Tuesday, April 5, 2011

#45 Jim Abbott, LHP (1989–92, 1995-96)

Jim is undoubtedly the Angels’ most inspirational player of all time. Born without a right hand, Jim didn’t treat the missing appendage as a handicap. He excelled at all levels, without any preferential treatment. While playing for the University of Michigan, Jim gained acclaim as the best amateur athlete in the country – winning both the James E. Sullivan Award and the Golden Spikes Award as the best collegiate ballplayer. In 1988, he led the U.S. Baseball Team to their first Olympic gold medal at the Summer Olympics in South Korea, beating Japan 5-3 in the final game. The Angels selected him in the first round of the 1988 draft and immediately promoted him to the Majors in 1989, without any minor league experience – the 16th player to accomplish this feat since the draft was instituted in 1965.
In his rookie season, Abbott went 12-12 with a 3.92 ERA, to finish 5th in Rookie of the Year voting. Jim’s best season was 1991. In that year, Abbott went 18-11, with a 2.89 ERA, a 1.214 WHIP, and a 7.0 WAR – Wins Above Replacement (9th) to finish 3rd in the Cy Young Award voting and win the Victory Award at the Kennedy Center. In 1992, he posted a 2.77 ERA and won the Tony Conigliario Award - given annually to a MLB player who best overcomes an obstacle and adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination and courage. After a brief hiatus with the Yankees (where he pitched a no-hitter) and the White Sox, Jim returned to Anaheim in a 1995 trade deadline deal. Although he pitched well for the remainder of ’95, he hit rock bottom in 1996, and the Angels released him in the spring of ‘97. Jim pitched parts of 6 seasons with the Angels, finishing on the Top Ten leader board by allowing only 0.687 HR/9 IP (8th).

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2 comments:

  1. todorojoApril 5, 2011 at 4:27 PM

    Jim was one of the hardest Angels to rank. To qualify for my 50 Greatest Angels, a player had to play a miniumum of 3 years in the organization, and rank among the Top Ten in at least one statistical category. Abbott barely qualified. If the rankings were based purely on statistics, Abbott would probably rank somewhere in the 50's; but statistics only tell part of the story. His inspirational value to the franchise was huge. Part of me wants to rank Abbott higher, because he is one of my all-time favorite players; but another part of me realizes that this is a list of the 50 Greatest Angels, not my 50 favorites. Otherwise he'd rank among the Top 5.

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  2. ddaApril 5, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    Not knowing much about statistics of the Angels, I too would have ranked him in the top 5.

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