Garrett Anderson, Former Angels, Braves and Dodgers OF, Retires After 17 Years

Unable to find work, former Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim OF Garret Anderson has officially retired.

Anderson played 17 years for the Angels, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers.

During that time, Anderson hit .293/.324/.461 with 287 HRs, 522 doubles and 2,529 hits.

He retires as the Angels’ all-time leader in games, hits, doubles, total bases, runs, extra base hits and RBI.

I will remember two things about Anderson.

First, the guy was pretty consistent offensively. Regardless of the fact that he didn’t walk, you could always put him down for a .290-.300 average.

There weren’t too many guys who did that over a long period of time like Anderson did.

Anderson had two monster seasons in 2002 and 2003. During those two seasons, Anderson averaged a .310/.338/.540 slash line with 29 HRs, 52 doubles and 198 hits. He finished fourth in the AL MVP voting in 2002 and 14th in 2003.

Though he finished 10 spots lower in the MVP voting, Anderson’s 2003 was probably better than his 2002 season. His 5.0 WAR was better than guys like Jim Thome, Alfonso Soriano, Chipper Jones and Jeff Bagwell.

The second thing I will remember about Anderson was the 2007 ALDS against the Boston Red Sox. Anderson was suffering from pink eye and it looked like he got punched in the face—repeatedly.

I remember watching Game 1 and seeing Anderson come to the plate, thinking what the heck happened to this guy? It was that visible.

I guess the other sad part about that was that the Angels actually had Anderson batting cleanup—that’s how undermanned the Angels were in that series. Their cleanup hitter was One-Eyed Willy.

Anderson will undoubtedly one day be inducted into the Angels’ Hall of Fame.

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