By Theo DeRosa, Sports Talk Philly staff
The expansion draft of 1997 established the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Arizona Diamondbacks as MLB franchises. In the draft, they were allowed to choose among the unprotected players of the other 28 teams, with 15 protected players from each organization off-limits.
With the sixth pick of the first round, the Rays took a second-year right fielder from the Houston Astros, but decided he wouldn't be long for Tampa Bay. They flipped him to the Philadelphia Phillies for starting shortstop Kevin Stocker in what seemed a shrewd move at the time. Stocker, though, declined from a .324/.409/.417 rookie season in 1993, and ended up a .254/.338/.343 career hitter, out of MLB by just 2000.
The outfielder he was traded for in that expansion draft went on to prodigious success in Major League Baseball and with the Phillies.
Career Accomplishments
Bobby Abreu was one of the best hitters in MLB during a career which stretched from 1996 to an attempt at a comeback year with the New York Mets in 2014. He compiled a .291/.395/.475 line and bashed 288 career home runs. Abreu was one of the best of his era in terms of reaching base, 78th-best all-time, including a career-high mark of .446 in 1999. That year, Abreu hit .335/.446/.549 for an astounding .995 and somehow finished just 23rd in NL MVP voting (Barry Bonds, who had a slugging percentage of .617 that year and an OPS of 1.006, finished 24th).
Abreu played eight full seasons with the Phillies, quietly building a strong legacy in an otherwise forgettable era. He was named an All-Star in both 2004 and 2005, winning a Silver Slugger award in 2004 and a Gold Glove in 2005. Abreu was traded along with pitcher Cory Lidle to the New York Yankees in July of 2006 for a haul of prospects.
Best Phillies Moment
In 2005, MLB's All-Star Weekend in Detroit featured a different type of Home Run Derby. To represent that year's World Baseball Classic, the field consisted of eight players from eight different countries. Bobby Abreu, representing Venezuela, found himself pitted against such hitters as Puerto Rico's Ivan "Pudge" Rodríguez and the Dominican Republic's David Ortiz. Abreu crushed 41 homers and ran away with the contest, displaying the Phillies' muscle on a national stage. The next year, Ryan Howard edged out David Wright as a Phillie won another Derby.
Enjoy Chris Berman on the call — "back, back, back, back, back" in this video of the 2005 Home Run Derby as Abreu victimized Comerica Park.
Reasoning for ranking
Bobby Abreu totaled 45 points according to our formula (explained more below), three points ahead of No. 11 Sherry Magee. Abreu had nine seasons of 2+ WAR and seven seasons of 5+ WAR (a season of 5 WAR is an All-Star-caliber season). He ranks second in Phillies history in OPS, 18th in batting average, 15th in career hits, fourth in doubles, and 11th in both home runs and RBI.
Point breakdown:
(9) years as a Phillie = 3 points
(Top 25 in batting average = 1 point
(9) seasons of 2+ WAR x (1) point/year = 9 points
(7) seasons of 5+ WAR x (3) point/year = 21 points
Top 3 in OPS = 5 points
Top 25 in hits = 1 point
Top 10 in doubles = 3 points
Top 25 in home runs = 1 point
Top 25 in RBI = 1 point
Total = 45 points
Previous entries
The formula
The player rankings formula combines both traditional and advanced statistics/metrics and assigns a point total to each category. These statistics only reflect the player's Phillies career.
