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http://web.sny.tv/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080709&content_id=1466934&oid=36018&vkey=31
]I love it when I meet Mets fans in social settings. People eat up the few behind-the-scenes anecdotes this position has granted me; it's fantastic for vanity. Besides, a conversation about the Mets is sure to be less awkward than any other I might be having at the party and saves me from hours of uncomfortable silence. But once I've made it clear that I root for the same team that I cover, people always ask me who my favorite player is. It's a tough question to answer while maintaining any semblance of journalistic integrity, so instead of divulging the player I'm rooting for the hardest -- whatever that means -- I tell them the player I enjoy watching the most. And I always fear the reaction of Mets fans when I give them my answer:
Carlos Beltran. Landslide.
If I haven't been kicked out of the place just for saying it, I usually have to spend the next several hours defending my stance. For whatever reason, Mets fans simply do not want to like Beltran.
In these situations, I avoid getting too deep into math. I could try to describe win shares, a stat invented by Bill James to measure the full breadth of a player's contribution to his team, including his hitting, fielding and baserunning. And I could explain how Beltran is tied for fourth in the National League in the stat in 2008 and second only to Nate McLouth among outfielders. I could even detail how Beltran finished second to only Matt Holliday among NL outfielders in win shares in 2007 and how he led all outfielders in the figure in 2006.
Or I could get into any number of fielding metrics, all of which consistently place Beltran among the best center fielders in the Majors. I could even discuss such minutiae as his stolen-base percentage, which is about as good as that of anyone who's ever stolen bases with any frequency in the bigs.
But it turns out people don't want to hear about sabermetric stats at parties. You might even say they're a crowd-killer. So instead I always find myself defending Beltran against the onslaught of arguments from Mets fans who think he's not that great.
"He's overpaid!"
That's always the first. Yes, Beltran came to the Mets before the 2005 season on a huge contract bolstered by an amazing postseason performance in 2004. Mets fans are very conscious of the way Fred Wilpon spends his money and they blame the center fielder for procuring misdirected funds.
Not a good argument. For one, Beltran didn't sign himself to the contract. Even if you think he's overpaid, there's no way that's his fault. That's on Omar Minaya, who signed the player at the zenith of his value. Besides that, look at the market: Torii Hunter is as good as Beltran in the field, but nowhere near as good at the plate. The Angels signed Hunter to a five-year, $90 million contract this offseason, making the younger, better and similarly paid Beltran look like a steal.
"He never comes through in the clutch!"
For any baseball fan with an appreciation for the numbers, the concept of "clutch" opens up a huge can of worms. Luckily, it's not something I need to pry open when discussing Beltran. You want clutch? How about his 3-for-6 performance with a home run and two ribbies when the Mets needed a win bad in Philly on Sunday. What the three-run dinger off Tim Lincecum on Tuesday that set the tone for a 9-0 victory. And what of that absurd postseason in 2004?
I suspect that Mets fans think Beltran isn't clutch because he struck out looking to end the NLCS in 2006. But what everyone seems to overlook about that at-bat is that without Beltran, the Mets wouldn't have even been close to the postseason in 2006, and they certainly wouldn't have made it to Game 7 of the NLCS. In that series alone, Beltran hit .296 with a .387 on-base percentage and a .667 slugging average. The dude has a career 1.302 OPS in the postseason. Totally clutch.
"He doesn't care!"
Of all the arguments against Beltran, this one bothers me the most. By far. First of all, to even suggest that a Major Leaguer who plays at Beltran's level doesn't care about the sport is ludicrous. All the raw talent in the world won't get you to the big leagues, and it certainly won't make you an All-Star. He cares, I promise. Probably more than you or I could understand.
The lasting image of the 2007 collapse, to me, will always be Beltran facing the press afterwards. He looked heartbroken. Maybe his quotes didn't show it and so maybe the papers didn't depict him that way, but based on the look on his face, Beltran was as affected by those losses as anyone in a Mets uniform.
I've filled most of this column with reasons Mets fans should not dislike Beltran, but I still haven't gotten to why I so enjoy watching the man play. In brief:
Beltran rarely, if ever, makes a mental error. Broadcasters talk about how he makes plays look so easy in center field with his loping gait but they never mention how he's always positioned perfectly and never has to run that far to shag a fly ball. He's aggressive on the basepaths but never gets thrown out. He'll take strike three now and then but won't often chase pitches out of the strike zone.
Simply put, Beltran is as fundamentally sound a player as there is in baseball and he never gets credit for it. In terms of baseball IQ, he's a genius. Carlos Beltran is -- and has been since 2006 -- one of the best outfielders in baseball. The sad thing is that many Mets fans might never realize it until he's gone. Luckily for those that do, Beltran is under contract through 2011, giving us plenty more time to enjoy watching him play.
Ted Berg is the senior editorial producer for SNY.tv. He can be reached at tberg@sny.tv or via the Flushing Fussing Facebook group. |
I'm lovin the article, and agree with him 99%. The dude is a lot better than fans give him respect for.
His numbers are down this year, which sucks, but so is everyone else's on the team. by the end of the year, he'll bring them back up to his normal numbers. he's too good not to.
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