#5 Jim Fregosi, SS (1961-1971)

Jim Fregosi was drafted by the Angels in the 1960 expansion draft. He was the captain of the Angels’ teams of the 1960s. He made his ML debut during the Angel’s inaugural season and was their first long-term offensive star, making six All-Star teams, and receiving MVP votes every year from ’63 – ’70. He was the first Angel to hit for the cycle, doing it twice. Jim was a Gold Glove fielder (1967) and led the AL with 531 assists in ‘66, 312 putouts in ’65, and 15 sacrifice hits in 1965.

            While still near the top of his game, the Angels traded Fregosi to the Mets for Nolan Ryan. Then, in ’78, they brought him back to manage the team. In his first full season as manager, Jim captained the Halos to their first ever playoff appearance in ’79. In 1989, Fregosi was honored by becoming the second Angel elected into the team’s Hall of Fame. His #11 was retired by the team in 1998. All in all, he is the greatest Angel shortstop of all-time.

After parts of 11 seasons with the Halos, the Angels’ Player of the 60’s is the team’s all-time career leader with:

- a 44.1 WAR

- 70 triples

- 4,131 assists

- 1,397 games at SS

Fregosi ranks in the Angels’ career Top Ten with:

- 1,429 games (4^th)

- 5,244 at bats (5^th)

- 691 runs (5^th)

- 1,408 hits (5^th)

- 2,112 total bases (5^th)

- 1,004 singles (5^th)

- 219 doubles (5^th)

- 546 RBI (8^th)

- 558 walks (4^th)

- 404 extra base hits (5^th)

- 1,995 times on base (4^th)

- 74 sacrifice hits (5^th)

- 39 sacrifice flies (T8th)

- 835 DP turned (2^nd)

Fregosi owns the Angel’s top two single season WAR totals – including a LL 8.1 (’64) - and tied the franchise record with 162 games (’66). He also owns Angels’ Top Ten season totals in:

- WAR (twice – ’64, ’70)

- Games (3x - ’65, ’66, ’69)

- Triples (twice – ’63, ’68)

* League leader years highlighted