Orlando Cabrera

Full Name: Orlando Luis Cabrera Current Team: Height/Weight: 5'9"/185 Uniform Number: Birthdate: November 2, 1974 Entry Draft: N/A (1993 Free Agent) Birthplace: Cartagena, Colombia Drafted By: Montreal Expos Primary Position: SS College: N/A

Biography

Orlando Luis Cabrera (born November 2, 1974 in Cartagena, Colombia) is a Major League Baseball shortstop who plays for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He bats and throws right-handed.

Cabrera is the younger brother of Jolbert Cabrera, a former major league outfielder who recently signed a minor league contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Baseball career

As a batter, Cabrera is a good fastball line-drive hitter that uses all fields with occasional power. He is a consistent basestealing threat, and he also has the aggressiveness to hustle out numerous doubles and triples.

Cabrera is regarded as a one of the best shortstops in the game. He has an excellent range to both sides, soft hands and a strong arm. He won the Gold Glove Award in 2001. In 2003, he finished second among the league shortstops in batting average (.297), slugging percentage (.415), RBI's (80), and in stolen base percentage (24-to-26). Beside this, he is one of four Montreal 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.

Following his 2004 World Series victory with the Red Sox, Cabrera signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Angels organization. Orlando 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.

Cabrera is a career .267 hitter with 84 home runs and 500 RBI in 1151 games. As a shortstop, he has compiled 1769 putouts, 3204 assists, and 113 errors in 5086 total chances, for a .978 fielding percentage.

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 still give him standing ovations upon each plate appearance at Fenway Park.

Orlando Cabrera was traded to the Chicago White Sox prior to the 2008 MLB season.

Nicknames

Cabrera has been given several nicknames by teammates, fans and media.

• O-Cab
• OC
• O-Dawg (commonly used by Rex Hudler)
• The Wizard of O.C. (bestowed on him by Angel broadcaster Steve Physioc)
• Cabfare

Statistics

Batting Stats

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	2B	3B	BB	K	HBP	SH	SB	IBB	GDP
1997	MON	16	18	4	4	0	2	.222	.263	.222	0	0	1	3	0	1	1	0	1
1998	MON	79	261	44	73	3	22	.280	.325	.414	16	5	18	27	0	5	6	1	6
1999	MON	104	382	48	97	8	39	.254	.293	.403	23	5	18	38	3	4	2	4	9
2000	MON	125	422	47	100	13	55	.237	.279	.393	25	1	25	28	1	3	4	3	12
2001	MON	162	626	64	173	14	96	.276	.324	.428	41	6	43	54	4	4	19	5	15
2002	MON	153	563	64	148	7	56	.263	.321	.380	43	1	48	53	2	9	25	4	16
2003	MON	162	626	95	186	17	80	.297	.347	.460	47	2	52	64	1	3	24	3	18
2004	MON	103	390	41	96	4	31	.246	.298	.336	19	2	28	31	2	2	12	0	12
2004	BOS	58	228	33	67	6	31	.294	.320	.465	19	1	11	23	1	1	4	0	4
2004	Total	161	618	74	163	10	62	.264	.306	.383	38	3	11	23	1	1	4	0	4
2005	LAA	141	540	70	139	8	57	.257	.309	.365	28	3	38	50	3	4	21	4	10
2006	LAA	153	607	95	171	9	72	.282	.335	.404	45	1	51	58	3	3	27	0	12
2007	LAA	155	638	101	192	8	86	.301	.345	.397	35	1	44	64	5	3	20	0	12
2008	CHW	161	661	93	186	8	57	.281	.334	.371	33	1	56	71	1	3	19	1	16
2009	OAK	101	414	41	116	4	41	.280	.318	.365	23	0	25	39	0	5	11	1	13
2009	MIN	59	242	42	70	5	36	.289	.313	.430	13	3	11	32	0	1	2	0	9
2009	Total	160	656	83	186	9	77	.284	.316	.389	36	3	36	71	0	6	13	1	22
Career	NL	904	3288	407	877	66	381	.267	.315	.405	214	22	233	298	13	31	93	20	89
Career	AL	828	3330	475	941	48	380	.283	.328	.405	196	10	236	337	13	20	104	6	76
Career		1732	6618	882	1818	114	761	.275	.322	.398	410	32	469	635	26	51	197	26	165

Fielding Stats

Year	Team	POS	G	GS	INN	PO	A	E	DP	TP	FPCT
1997	MON	SS	6	0	12	1	6	1	1	0	.875
1997	MON	2B	4	3	28	10	9	0	2	0	1.000
1998	MON	SS	52	48	411.1	64	123	3	20	0	.984
1998	MON	2B	28	24	210	59	72	4	16	0	.970
1999	MON	SS	102	100	870	187	289	10	61	0	.979
2000	MON	SS	124	118	987.2	167	339	10	77	1	.981
2000	MON	2B	1	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	.000
2001	MON	SS	162	160	1406.2	246	515	11	106	0	.986
2002	MON	SS	153	150	1352.1	237	498	29	102	1	.962
2003	MON	SS	162	160	1385.2	259	456	18	101	0	.975
2004	MON	SS	101	100	867.2	147	290	7	69	0	.984
2004	BOS	SS	57	57	491	78	147	8	23	0	.966
2004	Total	SS	158	157	1358.2	225	437	15	92	0	.978
2005	LAA	SS	140	139	1240.2	229	347	7	81	0	.988
2006	LAA	SS	152	152	1320.2	253	376	16	100	0	.975
2007	LAA	SS	153	153	1330.2	239	415	11	104	0	.983
2007	LAA	DH	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
2008	CHW	SS	161	160	1389.2	242	472	16	101	0	.978
2009	OAK	SS	101	100	887.2	156	273	14	63	0	.968
2009	MIN	SS	57	57	501	102	155	11	35	0	.959
2009	Total	SS	158	157	1388.2	258	428	25	98	0	.965
Total		SS	1683	1654	14454.2	2603	4702	172	1044	2	.977
Total		2B	33	27	241	69	81	4	18	0	.974
Total		DH	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000

Transactions

• Signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Montreal Expos (June 1, 1993).
• Traded by the Montreal Expos to the Boston Red Sox as part of 4-team trade in which the Boston Red Sox sent Nomar Garciaparra and Matt Murton to the Chicago Cubs; the Chicago Cubs sent Brendan Harris, Alex Gonzalez, and Francis Beltran to the Montreal Expos; the Minnesota Twins sent Doug Mientkiewicz to the Boston Red Sox; and the Chicago Cubs sent Justin Jones to the Minnesota Twins (July 31, 2004).
• Granted free agency (November 1, 2004).
• Signed by Los Angeles Angels (January 12, 2005).
• Traded by the Los Angeles Angels to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for pitcher Jon Garland (November 21, 2007).

Trivia

• Gold Glove (2001)
• Twice led league in games played (2001, 2003)
• Hit a home run on his first at-bat as a Red Sox, becoming the eighth Boston player to accomplish this feat (August 1, 2004)
• Won the World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2004. It was the franchise's first World Series since 1918.
• Had a straight steal of home plate on July 2, 2006, the first such time it had happened by an Angels player since 1997.
• 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.