Comments on: Beltre Appreciation Thread

By: Sentinel

Sentinel — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:40:06 +0000

That’d be great!

By: hiRes

hiRes — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:38:08 +0000

In honor of our 3B-man, maybe Mr Niehaus could change his call on the day his bobblehead comes out, “… and it’s a high fly ball, Beltred to deep center, back to the warning track, and fly fly away…”

By: Sentinel

Sentinel — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:22:14 +0000

Clement won’t need protection right away. I suspect they’ll come right after him until he shows what he can do.

Small sample size, I know, but he sure knocked the hell out of that ball today.

By: gps

gps — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:42:41 +0000

There have been several comments in this thread about “protection” of hitters in the lineup. Has there been any recent analysis of the notion of protection?

Back in the olden days of the Bill James Baseball Abstract, I recall that one topic he took on was the commonly held belief that Dale Murphy was a much better hitter when oft-injured Bob Horner (olden days, alright) was in the lineup to protect him. James looked over several years and found that, in truth, Murphy’s stats were way better when Horner was sidelined.

I have my doubts that protection is real. If it was, Beltre would have about 70 walks already. Clement won’t need protection right away. I suspect they’ll come right after him until he shows what he can do.

By: jmb13

jmb13 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:39:27 +0000

You know he won’t drop Boras, would you if you were Beltre and he was your agent? I say get the ball rolling on an extension now and attempt to avoid free agency all together…

By: RITTEM1

RITTEM1 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:48:19 +0000

I am assuming BorASS is still Beltre’s agent which means a couple of things. Beltre will test free agency and there will be a really cool 3-ring binder sent to all prospective teams documenting his ‘value’ to the club. Let’s hope Beltre drops BorASS prior to becoming a free agent.

By: SpokaneMsFan

SpokaneMsFan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:40:51 +0000

3 year extension, yes please!

By: Marcel

Marcel — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:30:32 +0000

Wow, I’ll be honest. I am extremely suprised to see that Beltre already has 16 BB’s on the season. If he can keep that rate over the whole season, it would certainly be a pleasant suprise.

By: north

north — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:38:49 +0000

Someone above wanted to up the comment numbers. So…

Beltre is great. Hold up his head!

By: marinersintheblood

marinersintheblood — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:22:53 +0000

Why DFA Norton? He’s been the best off the bench so far, and looked like a steal. Why not Cairo?