Bobby Abreu / I miss Torii

[SoCALkid]

Last Night before bed I caught Quick Pitch and saw Bobby Abreu giving his retirement speech with the Mets and it got me thinking of the 09 team and their playoff run.

I liked Bobby while he was an Angel and I wish him a happy retirement. It's a shame not to see more coverage on him and Konerko this season but whatever.

Second subject: I miss Torii, man what an all around great player to watch. I always loved his enthusiasm towards the game and leadership. Honestly I hate seeing him on the Tigers next to the two biggest douches in the sport IMO Kinsler and Verlander. It'll be fun to watch him in the post season yet again but one thing's for sure, I won't miss his GIDP rally killers.

[Jason]

I'm not feeling quite as nostalgic as you are. Right now I can't wait to see what Trout, Pujols, Shoemaker, Calhoun and company have in store for us the next couple of weeks.

[MVTrout]

I'm feeling "meh" on this.

[Kenny]

Bobby was okay. My only gripe with him was that he wanted to play in RF and Sosh let him. He was supposedly a good clubhouse guy, and helped with some players hitting. Maybe he'll be someone's Don Baylor.

[Blarg]

I thought Abreu retired after 2012. I didn't realize the Mets were so stupid as to bring him back when he had nothing left in the tank two years ago.

[Taylor]

I didn't realize the Mets were so stupid

 

Apparently you haven't been paying attention to the NL East for about 20 years.

[disarcina]

Watching Bobby Abreu late in his career with the Angels and then winding down his career with the Mets (and before that) makes one forget that at one time Bobby Abreu was one of the best multi-faceted players in the game -- he never really had the huge power numbers but he had decent power numbers to go along with a good BA and speed (used to steal 30 to 40 bases a year back in the day) and then was good defensively in the OF.......much of this gets lost watching an older Abreu play (really shouldn't even have a glove on almost)..........

 

but check is career stats, check his stats for his seasons with Philadelphia and Houston.....he had some truly incredible numbers.

 

As for Torii -- I understood the Halos not re-signing him after that final (career year numbers wise) year with us -- but then (much like Torii's comments) I didn't understand it when the Halos put out all that money to sign F/A Hamilton -- I said then (along with many others here) -- given the choice (then and now)........I would have signed Torii Hunter over Hamilton.  We would be a better team today. although Torii might not have been happy as he would not be playing CF and would likely be in a platoon role -- but he sort of was in platoon role this year in Detroit.

[Blarg]

Apparently you haven't been paying attention to the NL East for about 20 years.

 

I thought after they replaced Minaya with Alderson they quit sending the short buss for the executive staff. Looks like Alderson has a team option for 2015. They should opt for leaving the position vacant and run a study to see if there was any change in performance.

[Angelsjunky]

I'm sure Torii enjoys the fact that over the last two years he's been quite a bit better than Hamilton. A classic stupid "pay for the superstar name to get worse performance than what you let go of for much less money" move. I suppose the upshot is that hopefully after two big doozies in a row, Arterry have learned their lesson.

[Lou]

I like Calhoun more

[Chimi]

I liked Abreu when he was here. I will never forget his wall scrapping double off the green monster in game 3 of the ALDS

[Angelsjunky]

I like Calhoun more too although they're similar value players, and Torii is better than Josh.

At the time I was glad Torii was let go as I wanted to see a Trout-Bourjos-Calhoun OF, although would have been ok with a 1-2 year extension.

[disarcina]

I would have been OK without signing Hamilton or Torri........but if the Halos would going to spend the kind of money they spent on Hamilton's contract after letting Torii go -- I would have had them spend less than that and for half the length of the five year deal or whatever Hamilton got for Torii.

[The God of Runs]

It's gonna suck when we knock Torii's team out of the playoffs again

[2002_halos_II]

I  noticed Torii is batting 2nd for Detroit lately. Torii > Josh the last 2 years....

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I thought Abreu retired after 2012. I didn't realize the Mets were so stupid as to bring him back when he had nothing left in the tank two years ago.

 

He spent some time in Las Vegas with the 51s earlier this season before going to New York. The Mets had signed him to a minor league deal.

[joeywings]

Had we resigned him, we would not have had the urgency to sigh  Josh.

Huge mistake.

[mrwicked]

Aubreu was a beast in his prime.

[Oz27]

People are looking at the Torii thing with serious delusion. He really hasn't been good for the Tigers (1.7 WAR last year, 0.5 WAR this year - for the sake of comparison Hamilton is 1.5 WAR both in 2013 and 2014) and most importantly his defensive numbers are diabolical (-3.9 WAR over the last two years combined). He's just a decent DH at this point in his career, he shouldn't be anywhere near the field.

 

Just because Hamilton was a mistake, it doesn't mean we should have signed Torii.

[stevestevens]

I miss wooten more

[2002_halos_II]

People are looking at the Torii thing with serious delusion. He really hasn't been good for the Tigers (1.7 WAR last year, 0.5 WAR this year - for the sake of comparison Hamilton is 1.5 WAR both in 2013 and 2014) and most importantly his defensive numbers are diabolical (-3.9 WAR over the last two years combined). He's just a decent DH at this point in his career, he shouldn't be anywhere near the field.

 

Just because Hamilton was a mistake, it doesn't mean we should have signed Torii.

I was comparing TH stats (G/RBI/HR/AVG) to JH stats. He had a better '13 and '14 than JH.

[Taylor]

People are looking at the Torii thing with serious delusion. He really hasn't been good for the Tigers (1.7 WAR last year, 0.5 WAR this year - for the sake of comparison Hamilton is 1.5 WAR both in 2013 and 2014) and most importantly his defensive numbers are diabolical (-3.9 WAR over the last two years combined). He's just a decent DH at this point in his career, he shouldn't be anywhere near the field.

 

Just because Hamilton was a mistake, it doesn't mean we should have signed Torii.

 

People also have a short memory about Torii's performance in his final season with the Angels. Dude was a GIDP machine and struggled in clutch situations. I like Torii a lot at a person, but I wasn't disappointed when the Angels passed on re-signing him.

[2002_halos_II]

Welp, he still had 92 RBIs and .313 BA despite that, eh?

[70runner]

People also have a short memory about Torii's performance in his final season with the Angels. Dude was a GIDP machine and struggled in clutch situations. I like Torii a lot at a person, but I wasn't disappointed when the Angels passed on re-signing him.

 

Not sure where the GIDP machine comes from.  His 15 GIDPs were 3rd on the team, behind Kendrick (26) and Pujols (19).  Kendrick was (and remains) a serious GIDP threat, although overwhelmed this year by Pujols 28, good for #2 in baseball. 

 

Abreu was a good guy but had turned to mush at the plate and was equally as bad with a glove.  Unfortunately Scioscia kept sticking him at #3 in the order.

[FabulousFabregas]

Torii is the only reason we barely stayed in contention during September 2012.  He was a clutch as **** during that stretch.