Since the Jays refuse to make news (sign Vlad, please, and a free agent or four), let’s start on some free-agent polls.
I guess there is a little news, not Jays news, but Rays news. They are going to be playing in the Yankees spring training home, George M. Steinbrenner Field. It is in Tampa, and it can seat 11,026, which is about as many people as would go to Tropicana (they claim that they averaged 16,515 last season, I don’t believe it).
I’ve been to Steinbrenner Field, a smaller replica of Yankee Stadium, which is a nice place to watch a game. Tampa is a spread-out city. This ballpark is a fair distance from downtown Tampa, but then so is Tropicana.
Tropicana repairs will cost $55.7 million (I’ll take the over) and won’t be finished until 2026.
There is also some doubt that the new St. Petersburg ballpark will happen. The Pinellas County Commissioners have ‘delayed voting’ on the bond issue that was to pay for it. It sounds like a couple of Rays-friendly politicians were replaced by less-friendly ones.
Bobby Abreu is on the ballot for the sixth time. Last year, he was on 14.8% of the writers’ votes, right about where he was the year before.
Abreu was a much better player than I thought.
Abreu had a very good 18-year career. He hit .291/.395/.475 with 288 home runs and 400 steals (that surprises me) in 2425 games. The significant number is the 1476 walks (good for 20th all-time). He took over 100 walks in 8 straight seasons. In addition, he had OBPs above .400 in 9 seasons. I’d love the Jays to have a player who could get on base like that.
Bobby received MVP votes in seven seasons (though his high mark was 14th). He won one Gold Glove, made two All-Star teams, and won one Silver Slugger. In his career, he had a 60 bWAR.
He doesn’t have the single stat writers like to point to when voting. He doesn’t have 500 home runs, and he doesn’t have 3000 hits (but then 2470 hits isn’t bad), but he did everything well. His career had a high peak, but he also had a long stretch of being a good player after the peak.
Abreu is similar to Scott Rolen: good at so many things (though not in the same class defensively), not a traditional Hall of Famer, but someone more deserving than you would think at first glance. Rolen made it last year. Will the writers look to Abreu a little closer? By bWAR, Abreu is a 60.2, Rolen a 70.1.
He is the type of player I would love to have on my team. Not many thought of him as a Hall of Fame player during his career, but he was an excellent player. Perhaps it is because we judge players differently than we did then. We used to like the big number more, 500 home runs, 3000 hits, but we can see the value of guys who did many things well.
There are players in the Hall who I think are less deserving.
You can see his career numbers here.