Oh, Adrian
Dave · September 24, 2009 at 6:59 pm · Filed Under Mariners
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Adrian Beltre, but that ninth inning at-bat was ridiculous.
The first ten pitches of the at-bat were all out of the strike zone. The bases were loaded. A walk scores a run.
Aggressiveness is sometimes really stupid.
Im just surprised he didn’t strike out on a breaking ball low and away
One could blame injuries, etc., for Beltre’s sub-par season, but I’m not a fan of the guy. It will be intersting to see what kind of money he gets, given the injury-plagued season, poor offensive numbers and advancing age. And obviously at this stage, Beltre isn’t about to change his lousy approach to hitting. Here’s hoping Z agrees.
Same here.
And the worst part is that it’s not like he’s throwing the kitchen sink at him. He’s throwing straight fastballs that aren’t in the same zip code as the strike zone, and Beltre is still trying to swing.
I don’t know if there is a Mariner I get more frustrated with that Beltre. It’s like he’s an honors student who doesn’t turn in his homework.
Beltre is still a good player, but I doubt he will ever be a top-tier player any longer. Defense shows up every day (unless it’s hurt, or has a partially torn testicle). But I’m not sure he’ll ever post 25 home runs again.
But he’ll probably be a 2.0 to 3.0 WAR guy for the next few years. To me, it’s always a question of what another team offers him. But 3 years at $30M would probably be good for us. But something really long might not be worth it.
If we brought in the fences, would Beltre like Safeco then?
Pitches two, three, four, seven and ten could easily have been called strikes. Eight and nine were ridiculous, though.
i think his WAR being solid is partly if you expect him to revert back to some of his more solid hitting years, but injuries or not he is in serious decline as a hitter, i wouldn’t expect him to get even much better than a .250, 12-15 HR, 50 RBI guy, who has a bad approach at the plate and struggles to stay healthy, no thanks somebody else can have him even if the defense is superb.
The 1970s called. They want their way of evaluating players back.
Could have, but this is Major League Baseball. Mariano Rivera MIGHT have gotten one or two of them. But the high strike is still usually a ball.
Nice! Here’s hoping we can get Adrian back.
Just how the heck did you come to that conclusion? His most recent two seasons have been pretty much exactly like all the other seasons of his career, excepting the one, of course. How that could lead one to conclude he’s in serious decline seems pretty silly to me.
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1, 2, 3…
HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK, HACK…
Does Beltre know that the team’s offensive approach changed when Bavasi left?
Not the best example. It’s not like he chased a pitch in the dirt, he was fouling away pitches that were close to the strike zone. There have been hundreds of these that were called strikes, and in a bases loaded situation, I don’t want to see a strikeout looking, especially when a groundball (of the non-double play variety) scores a run as well as a walk.
The other thing is, this is Adrian Beltre. He is not going to change his approach at the plate. There is a book on him. If he were on another team, would you suggest to your pitchers that they ever throw him a strike?
Someone is gonna sign that crappy offensive approach though for $8 million this offseason.
Griff ad a great AB prior to, well, AB.
I have always loved Beltre’s glove, and I have always hated his approach at the plate. The swings at awful pitches, the studdering feet, the pointing down to first, etc.
He’s a great defender and a terrible hitter.
If you’re a fan, and Beltre is your 3baseman, you just have to put up with all the strange stuff (I call them dancing feet, as in “Adrian has his dancing feet tonight”), shake your head and say “Oh, Adrian” with a smile.
Otherwise, he’ll drive you nuts.
How could anyone be honestly surprised at AB’s approach, though? He’s been doing the same thing for ~8 years now.
Watching that at bat from Beltre was probably one of the most annoying experiences in watching baseball this entire season.
On the bright side…. look at those away pitches he didn’t swing at. Especially that low and away one he is notorious for swinging at. Baby steps…
I think a platoon next year to replace Beltre would be a net benefit, assuming he’ll get a large offer from somewhere.
For much cheaper, a Hannahan/Hall platoon would be within 1 WAR of Beltre (Hannahan is a +1 to +2 WAR, at the upper end of that if he only faces righties, and Hall is… well, pretty well unpredictable, but he’d likely be a +0.5 to +1 if he was platooned, and averaging those two together, +2 +.75 / 2 = 1.4 WAR, compared to Beltre’s +2 to +3. The question then is whether it would be worth whatever Beltre would cost in order to gain that 0.6 to 1.6 WAR that he would bring over the platoon.
That assumes that Tui is being groomed for second and wouldn’t be in the picture at third next year.
Why would you groom Tui for 2B? Would that mean playing Lopez at 3B? What sense would it make to play two players out of position?
This is just part of Betre’s routine. He flails away at sliders like a drunk man chasing butterflies for several weeks and then, in a moment of clarity, decides to focus on identifying pitches away. Unfortunately, the result is instant glaucoma. One of these days he’s going to be looking for that outside slider and get hit in the face with a changeup that he never saw coming.
I don’t know, but he played both second and third in Tacoma this year, and has played three games at second for the M’s.
Yeah, he’s frustrating as hell sometimes, but I’d take him back in a heartbeat. People aren’t going to realize how spoiled we’ve been by his defense until he’s gone…
And really, when you consider the entire package, his offense would be acceptable if we didn’t know he was capable of so much more. But expecting a player to change his approach after all this time is just wishful thinking. I’ll stick with being occasionally frustrated and often amused.