They're Messing With Us, Right?

No Doubt Craig Bevan has something to say on this.

A few texts started to trickle into my phone yesterday regarding former Phillie, Bobby Abreu.

“They’re gonna sign him to a minor league deal!?”

Incredulous, I had to check twitter the first chance I got to see if this astounding news could possibly be true.  Sure enough, Matt Gelb, Phillies beat writer, confirmed these rumors with back-to-back tweets. For good measure, national writer and former Phillies' beat writer, Jayson Stark re-tweeted Jerry Crasnick’s report that the Phillies had indeed, signed Bobby Abreu. The deal is for $800,000 and an invite to Spring Training.

Just try and wrap your head around this one while I enlighten you with some insight and thoughts on this signing.

First thing you’d want to do when checking out a free agent the Phillies just signed is see what his stats were the prior year. Here’s the problem: Thirty-nine-year-old Bobby Abreu did not play Major League Baseball in 2013. Let it sink in. Okay, okay, calm enough yet? What’d he do in 2012 you wonder? He managed to play in 100 games mostly with the Dodgers (8 with the Angels, 8?) and hit .242 with 3 home runs and 24 RBI in 257 plate appearances. Basically, Bobby was on his last legs in 2012.

Somehow, the brain trust that is the Phillies’ front office thought bringing Bobby in to possibly platoon in the outfield was a good idea. At face value, it’s a downright terrible idea. The Phillies roster was already ancient by MLB standards and they managed to push that average age up a few ticks with this signing. What’s Jamie Moyer doing you think right now? Pick him up!

It is unlikely that Bobby will add much value to this ball club, but it’s also just a peculiar signing because of the relationship that he had with the fan base when he spent parts of 9 seasons here. The seasons Bobby spent here were mostly depressing times for the Phils. It was Scott Rolen and Bobby and not much else. When he was here, he was a helluva ballplayer. He was that rare 5 tool player mixing a combination of speed, power, average, arm, and (sort of) defense.

Who could forget the show Bobby put on winning the 2005 Home Run Derby?

It wasn’t Bobby’s skills that made him the subject of most fans’ ire. It was his attitude. Even though I’m sure he did, Bobby never looked like he gave a shit about what happened. Even when he was beating out infield hits it looked like he was lollygagging. He never seemed like he was trying hard and always seemed disinterested. And going after fly balls that got near the wall? Forget it! The warning track might as well have been a moat. As you can imagine, this type of insolence did not fit well in a town that was lauding players like Allen Iverson and Brian Dawkins at the time when Bobby was playing well. He was not the blue collar athlete this town loves to glorify.

Still, none of that stopped Bobby from putting up serious numbers year, after year, after year. Here’s a few Bobby Abreu stats that will just about blow your mind. He had 7 consecutive seasons and 8 out of 9 with at least 100 RBI (5 of them with the Phillies). He needs 13 home runs to become the third player ever with 300 home runs and 400 steals, the other two are Barry Bonds and his father Bobby. His career batting average is .292 and he finished 6 seasons above .300. He had two 30/30 years (30 home runs 30 steals) and 7 20/20 seasons. He ranks 23^rd all-time in doubles with 565.

Then comes the reason I think Bobby was actually signed to play for the 2014 Phillies. On-base percentage. Bobby Abreu is what I like to call a professional hitter. Aside from Chase Utley, the Phillies have really lacked a guy who knows how to work an at bat since the departure of Jayson Werth.  As my friends know I like to say often, he’s got an eye like DiMaggio. He doesn’t give away at-bats by chasing bad pitches early in the count. He makes pitchers work, something I have been complaining for years about the Phillies not doing. Bobby’s career on-base percentage is a Hall-of-Fame-esque .396. He had 8 consecutive seasons with 100 walks or more. Eight. Of active players, Bobby ranks 9^th for career on base percentage.

There is some knowledge and know-how in that head of Bobby Abreu’s that needs to be imparted on every single member of this Phillies’ offense. Most notably Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard. It remains to be seen if you can teach those old dogs new tricks but I  have to believe in my (homer) mind that Ruben Amaro brought Bobby Abreu back in to the fold to teach these guys how to draw a walk. How to identify pitches. How to be better hitters.  That’s the silver-lining, if you can find one, to the Bobby Abreu signing.

Alas, I’d be remiss if I did not mention my disgust with the two other recent Phillies re-tread signings. Both of which, I’m more upset with than the Abreu situation.

At this point the Phillies have a dearth of pitching talent, which (sort of) explains why they felt the need to bring back Kyle Kendrick. Kendrick was headed to arbitration this year and I guess the Phillies desperately wanted to avoid that scene and decided to go ahead and give Kyle Kendrick $7.6 million for the 2014 season. This is another let it sink in moment. Seven. Point. Six. Million. for a guy who’s second half stats last year look like this: 11 games started, 2-7, 6.91 ERA, 44 runs given up in 57.1 innings,  opponents hit .333 off of him, and he had a 1.69 WHIP.

I could see bringing him back because he does have a proven track record better than those numbers, but for $7.6 million?!? You can’t tell me we couldn’t pick a guy off a trash heap of mediocre MLB starters, pay him $3 million, and have him be just as effective as whatever we’re going to get out of Kyle Kendrick this year. I just threw up everywhere.

Moving on.

It was no secret last year that I had had it with John Mayberry Jr. He had an outstanding second half of 2011 when the Phllies were going to win 100 games with our without his production. Since then he’s been afforded every opportunity to be an everyday player in this league and he’s proven that he is more of a liability than an asset. He has terrible at bats and his stats are borderline atrocious over a solid amount of playing time the last two years. He’s at times clueless on the base baths. And while he is a decent outfielder, he insists on diving at ball after ball that he has no business diving at. It’s infuriating. Still! The Phillies managed to “avoid arbitration” and signed him to a 1 year deal worth $1.6 million.

Meanwhile, the player the Phillies received in the Hunter Pence deal from 2012, Nate Schierholtz, was jettisoned after his two month tour with the Phillies. He was picked up by the Cubs last year for $2.25 million and here are his stats, with Mayberry’s right below (Note, you can click on the picture to enlarge it).

That's a nice 2013 for Nate Schierholtz

Not too good for John Mayberry in 2012 and 2013

That is a big stinking whiff Ruben. I hope you know what you’re doing because it sure doesn’t feel like you do.

Til next time..