Did Bobby Abreu Actually Make Sense For The Phillies To Sign?-Sunday Section 215 Mailbag
By Tim Kelly
Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Every week my e-mail (kashkellyandac@gmail.com), gets flooded with readers from our site asking me questions about various Philadelphia sports topics. Normally they are topics that I either already am planning to answer in one of my daily pieces, or I try to work into our sites’ content. Unfortunately, some questions go unanswered, which lead me to the idea of doing a weekly mailbag, where I answer some of the best questions that I get sent over the course of the week. And now that football season is coming to a close, and the only big Sunday sporting event until baseball season will be the Sunday NBA Showcase (which we won’t be seeing the Sixers on anytime soon), I figured Sunday would be as good as any day to do the mailbag. So here goes.
Jessee from Norristown- What are your thoughts on the NFL potentially moving the Superbowl up to Saturday or back to Monday, if there is inclement weather?
Tim: I don’t even know where to start with that one. When the NFL planned to put the Superbowl in New York a few years ago, people were afraid of there being snow, or temperatures being too cold. But I was in the minority, that like the idea, because I love watching snowy NFL games. At the same time, I’m not sure if I want the weather to impact the Superbowl, and the legacies of some of the players playing in it.
Either way, the NFL chose to put the Superbowl there, so they need to live with the results. What were they expecting, in early-February on the east-coast? It isn’t sunny Florida, and they happened to catch the east-coast on the snowiest year in a long time. But that’s poor planning on their part. If they were afraid of snow, then they shouldn’t have put the game there.
A cold weather Superbowl certainly wouldn’t favor Peyton Manning, who has struggled in the cold weather since joining the Broncos. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
I think moving the game would be an even bigger disaster than having it decided by the weather, which isn’t even a guarantee. What do you remember about Superbowl XLI, besides Peyton Manning and the Colts winning the Superbowl? Bears’ quarterback Rex Grossman fumbled twice, in what was an extremely rainy and wet game. Despite the fact that Grossman might have been the worst quarterback to ever play in the Superbowl, had it not rained, Grossman and the Bears might have been on the other end of what turned out to be a 29-17 game. That Superbowl was nine years ago (as hard as that is to believe), and considering that we have little recollection of that game, other than the fact that Peyton Manning got his only ring thus far, a Superbowl decided by weather probably wasn’t as bad as if it that game would have been moved to Monday or to Saturday because of the weather.
Ronald from Vorhees: I know he’s Bobby Abreu, but didn’t he actually make sense for the Phillies to sign?
Tim: This one is a funny question, because my opinion of the signing has changed over the course of the week.
On one hand, Abreu is nearly 40 years-old, didn’t play in the MLB in 2013, and never exactly brought a winning culture to the Phillies when he was one of the faces of the team, prior his July 2006 trade. A majority of fans weren’t high on Abreu then, and their opinion of him hasn’t gotten better eight years laters. On that front, the signing has the potential to be a PR disaster.
Abreu’s re-signing has the potential to be a disastrous signing that defines Ruben Amaro’s last season as the general manager. At the same time, if the Phillies shock the world and somehow contend this season, and Abreu can come up with some big hits, then maybe this ends up being a good signing.
I don’t think that there is any doubt I’d rather have Abreu come off the bench than Freddy Galvis, and Abreu’s age really is irrelevant in terms of the fact that he is a pinch-hitter, who is likely only going to be on the team for one season. If he can produce off the bench, then I don’t care if he 45, as long as he does his job. I know signing another player that is older than 35 is frustrating to a fanbase that wants to see the team get younger, but the bench isn’t the place where you start a youth movement for the team.
If Abreu produces and the Phillies win, then this signing will actually turn out to be a good one. But, if Abreu is even just alright, and the Phillies are a losing team in 2014, then this signing will be another strike against Amaro.
If you wish to have your sports questions answered in the Section 215 Sunday mailbag, e-mail me at kashkellyandac@gmail.com, leaving your first name, where you are from, and your question.