Tag: Carlos Beltran

Lupica- Beltran Is New York’s Biggest Offensive Disappointment

I have to say that I really don’t understand the fans and media that don’t like Carlos Beltran. What’s there not to like about the guy? What I hear is that he’s not a $100 million player, he’s not fiery or aggressive enough, and he’s not a New York guy.

I think Beltran is an excellent player and well worth the $119 million. The Mets knew exactly what they were getting when they signed him in 2005. Believe me, they researched him well. Even this season when there’s so much talk about getting Beltran going offensively, he’s really not far off his career average numbers.

Look at his 2008 season versus his career 162 game averages:

2008: .265/ .363/ .454 117 OPS+ 15 HR 73 RBI 16 SB

Career: .279/ .355/ .493 116 OPS+ 28 HR 107 RBI 30 SB

image It’s only the beginning of August and he’s not far off his career averages. He plays an excellent center field, always plays hard, has a good arm, and by all accounts he’s a good teammate and a good person. What’s there not to like about him?

I don’t get the backlash against him from the likes of WFAN’s Joe Benigno, who’s never been known to make the most intellectual of arguments, or today’s Daily News column by Mike Lupica. Comparing Beltran to Derek Jeter, hitting 33 points below his lifetime average is ridiculous. Jeter is the second best shortstop on his own team, is having a down offensive season, and has no range in the field.

In my mind, there’s no comparison. And Beltran isn’t a disappointment for the Mets.

Flickr photo courtesy of alpineinc

Mets May Be Forced To Trade For Manny Ramirez

There are some trade rumors blowing around that the Mets and Phillies are two of the most serious teams about trading for Manny Ramirez. Of course, some other teams are in the mix like the Dodgers as well. It’s hard to get a gauge on how much stock to put in these crazy rumors before the non-waiver trading deadline tomorrow at 4:00pm EDT.

In a perfect world, I would say that the Mets shouldn’t trade for Manny. And I say that for all of the reasons that you already know. He’s eccentric (an understatement), and he’s a one dimensional player. Not to mention the fact that this season he’s been more petulant than usual in Boston.

But the Mets cannot let the Philadelphia Phillies obtain Manny in a trade. They need to do their due diligence to find out how serious the Phillies are about Manny. If the Phillies are serious, the Mets need to go to the mat to get Manny from the Red Sox. I mean that they need to trade Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese, Carlos Beltran (has a no trade clause), or whatever it takes to keep Manny away from the Phillies.

The Phillies will still have questions about their pitching, even if they do trade for Manny. A trade with the Red Sox won’t solve that problem. But the Phillies offense would be an unstoppable force. I don’t even want to think about the numbers that Manny could put up playing 81 games at Citizens Bank Park.

Trading for Manny to block the Phillies from getting him is a reality that Omar Minaya and the Mets front office will have to evaluate over the next day or so. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.

Mets Streaking Again, Lose Second In A Row

Despite a good effort by Oliver Perez the Mets lost their second straight game to the Cincinnati Reds 7-2. Perez went six innings giving up three runs, two of which were earned. The story of the night was the Mets having tons of opportunity to score against Reds starter Josh Fogg and not taking advantage of it. The Mets had ten hits and only scored two runs in the game!

In the seventh inning Mike Lincoln came in with the bases loaded and struck out David Wright and Carlos Beltran, both looking.

Pedro Feliciano came into the game in the seventh inning and got rocked for four runs in .1 innings. Ouch. It didn’t help that Aaron Heilman relieved Feliciano and gave up a bases clearing triple to Joey Votto.

The most surprising part of the game was watching Beltran kick the ball around the outfield. He’s always such a consistently good fielder. I know there are some balls that he doesn’t come in on very well. But it just seems like he never makes a mistake in the field. Last night he kicked two balls around. One he was charged with and error, only his third of the season, and the other he misplayed on the fly then kicked on the ground but wasn’t charged an error.

The Mets try to even the series in the final game before coming home for an off-day and then the Phillies at home.

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Mets Ten Game Streak Is Dead, Hope Lives On

The Mets ten game winning streak came to an end in Cincinnati last night at the hands of Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo. He threw a terrific eight innings giving up only two runs. The four hits he gave up were all the Mets could muster after Reds closer Francisco Cordero, last night’s losing pitcher, came in to shut the door in the ninth. That happens sometimes. A hot starting pitcher can be a buzz saw for a team, and Arroyo sure was- leading the Reds to a 5-2 victory.

The bigger question is John Maine. After his dazzling spring training, he hasn’t lived up to the hype during the regular season. I expected him to have a break out year but it’s been anything but that. His start last night was a microcosm of his season. He had way too many pitches, 102 through 4.2 innings. That’s no way to pitch successfully. The killer was that he walked five. The Mets bullpen didn’t help either walking four more Reds for a season-high-tying nine walks.

Carlos Beltran had a nice game going 2 for 4 with a double and a triple but he didn’t get much help from his teammates.

We knew the streak would end sometime. But I really hoped the 2008 version of the Mets would at least tie the team record 11 game streak of the 1969 version of the Mets. After such a gloomy start to this season, it would’ve been a nice feat for this team to hang their hat on. It wasn’t meant to be and that’s okay because the season has turned around so dramatically over the last month. Hope lives on.

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