The biggest disappointment for the Yanks thus far? Easily Bobby Abreu. In '06, his arrival was the turning point for the Yanks. They had trouble catching the Sox in the division, and once Abreu came, opposing pitchers were up to 90-100 pitches in the 5th inning, and the Yanks pounced on teams' lousy middle relievers. After Abreu came along, the Yanks were able to knock Boston out of the race and easily win the division.
Abreu's numbers as a Yankee last year? Excellent. .330 batting average, .926 OPS.
This year, his average has fallen over 100 points, to .228. His OBP (.313) and SLG (.289) are both worse than his average in '06. The .602 OPS is pathetic.
In 2000, David Justice was huge for arguably the weakest of the dynasty teams. He had a .309 AVG and a .976 OPS, with 20 HR to boot. He capped it all off with a huge ALCS, winning the MVP in that series.
But in '01, Justice fell apart. He hit .241, and his OPS fell over 200 points. He hit .167 in the World Series, and was shipped to Oakland after the season.
One can speculate about the reasons for Justice and Abreu's dropoffs. Did they just get old? Did the Indians and Phillies know something Cashman didn't? Did they need a change of scenery to succeed, and then lose that motivation?
Last year, Yankee fans owed their October to Abreu. This year, Abreu may be the reason the Yankees miss the playoffs.
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2 comments:
Abreu's picking it up a bit at the plate the past couple weeks, though he's making up for it with shitty fielding as tonight's game showed.
If the Yanks miss the playoffs this year, it'll be more because of shitty pitching than shitty Abreu.
& his power has dropped off:
Maybe his junk isn't being shipped to him
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