OCab could very well have been an awesome SS at some point, but all I’ve seen so far is reputation. It’s not his fault, the guy is 33yrs old and there’s only so many Omar Vizquel’s out there who can play SS at a high level forever. I’d have preferred to see us get someone younger for Garland, and on top of that Uribe’s bat is still in the lineup every day and he’s the better SS and should be playing there instead of this guy.

For your daily Erstad fix, here’s a tribute from an Angels fanboy at Halo Heaven

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#10 Darin Erstad, OF, 1B

A few years back, columnist/sub-literate Rob Neyer couldn’t let Angel fans enjoy the World Series victory, so he twisted the knife into Darin Erstad’s back. Erstad was making $8 million a year and was not performing up to the level of his monster 2000 season. I guess the glare from Darin’s World Championship ring was blinding Rob to reality: If Darin Erstad were a Yankee, they would have renamed Central Park after him by now.

Before you yammer on with your stats and disbelief in the intangibles, the poetry and unquantifiable foggy grit that make great team players, look at your Rosetta Stone of sabermetric stats – Win Shares. Guess what Stat-Ass? Darin Erstad has the 8th most Win Shares in Angel history. So he is not overrated. He’s Top Ten material all around.

Angel Lifer Brent Carter had a few thoughts on Erstad…

Darin’s the only player in MLB history to win gold gloves in both the outfield and infield. His monster season in 2000 aside, his numbers don’t begin to tell the story of his importance to the Angels. With Erstad you either get it or you don’t, and if you don’t it’s just too bad for you....

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....and it goes on and on and on about his intangibles.