Peavy, I think I'd take Abreu and Peavy.

 

it's more like aaron miles, milton bradley and aaron heilman as the 5th starter, or abreu, peavy, and no vitters, marshall, and a couple other prospects.