Beltre Busts Out The Walking Stick
Dave · July 18, 2008 at 10:10 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Adrian Beltre, bases on balls by year as a Mariner
2005: 38 walks
2006: 47 walks
2007: 38 walks
2008: 40 walks
Beltre’s already drawn more walks this year than he did all of last year. Beltre’s pretty clearly having his best year as a Mariner, and it’s time people besides us and Lookout Landing noticed.
Hey World – Adrian Beltre’s pretty good.
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King Awesome is seriously the perfect nickname for him.
I don’t know what I’ll do when he finally leaves us. He’ll probably be the hardest player to say goodbye to since Edgar.
There are 2 major factors working against the rest of the baseball world noticing Beltre and how awesome he is:
(1) he plays on the west coast, and, honestly, when’s the last time a west-coast player received any national coverage from the east-coast biased national media?
(2) he’ll never, ever be able to live up to the perception of his career year in LA before signing the deal that brought him to Seattle.
I (and many others) knew that he would never be able to replicate that year, and I was fine with it. What I find is when I engage others about Beltre, the first thing I hear every time is ‘you guys pay him $12 million a year and he hasn’t sniffed that one year he had in LA!’
It doesn’t matter how many points I bring up; his stellar, unmatched third base defense, or that finding another third baseman in the league not named Arod who is better all around; that he’s a terrific, solid, steady contributor; no, all anyone wants to reference his numbers to are that one magical year in LA.
Shhhh! Keep it down! We need to keep his reputation tarnished so we can sign him to a reasonable extension!
For many in the baseball world Reputation > Reality.
Joe Sheehan kinda acknowledged it today in SI
If Adrian were able to put up those numbers annually he’d be in the running for MVP every year and a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer, not to mention the most under compensated player in the game. I don’t think anyone who understands much about baseball could reasonably expect such production.
Same impulse that expects 130 RBS, 30-35 HR, 900 OPS from a center fielder…
I love Adrian, and I’d hate to see him traded unless there was a big return, and that is unlikely. Really, we have to have a few decent players left to stand around on the field next year, and I haven’t heard that he’s blocking any fabulous 3B prospect that we have.
As to the idea that his one year was an outlier and the rest are his norm – well, yes, in hindsight. However, the big talk about him when he had the gigantic year in 2004 was that he’d finally gotten beyond that botched appendectomy and some other issues and this was the player he was going to be going forward.
I recall seeing that in some corners of the world, but the general consensus among the analytic community seemed to be that his 2004 was a sign that he was no longer a giant question mark more than his being a good bet to be the second coming of Mike Schmidt.
Are you kidding? Beltre maybe be the best player on the Mariners’ (thanks Dave) roster this year.
Adrian is no longer a sucker for a two-strike slider low and outside. His first two years in the AL, in particular, anyone could strike him out if they got two strikes on him. Now, not so much. When you add that to great defense and good power, he’s a damn valuable player and the market has definitely caught up with his contract. Plus, he’s four years younger than A-Rod and won’t be thirty on opening day next year.
No way should the Mariners trade Adrian Beltre. If they did, what would happen to Red, his biggest fan?
The M’s would have to stipulate that any Beltre trade must include Red as part of a package deal.
Joe Sheehan kinda acknowledged it today in SI
Sheehan also suggests that Beltre could be easily had for two “second-tier” prospects, which seems absolutely ridiculous to me considering he’ll almost certainly bring the M’s two high draft picks at the end of 2009 if they keep him.
his general manager didn’t, and said so on the day they brought him in.
I agree with a couple of the other posters here, Dave: KEEP A LID ON IT!
Every time the “World” gets wind of a great player hidden up here in Seattle, teams like the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Braves start coveting them, and they know what pushovers the guys running the Mariners are…
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1A Series of Tubes said:
And Mike Cameron, and Randy Winn, and Omar, and Olerud….
No way should the Mariners trade Adrian Beltre. If they did, what would happen to Red, his biggest fan?
The M’s would have to stipulate that any Beltre trade must include Red as part of a package deal.
Definitely
Watching last night I was amused to see Adrian is still doing his little happy dance at the plate. How can we trade that?
I’m not arguing against Beltre’s value, but the fact his walk total has already surpassed his last few seasons is more a direct result of having no one other than Ibanez (who generally hits above Adrian in the batting order) in that batting order than it is a symbol of Adrian’s new and awesome approach.
It’s kind of wacky to think that just a few years ago some of us thought that Sexson would end up being a better signing than Beltre. Well, at least I was thinking that.
FO- Keep Beltre around. I know you may not think that he hustles enough or something like that, but he’s better than the “hustlers” like Jose Vidro. Or Willie Bloomquist. Or Raul Ibenez. Or Miguel Cairo.
So is the argument there that no other good hitters in the lineup means more walks because there’s no protection for Beltre?
Yeah, I have been waiting for Fans to figure out that he is good…I’m still waiting. So, are we goignt to extend my favorite player on this team or what?
It’s kind of wacky to think that just a few years ago some of us thought that Sexson would end up being a better signing than Beltre.
I remember having a back-and-forth with a couple of guys in a bar right after the two were signed. They were absolutely pumped about Sexson but pretty dubious about Beltre — in part because they thought Dodgers stadium might be more hitter-friendly than Safeco, something I wasn’t willing to challenge without a trip to a reference source. But I was arguing for Beltre over Sexson, because of Beltre’s defense — 3B being a hole for the team only a little less perennial than left field — and also because Sexson’s freakish shoulder injury left me uncertain about his durability. Most of my knowledge of Beltre at the time was based on what I read at USSM, and I had already come to the conclusion that Beltre was the better deal. As it turns out durability wasn’t Sexson’s problem (and this year it has been Beltre’s to some extent) but it was obvious even then that the backloading of Richie’s deal was going to lead to regrets in the last couple of years of his contract, even if he kept hitting.
the backloading of Richie’s deal
This is a huge pet peeve of mine, contractualy speaking. Not only are you setting yourself up for a massively bloated payroll in 3, 4 or 5 years, but by the time you sign a free agent those 5th years at $18M are looking ugly.
I mean, if you front loaded some and back loaded others it might make since. Why not pay Player X like this- Year 1: $22M, Year 2: $18M, Year 3: $12M, ect.. This way your actually paying for the skills and production you’d be receiving. Duh.
Good call Finks, however with that knowledge I would still be hesitant to backload certain contracts because of the cost-benefit situation. As the cost-benefit for a player gets more skewed to the negative the harder it is to shed the contract (example: Sexson, Richie).
Adrian Beltre is a very good player who is a solid piece to a puzzle…just not the Mariners puzzle. He is an outstanding defensive thirdbaseman with a reasonable contract entering the prime of his career. Why trade this player? Because the M’s have too many holes and not enough quality players.
The same goes for Putz and Bedard. Why trade these guys? They are quality players that can contribute to a quality team for a reasonable salary. The M’s should trade these guys because they can bring back returns that will make this team better.
With these players the M’s are a well below average team. By trading these players and receiving a good return the M’s can get back to winning baseball games faster than by keeping them.
By trading these players and receiving a good return the M’s can get back to winning baseball games faster than by keeping them.
How?
Like Graham said, what’s your plan for replacing these players’ production?
In Beltre’s specific case, let’s not make the infield defense any worse, please.
It kinda ticked me off to hear Softy Mahler say about a half hour ago that a proposed deal to trade Adrian Beltre to the Minnesota Twins fell through because the M’s wanted a deal like the one for Joe Blanton, but the Twins don’t have any prospects that measure up to the M’s criteria.
Well, gee whiz, why don’t we trade Adrian to them with a couple of prospects of our own, for 3 PTBNL? (I really hate giving the M’s front office any ideas for dumb and dumber deals, but I had to throw that one out there)
I mean, who needs Adrian’s defense, when the pitching is so
s…tycrummy?Oh, yeah, what’s the plan for the immediate future if this deal went through? Put Miguel Cairo at 3B? Leave the bag empty, hope Yuni can increase his range a little, and let Raul field anything that gets past Yuni?