Phils successfully cut ties with former cornerstones

Once considered indispensable parts of their master plan, the Phillies said goodbye to Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell and haven’t regretted it.

For the first time in Beerleaguer history, traffic has dipped in September, and understandably so. Instead of giving chase, the Phils are playing with a commanding lead, which is satisfying, and unfortunately, quite boring. They’re on the road in Florida, after taking two of three from Atlanta, rivals in a very liberal sense of the term. You can link 10 million dead cats by their tails, swing them across several counties and never hit a Braves or Marlins fan. So traffic is down, discourse is flat and that makes me a very unhappy Beerleaguer.

A good rule of thumb over the years has been to rely on old standbys Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell in lean times in order to spark a good debate. A wise man once said if I ever developed writer’s block, just post the names "Abreu" or "Burrell" in the subject field and allow the readers to unleash the hounds of hell.

Rather than mail it in, let’s give these once popular jerseys a proper context: In light of their championship rings and soon-to-be third division title, Abreu and Burrell haven’t been missed. Since 2006, their record has gotten progressively better. They sent their entire outfield to the All-Star game this season. The role of right-handed thunder has been adequately filled by Jayson Werth, and the void in left has been manned capably by Raul Ibanez.

The Phillies wish they could say the decisions to cut ties with Abreu and Burrell proved difficult, but we know better. The Phils actually kicked in Cory Lidle to sweeten the Abreu salary dump deal and accepted a grab-bag of worthless prospects from the Yankees. Popular wisdom says the easy-going Abreu was something of a "cooler" on an underachieving team. I continue to wonder if David Bell wasn’t the one having that effect.

As for Burrell, there was never a doubt he was riding off into sunset on those Clydesdales.

Domino leaves R-Phils, IronPigs: (From a news release) Chuck Domino, long-time General Manager and President of the Reading Phillies and Lehigh Valley IronPigs, has relinquished his current positions, effective immediately. This move will pave the way for him to become the Chief Executive Manager, through a management agreement between Domino Consulting and the ownership group of the Connecticut Defenders, who will be relocated to Richmond, Virginia for the 2010 Eastern League season. Domino started as general manager with the club in 1987. Beerleaguer: When history looks back, Domino will be seen as one of the execs who reshaped minor league baseball into what it is today.

Comments

[CJ]

I'll do my part to help, Jason:

Abreu was addition by subtraction.

The time is yours...

[awh]

JW, I must bring up one point. Larry Bowa spoke a couple of times how "great" Bell was in the clubhouse.

Now, I don't take that as the gospel, but with someone like Bowa who has a burning, if not borderline psychotic, desire to win, I wonder if your'e being fair to Bell.

[Bubba]

Another view on Abreu from MLB.com

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090922&content_id=7102540&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[Old Phan]

I guess that's why they call it a "team". Also, you don't regret losing a player if you get an equal or better replacement. Nothing against Bobby or Aaron Rowand, but I'll take who's in their place now. I am in the minority of people who wanted to see PtB signed, but it's impossible to complain about Raul.

[Greg V.]

Bobby A was one of the most sluggish and half assed players ever! I never liked him and was thrilled to pieces when the Phillies got rid of him! Sure, he put up consistant numbers but he got all his big hits in situations where it didn't matter. He was hardly a clutch hitter!

Burrell I'll always miss for one reason or another. Mediocre? Yes. But when Abreau wasn't getting those big hits, Burrell was. His slumps were disastorous but his highs were something else. I saw the writing on the wall last year as he went on another slump. It was very fitting though his last hit in a Phillies uniform would be driven in by Pedro Feliz to win the World Series.

[J. Weitzel]

awh: I heard the opposite. Heard Bell was hard on young players and made everyone tight.

Funny - they said the same things about Bowa.

[Shane]

Concur.

I had observed that over Abreu's tenure as a Phillie his stats followed a pattern over the season. Low average and lots of HRs and then at the end of the season his HRs tailed off and this average rose. To me, that suggests he was just padding his stats. He could be a 20+ HR guy and he could be a .300 hitter, but not both at the same time which his stats seem to show us.

Instead of getting hits and trying to jerk HRs when the team needed them, Bobby was doing in when HE needed them to pad his stats. Swing for the fences early in the year, but by late Aug. early Sept. lose the HR swing and start slapping hits to bring the average back up. Add in the non-aggressive fielding and it is easy to see how he can be replaced by someone with seemingly lesser stats.

Pitchers were never pitching to a .300 AVG 25 HR Abreu, they were either pitching to a .330 AVG 5 HR Abreu _OR_ a .250 AVG 30 HR Abreu. The .300 25 Abreu was a statistical myth.

[Old Phan]

You rarely, if ever, hear anything positive about Bowa on a personal level.

[DH Phils]

Abreu only hit home runs early in the season?

Abreu career SLG by month:

March/April: .444
May: .494
June: .516
July: .497
August: .506
September/October: .492

Not much of a month-by-month trend, but if anything, he's been a slow starter power-wise.

Accusations of stat-padding are simply ridiculous, if you ask me. The guy was a brutal outfielder but he was the Phillies' best hitter for a period of about 6 years.

[DH Phils]

Also, every hitter has month-to-month variation so saying that he was either a .330/5 HR guy or a .250/30 HR guy is pretty meaningless.

You could luck at Pujols's stats this year and say in June he was swinging for the fences and was a .320/80 HR kind of guy and then in September decided to pad his batting average and become a .390/45 HR kind of guy. That would be technically true but meaningless.

[Chris in VA]

Abreu was neither a leader nor a drag on this team. A good ballplayer? Sure. An explosive stud? No. Exciting? No. Abreu was the most patient hitter on the club, rarely swinging at the first pitch and often taking counts deep. That said, the meringue music that accompanied his stride to the plate was about the most exciting thing about his game.

But remember this - we got the guy for Kevin freakin' Stocker, after all. It was one of the best trades in Phillies history. He served this team well, and seems to have done the same - even better, perhaps - for the Halos. A ballplayer on the Phillies, and a good ballplayer for the Angels. Must we drag him through the mud just because there's nothing else to talk about?

[Mike]

I would just like to say that, for all my anger over Lidge, Rollins slump, etc, I remain perpetually grateful to no longer see Bobby Abreu stepping into the batters box in a Phillies uniform, and thinking to myself, "Cool, our best player is at the plate,.. maybe we can get something going"..

Thank you Pat Gillick.. thank you so much

[J. Weitzel]

Chris: Agreed on the meringue music. Definitely tight.

[jt]

I won't feel comfortable with this lead until we clinch. All of the injuries coupled with all of the games left with the Marlins and the Astros (who just swept us in Houston) make me nervous.

[George]

I know not part of the topic here, but anyone else hate Larry Bowa? He always struck me as a whiny, petulent, modestly overachieving player, who's stats were padded with the help of the great players around him. (career .260 hitterHe is a clubhouse cancer, especially in a managerial role. His fiery personality is really just a reflection of his own shortcomings and insecurities.

I know there are not a lot of facts or stats here, just what I remember about him from my youth (I was 8 in 1980) and my memories from him running the Phils. Just struck me as a miserable human being.