Yankees Land the Big Fish in Abreu

By: Brian Kevin Williams
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:26:15
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As expected from just about everyone in the baseball world, the Yankees made a move before the trading deadline. What wasn’t expected was that the Yankees would reel in such a huge catch: two-time All Star Bobby Abreu and pitcher Cory Lidle, who may turn out to be the huge sleeper that the Yankees need to hold up the back of their rotation. The Yankees didn’t necessarily need offensive help, but when you aren’t giving up any of your top prospects for a five-tool player, and a solid #3-4 starting pitcher, I think that constitutes as a steal.

A lot of people have been knocking Abreu on his relatively small number of homeruns that he has so far, eight. With the short left field porch in right field, and plus batting in that Yankee lineup, whether it’s at full-strength or not, his homerun numbers will rise. Just take a look at Johnny Damon, who many people felt was going to not have as strong an offensive season as he had last year; this season, he has already hit 13 HR’s, including two today against the Devil Rays. Abreu also had the highest .OBP in the NL (.427) and has 20 SB’s; we’re looking at a guy that could legitimately be a 30/30 guy in Yankee Stadium, or possibly even 40/40.

Yankee fans get on some of their players often about being “clutch”, or not being clutch enough on the field. Well, according to TheHardBallTime’s “Clutch Calculator” Abreu is the fourth clutchest player in the National League, more clutch than the Mets’ Carlos Beltran who is having a career year. I know many Yankee fans will get a kick out of this as well, Abreu is a career .357 hitter against the Boston Red Sox, .409 against the Chicago White Sox, and .364 against the Detroit Tigers. This guy is certainly an upgrade over Bernie Williams in rightfield, both with his bat (Silver Slugger Award in ‘04), and with his glove (Gold Glove in ‘05).

Lidle was a nice pickup as well for the Yankees, who is definitely better than Jared Wright and Sidney Ponson. He has won his last four starts, and is perfect for a middle or back of the rotation type role. So before everyone gets annoyed at the Yankees giving up their prospects, remember that we got two immediate impact players, as well as one that is certainly capable of putting up big numbers and making huge plays in the field. While I think that Abreu is certainly overpaid, I also think at the same time, he was always underappreciated in his stay in Philadelphia.

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