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#67 - ORLANDO CABRERA - SS
The man that Halos Heaven dubbed "Cabfare" ranked #49 on our Top 100 Angels List that was compiled after the 2008 season (LINK).
Orlando Cabrera was signed as a free agent prior to the 2005 season. It was a weird signing as it functioned as three-player trade. Cabrera replaced David Eckstein, who signed with the Cardinals. he was replacing Edgar Renteria who signed with the Red Sox... where he replaced Cabrera.
All Cabrera did was play in 449 out of 486 possible regular season games over the three years that he took the field in Anaheim. He played 446 games at Shortstop, sixth most in franchise history. He had 2.5 Defensive Wins Above Replacement while here and 8.3 WAR overall (38th best by an Angels position player).
Cabrera played on two division champion teams. After eight fruitless seasons in Montreal (where he was traded to Boston in July, 2004 in the last-ever Expos deadline deal), Cabrera made the postseason in the next six out of seven years. The only time he missed was with the 2006 Angels, a good team whose 89-wins would have made the playoffs many times over.
His biggest accomplishment as an Angel was as one of the greatest number two hitters in team history. He reached base safely in 63 straight games (an all time Angels record) during the 2006 season, his best with the club. In 2007 he batted .301 with a .742 OPS and accrued 1.3 dWAR and 3.7 Offensive Wins Above Replacement. His 192 hits that year ranks ninth overall for an Angels single season and no Halo hitter has hit that many since. His 2007 numbers were a solid piece of a division championship.
His overall 2.5 Defensive Wins Above Replacement ranks 27th in club history. His .281 batting average ranks 14th best for an Angels hitter with more than 1,500 Plate Appearances.
Cabrera was a fun player to watch. He had a hard task handed to him in replacing the popular David Eckstein and he played well from game one on. With shortstop Erick Aybar having done all he could do in the minor leagues, Cabrera was traded for pitcher Jon Garland prior to the 2008 seasons and played on six teams over four years. Crazy, eh? That was O-Cab, he was a high energy team presence on the field and in the clubhouse.