Fantasy Baseball: It's Time for You to Love Bobby Abreu

Yesterday Bobby Abreu signed a two-year, 19 million dollar deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. If we were to draft for 2010 today, my guess is that Abreu would be taken around 50th overall which is right about where he was drafted in the 2009 preseason. In 2009, Abreu put up his seventh consecutive season ( eight of his last nine) with at least 100 RBI's and his eleventh season in a row with more than 95 runs where only three of which he scored less than 100 runs.

Abreu will probably be drafted around the likes of Carlos Lee, Shane Victorino and Curtis Granderson. Each one of these players can contribute in a few categories but Abreu puts up good numbers in four categories (three at a high level) and can still give you some power.

Abreu staying in LAA should make him just as valuable as he was in 2009 since the Angel's are an aggressive team on the base paths. In 2009, he had a small drop in his LD% and if that can raise back up, we could be seeing more RBI's and maybe see some of those turn into home runs. Over the last few years, he hasn't been known for his power, but he can still give you double digit home runs while putting up excellent numbers across the board. If you're in the third or fourth round and you're enticed by Ichiro Suzuki, you may want to grab that shortstop or second baseman and wait a few more rounds and likely get equal or greater value in Bobby Abreu.