Orlando Cabrera

Orlando Cabrera
Oakland Athletics – No. --
Shortstop
Bats: Right Throws: Right
debut
September 3, 1997, for the Montreal Expos
Career statistics (through 2008 season)
Batting average	.274
Home runs	105
Runs batted in	684
Stolen bases	184
Teams
Montreal Expos (1997-2004) Boston Red Sox (2004) Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2005-2007) Chicago White Sox (2008)
Career highlights and awards
World Series champion (2004) 2x Gold Glove Award winner (2001, 2007)

Orlando Luis Cabrera (born November 2, 1974 in Cartagena, Colombia) is a Major League Baseball shortstop who plays for the Oakland Athletics. He bats and throws right-handed. He won a World Series championship in 2004 with the Boston Red Sox. He has also played for the Montreal Expos, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and Chicago White Sox.

Cabrera is the younger brother of Jolbert Cabrera, a utility player in the Baltimore Orioles organization.

Baseball career

As a batter, Cabrera is a good fastball line-drive hitter that uses all fields with gap power. While not possessing blazing speed, Cabrera is an intelligent and aggressive base runner and consistent base stealing threat, and he also has the aggressiveness to hustle out numerous doubles and triples.

He has above average range to both sides, soft hands and a strong arm. He won the Gold Glove Award in 2001 and in 2007. In 2002 he led all Major League shortstops with 29 errors, and had the lowest fielding percentage among them (.962), though his defensive contribution was considered a key to the Boston Red Sox World Series victory in 2004.

In 2003, he finished second among the league shortstops in batting average (.297), slugging percentage (.415), runs batted in (80), and in stolen base percentage (24-to-26). Beside this, he is one of four Montreal Expos players to have ever played all 162 games in a season, and the first to do it twice. Also, his 17 home runs in that season were the most ever by a shortstop in the Expos history.

Cabrera was traded by Montreal to the Boston Red Sox in the summer of 2004, on the last day of the July trading deadline. Cabrera made Boston fans forget their anger over the Garciaparra four-team deal, batting .294 with six home runs and 31 RBI in 58 games. He also brought stability to the shortstop position, which delighted the Red Sox pitchers. The trade, which also netted first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz from the Twins, shored up Boston's infield defense and energized the team, which went 42-19 after the deal to win the American League's wild card (56-45 before the trade). "He is a game-changer in the field for me," Curt Schilling said. He hit a home run on his first at-bat as a Red Sox on August 1, becoming the eighth Boston player to accomplish this feat.

Following his 2004 World Series victory with the Red Sox, Cabrera signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Angels organization. He replaced fan favorite David Eckstein at the shortstop position. While it took Angels fans a while to warm up to Cabrera, he eventually became a fan favorite himself after an excellent defensive season in 2005.

In his first game back to Fenway Park as an Anaheim Angel in June 2005, Cabrera was greeted with a standing ovation which lasted 30 seconds before he walked to the plate. Red Sox fans continue to give him standing ovations upon each plate appearance at Fenway Park. In 2007, Cabrera led qualified AL shortstops with a .983 fielding percentage and a league-low 11 errors earning him the American League Gold Glove for shortstop. Also, he stole 20 bases for the third straight year and the fifth time overall.

Cabrera had a 63-game on-base streak in early-through-mid 2006, which was among the top five streaks of all time. Ted Williams holds the Major League record with 84 straight games reaching base by a hit, walk, or hit-by-pitch. Cabrera also had a straight steal of home plate on July 2, 2006, the first such time it had happened by an Angels player since 1997. Not only was it a straight steal, but Cabrera scored without a throw.

On November 19, 2007, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox along with cash considerations for Jon Garland. Cabrera's one season with White Sox was marred with controversy: arguing with manager Ozzie Guillén, leaving the clubhouse early to avoid the media, calling the press box to have errors overturned, questioning his teams winning attitude, and kicking dirt at Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Grant Balfour during an at-bat in Game 1 of the AL Divisional Series.

On March 2, 2009, Cabrera reportedly agreed to a one-year deal with the Oakland Athletics, pending a physical scheduled for later in the week.

Cabrera is a career .274 hitter with 105 home runs and 684 RBI in 1572 games. As a shortstop, he has compiled 2347 putouts, 4275 assists, and 147 errors in 6923 total chances, for a .978 fielding percentage.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs
• AL Gold Gloves show changing of guard MLB.com

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