Armando Cabañas is another Cuban conundrum … he absolutely, positively could not hit. At all. But he was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame. So we need to spend some time figuring out where his value was, and what made his peers rate him so highly.
So a list of positives: he didn’t strike out a lot, he had a very good eye for the strike zone, he was incredibly fast and good at stealing bases, and he was an elite defender at 2B (and quite good in CF as well). I mean … it’s enough, right? Maybe not enough for a true HoF career, but enough for a career.
But, wow, could he not hit. Cabañas is one of those players likely to have their OPS above their SLG, and while occasionally that is an indication of a stunning batting eye, more often, it’s a combination of a good walk rate and little else.
If Cabañas holds down a full time role, he is an outside threat to lead the league in SB a couple of times and should compete for a Gold Glove for quite a few years.
The usage is the most likely change to these projections: we currently have Cabañas as a mostly full time player for about half his career. It’s also possible he never gets more than a few hundred PA per season, serving as a defensive replacement and pinch-runner most of the time, in which case his career is likely cut short by a few years as well, as his speed decreases.
| Name | Armando Cabañas (Chino) |
| ID / Status | cabana049arm / Draft |
| Pos | 2B |
| DOB / i9s Career | 1878 / 1899 - 1912 |
| Birthplace | Guanbacoa, Cuba (Cuba) |
| Height / Weight | 5'5" / |
| B / T | R / R |
Batting Projections
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 1899 | 158 | 35 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 0.222 | 0.276 | 0.266 | 0.542 |
| 1900 | 211 | 44 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 20 | 11 | 2 | 0.209 | 0.271 | 0.237 | 0.508 |
| 1901 | 348 | 97 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 29 | 28 | 28 | 6 | 0.279 | 0.334 | 0.339 | 0.673 |
| 1902 | 326 | 73 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 29 | 20 | 4 | 0.224 | 0.273 | 0.248 | 0.521 |
| 1903 | 302 | 57 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 29 | 37 | 24 | 4 | 0.189 | 0.260 | 0.222 | 0.482 |
| 1904 | 590 | 141 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 39 | 49 | 46 | 10 | 0.239 | 0.286 | 0.276 | 0.562 |
| 1905 | 459 | 59 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 35 | 48 | 34 | 8 | 0.194 | 0.251 | 0.227 | 0.478 |
| 1906 | 426 | 80 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 35 | 40 | 30 | 7 | 0.188 | 0.249 | 0.223 | 0.472 |
| 1907 | 507 | 116 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 38 | 53 | 57 | 7 | 0.229 | 0.283 | 0.270 | 0.553 |
| 1908 | 447 | 77 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 32 | 43 | 27 | 6 | 0.172 | 0.228 | 0.208 | 0.436 |
| 1909 | 307 | 73 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 34 | 32 | 32 | 5 | 0.238 | 0.314 | 0.296 | 0.610 |
| 1910 | 402 | 92 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 46 | 44 | 44 | 7 | 0.229 | 0.308 | 0.269 | 0.577 |
| 1911 | 354 | 70 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 36 | 35 | 17 | 5 | 0.198 | 0.272 | 0.234 | 0.506 |
| 1912 | 252 | 56 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 33 | 29 | 15 | 5 | 0.222 | 0.312 | 0.250 | 0.562 |