|
|
|
During last night’s win, Carlos Beltran had two hits, including a three-run home run.
Beltran is on pace to hit roughly 25 home runs this season, with around 115 RBI, 20 stolen bases and 35 doubles, while batting .277.
Interestingly, he hit .276 last season and .275 in 2006.
Also, he drove in 116 RBI in 2006 and 112 RBI last season, while hitting 38 and 33 doubles in each of the last two years.
In short, including this year, over the last three seasons, he has been a lock to hit around .275, drive in over 110 runs, and hit at least 30 doubles, while playing Gold-Glove caliber defense.
For what it’s worth, he is hitting .275 with runners in scoring position, also roughly the same as last season.
Yet, most fans, myself included, seemingly struggle to appreciate Beltran’s quiet, successful and consistent style of play.
 |
 |
 |
RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Beltran is great! Wish he would get more respect from people though…Awsome glove and Good Bat. I hope this is an indication of Beltran getting hot..cause if it is watch out.
This is what all Mets fans should be expecting from Carlos.
.275
30 HR
110 RBI
Gold Glove defense
It’s the contract along with his tremendous power from 2006 that keeps fans from appreciating him.
If Beltran was making $11M every year and put up the same statistics (above), this guy would be a hero in New York.
Bernie Williams ring a bell?
He’s not having an MVP season, but he’s still having a very good year. Let’s hope he at least keeps playing at the same level.
Best, most consistent all around player on the Mets, year in and year out..been saying it for years, nice to see Matt recongnize him as such
Consistent? This is the guy who tends to go in 1-20 slumps, if I’m not mistaken. While I do recognize Beltran as an important player, and a good one at that, I think if he were to be more consistent his numbers would be a little higher. Nontheless, he’s been great the last few games and I hope he and Delgado continue to push us forward to October.
I think we’re talking consistency in terms or season-to-season production, not game-to-game. There is no doubt Beltran is extremely streaky.
Season to Season Consistency, that’s right..game to game I agree he’s streaky.
I completely agree that he’s the most consistent player season after season. I can’t stand when Mets fans call him overrated or overpaid.
I think his defense is the most unappreciated aspect of his game. Having been to over 75 games the last three seasons, I really appreciate his ability to make the tough catch look remarkably easy.
Season’s not over yet.
The guy is so streaky, and hopefully he can carry this team to the finish. I just love the intensity Bel-TRON and the rest of these guys are showing us…and to think we all thought our season was all but over in June!
Also, it should be noted that back in 2006, Delgado’s presence in the lineup really helped protect Beltran. Now that Delgado has returned to being a big bopper again, Beltran and the rest of the lineup is rewarded with better pitches to hit.
He was smoking the ball last night…even his outs were hit hard just at the wrong spot…
Something that popped into my head last night was Beltran is benefiting big time from Delgado’s resurgence. Batting in front of Delgado, Beltran is seeing alot of pitches to hit because pitchers dont want to face Delgado with runners on base now. SOmething that I think was missing earlier in the year.
Bingo you hit it on the head. The lineup suffered big time with delgado not hitting. Now delgado got the pitchers respect and everyone is thriving because of it…Glad to see gado back and beltran taking advantage
Now if only Wright could get his act together and stop flailing away at everything we would be crushing teams.
on a side note, did anyone see the face delgado made last night after flying out in the 8th? he and beltran had just smoked a couple off gange, and as he handed his batting gloves over to oberkfell, he made this face like, “I would love to see this guy a couple more times,” a sentiment I’m sure many other folks feel after facing gange.
He’s quiet, and his “consistency” year-to-year comes in fits and starts during the year. As such, his production can go unnoticed for large stretches. During his hot streaks, we all wonder why we don’t appreciate him more.
Anyway, figuring Beltran would eventually find his way to his career numbers has been the one thing I’ve been right on this year (well, except the Willie firing,) after suggesting Perez was back to his 5.00+ days, Delgado should have been cut, Schoeneweis should have been cut, we should have signed Fukudome, etc., etc., etc. Now if only Wright could get to .300, maybe I’d save face. . . . .
Wright is struggling now, not taking enough pitches…but he will turn it around after another week of struggles. He will be hot the last 2 weeks of the season. Especially if Beltran can keep it going.
….but we’re all glad you were wrong, really. :)
Schoeneweis should still be cut. Seems like Manuel never wants to use him. He is always the last guy standing in the bullpen.
Leftie arms out of the pen are far too valuable, and he’s not “garbage”.
Yeah I guess. It just seems as if he never gets used in a big spot. Ever. It’s always Feliciano to get a big out in a tight situation against a lefty. Manuel seems to save Schoeneweis for garbage time mostly.
or maybe manuel feels show is better at getting L out and therefore saving his arm for a situation that may appear in the late innings. Show has more stamina than pedro. Also i heard that show’s back has been hurting so that also might be something to consider
Feliciano has better stuff to get power hitting lefties out. He has that big sweeping slider and a decieving delivery that screws hitters into the ground. Scho is great, but you don’t wanna use him for just one batter because he has the ability to get in a rythym. Pedro is a perfect guy to burn for one batter.
I also think Manuel would rather save show for full innings, since his splits are marginally “better” against righties (.330 compared to .344 against feliciano).
Well Show is more of a L specialist(even though jerry insisted hes a “crossover” pitcher but that experiment has not gone well). I would imagine show is the absolute last line of defense if the bullpen gets wasted or theres a big lefty in late innings. I would entertain getting rid of either show or pedro in the off season.
Exactly. Feliciano is very tough against lefties, but can also retire RH hitters (.697 OPS against the past three seasons). Show is tough on lefties, but gets hammered by righties (.849 OPS against the past three seasons).
We should trade him while his value is high…
(j/k)
I’m always stunned by the intense dislike that (some) Mets fans have for Beltran. Now that Andruw Jones has fallen off the face of the earth, there is no better center fielder in the NL.
His contract definitely has something to do with it–he gets slugger/cleanup batter money when that’s not really what he is. People want him to belt 50 homers a year, rather than appreciating how consistent he is offensively (as Matt points out).
But it’s also because he plays his position so well that he makes it look effortless, which in turn makes people think his job is much easier than it is. As opposed to Jim Edmonds, who in his prime would plays look much harder than they were so he could make an “amazing” catch and get on Web Gems every night.
Being a good outfielder is kind of like being a good offensive lineman. People barely notice it when you do your job well, although they’re sure to scream at you on those rare occasions when you don’t.
Yeah, the guy was never a bonafide slugger in the realm of 35-40 HRs, but is truly a 5-tool player when healthy. And, he’s had to play virutally every game due to the OF issues most of the year. Think about what our outfield situation would have been in mid-season without him?!
how do you figure? he’s done it before.
The problem, I think, is that people expect him to play like he did in the 2004 postseaon, which is not possible, and is an unreasonable expectation. When he fails to play that way–and he always does, since that is an impossibly high standard to meet–people are disappointed, which is not fair. But the knowledgable fans know better, and appreciate Beltran.
I think it’s more of the inconsistent hitting as someone posted below. When he goes into one of his slumps and hits .160 over a 3 week span as the #5 hitter and kills rallies, that sticks in a lot of fans’ heads.
I think Beltran is better than Andruw was. Actually, I think Andruw was a bit overrated.
I think it’s because he is solid at a lot of things, but not great at any one single thing. The players that excel more at one thing are the ones fans tend to appreciate more. Take Ryan Howard for example. The guy is terrible at just about everything you can imagine (batting average, defense, baserunning, strikeouts, situational hitting etc), but he has one great skill of hitting home runs (which won him an MVP). If Beltran had just one offensive quality where he really excelled, I would imagine he would probably be a lot more appreciated by the fans.
Beltran is GREAT at defense. He’s also a great baserunner.
Yes, that is true, but those aren’t qualities that most fans tend to appreciate. It’s the offense that matters more. For example, Ryan Howard’s home run hitting trumps great defense and baserunning any day of the week.
They would appreciate it more if omar listened to half the posters calling for beltran to be traded. They would realize how easy beltran makes CF look .
You’re right. I never have called for him to be traded. I am just pointing out the reasons to why I think he is under appreciated by the fans.
o na i wasnt implying that you were one of them. Its just upsetting that people cannot realize what they got in beltran..like the saying goes..you dont know what you got until you lose it.
Off topic: Speaking of great defense, is anybody else amazed by the way Evans is fielding in left? How ’bout that grab against the wall last night? Amazing.
fans are obsessed with the contract which is no longer an issue since guys like andruw jones and torii hunter are making virtually the same with much less production in centerfield.
it’s also about personality. if he acted like paul o’neill (like a brat kid) he’d be loved. nyc loves to see emotion…he doesn’t show much.
he’s also inconsistent offensively. fans see long stretches of poor ab’s and that ends up in the back of their minds.
he’s still one of the best, if not the best, centerfielder in baseball.
i’ll take him on my team.
Ditto zen. Not to mention the way he started off his tenure in NY with all the injuries and the percentages. I think he went along way to repairing that in 06 but i still dont think people give him enough credit or respect. I would take beltran on my team for sure.
when you really get right down to it. ‘05 wasn’t that bad in retrospect, the defense was there, the baserunning but the injuries and the pressure he put on himself to succeed the first year took its toll.
when someone else is patrolling cf in citifield and making errors left and right, we’ll wish we had appreciated beltran the warrior more.
2005 was that bad, but the last 3 years have been typical beltran years…very good for a centerfielder.
16hr 78rbi 17sb’s was bad coming off his year with the astros of 38hr 104rbi 42sb’s
it was the only year of the last 8 that didn’t produce 24+hr 100+rbi
Slight difference when you have Bagwell and Berkman batting behind you as opposed to Mike Piazza on the downside of his career….and wasn’t David Wright batting way down in the lineup that year as well?
It’s not that he doesn’t put up good stats, it’s just that he doesn’t often get the “clutch” hit when it’s needed, and will hit a 3 run home run when the score is already 6-1 or something like that. But good work last night Carlos
Yes, like that non clutch 2 out grand slam in the top of the 9th to win the game for us against the Marlins a few nights ago or the 3 run HR last night to make it 5-1.
please tell me you’re joking. can you let go of 2006 game 7 already?
He’s been terrible with RISP/2O this season, but from 2005-2007, he OPSed:
.931 with RISP
.849 with RISP/2O
.930 with runners on
1.098 with man on third, <2O
.821 close and late
.888 with bases loaded
Those numbers are pretty damn good. Again, this year he has struggled… But it’s more of an aberration than anything.
Beltran over the past 28 days:
.313/.379/.606/.985
21 R 31H 8 2B 7 HR 23 RBI 12 BB 3 SB
154 OPS+
Also, as mentioned in other posts, the man has played in 138 games this season.
and still no respect…
He is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Mets
“My wife met me at the door last night wearing sexy lingerie … she was coming HOME.”
(tugs collar)
“Yet, most fans, myself included, seemingly struggle to appreciate Beltran’s quiet, successful and consistent style of play.”
I think this is because we all feel he has the potential to be a .290-.300 hitter with 30-40+ home runs.
Good point. It’s also hard to understand how someone of such great offensive talent can look so lost at the plate for so long (i.e. batting .200 for the entire month of April).
It’s not that hard to understand. Beltran is a PULL hitter. He can’t go the other way and thus, his avg will always be .275.
He peaked in 2006 while pitchers weren’t familiar with his power potential. Now that they are, they don’t come inside and Beltran rarely swings at outside pitches.
To be honest, I don;t think its his style of play that fans have a hard time appreciating. I think it has a lot more to do with his generally quiet demeanor that can often come off looking like he doesn’t care, even though I think most can agree he does care. The other part of it is that some of his comments regarding injuries in the past have been borderline. If he has the personality of Jose Reyes I think the majority of comments about his actualy play on the field would disappear.
why? because he’s honest about his injuries? if you’re hurt, you hurt the team by playing at less than optimal ability especially when you play centerfield.
I agree with you. I think his quiet demeanor comes from the way he plays the game. He is so athletic and has very long stride that it seems effortless. The length of his pants is something like 42 inches!! That’s why his running seems so effortless and the fans might think that he’s not running hard (at least that’s what I thought). But he has heart and does play real hard. Don’t forget, Beltran is the one who said that the Mets are the team to beat this year.
I actually think he cares a lot more than he lets on, as evidenced by his comments the day he hit the grand slam in Florida, where he said he always wants to be the guy up in a spot like that, and he had a chance to do it 2 years ago and he didn’t deliver. Just the fact that he mentioned that shows that he cares a lot, because most athletes don’t want to bring their past failures to light.
I don’t think he will ever be fully appreciated by the fans until he is playing for somebody else.
Yeah I was pretty surprised that he brought that up. He was really pumped up that day
Well, I guess whenever there is a dip in blog posts, all Matt needs to do is fire up something on Beltran and wah-lah!!!!!
I grew up playing outfield and to me, he is the arguably the best defensive OF in the league…period!
Beltran’s outfield defense is so smooth and spectacular. We should put Roger Cedeno out there for a day again so fans can quickly be reminded at how important CF defense is to a pitching staff. God those were painful days.
I’m tired of hearing anyone complain about Beltran’s lack of clutchness.
Same even goes for Wright. Yes, Wright’s been terrible lately, especially late in games. But as we’ve all lamented, the Mets score early and shut down. No one on this team is hitting 3 run bombs while we’re up 6-1. Given our pen, we’d be quite happy if they were.
Wright tends to drive in a ton of runs in the first three innings. Those aren’t garbage runs. You can make a good argument that early in a game is just as important as late, as you don’t know which games are and are not blowouts.
And yeah, Beltran, at absolute worst, is the 3rd best CF in baseball. If you really want to say Nate McClouth is better. Sizemore probably has him beat, although he’s only batting like 260.