Big Beltran News!
Who gets their
watch autographed?
You won't see it on SportsCenter tonight. You might not even notice this vital piece of information by glancing at the Mets-Phillies box score from Thursday afternoon's game. But you can bet that fantasy baseball owners everywhere took notice of today's BIG news. Carlos Beltran - mired in a colossal slump and currently ranked 292 on the ESPN Player Rater - went 0-3 today. He failed to drive in or score a run. So what did he do? He stole a base. Not only that, he stole two bases.
Why is that important? Read on and find out.
14 comments:
The reason those steals were so important for Beltran is that his ability to run makes him a special fantasy player. Any outfielder can go for .290-35-100 (numbers that Carlos will be lucky to achieve this year, I might add), but tack on 40 steals and suddenly you are looking at Beltran, Bobby Abreu, and, well, there really isn't anyone else. If Beltran starts running and racks up the steals, he goes from ultimate bust to one of the most valuable players again. That's why today's seemingly innocent box score could be the biggest news of the season from a fantasy perspective. Once thought to be injured and out of base stealing commission for this season, Beltran appears to be back in action.
One other box score note from today's action:
San Francisco's Noah Lowry and Oakland's Danny Haren were teammate together at my alma mater, Pepperdine. They both emerged down the stretch last year (Lowry as a surprise #2 starter for the Giants and Haren as a quality middle reliever for the Cardinals) and were touted as potential sleepers for 2005. They both got off to awful starts but have been turning it around. Lowry has thrown well in three of his last four starts and Haren has won six straight decisions to overcome a brutal 1-7 start.
Today, the former Wave teammates won on the same day for the first time ever. Lowry allowed three hits in a win over Arizona and Haren went six strong defeating the Mariners. Banner day for Pepperdine baseball (who was also tabbed as the sleeper to win the College World Series next year by ESPN's college baseball writer).
Pepperdine is going off. Acker got drafted, Gore was in contention in the US Open, and now the baseball players are pitching well. Nice.
Also, Beltran has another steal today. You must be loving life.
Wow, articulate point. The bottom line is that while Beltran has had a disappointing start to his Mets career, he doesn't suck. You only had to see the NLCS last year to know that. He's been playing hurt, has moved to a pitcher's park, and rarely has anyone on base ahead of him. Give him some time and he'll produce. He stole three bases in two games and followed that up today with a big two-run double. I've got faith in Beltan.
Do you think Beltran will relax now that he's hitting second behind Cameron? What do you think of the Mets lineup changes?
He went 0-4 today, so it didn't help much! Beltran sucks!
Isn't fantasy baseball ruining fanship? I mean, I am a complete stathead, but I still root for teams, not people and numbers. You fantasy fanatics might be totally into catching SportsCenter every night, but you are not real baseball fans. I guess it started with Curt Flood and Andy Messersmith and free agency, but nobody seems to give two craps about teams anymore, or winning. Someone ought to invent a fantasy game that includes winning--not just as a pitching stat. Fantasy baseball is destroying the great American pastime and you geeks are too. (Again, this is coming from someone who is more into stats than any of you, but I played hardball until I was 35 too. I love the game, hate fake fans.)
If Beltran hits .269 with 30 HR and he steals 40 bases--WHO THE HELL CARES! He is a collosal waste of money. He is hurting the Mets, no matter how many points you jackasses are getting as he steals bases and continues to hit .269 or so with limited power. Good defense though, and you geeks don't even have a stat to value that in your gay fantasy leagues. Even the word "fantasy" is a gay word. Go have a fantasy and pretend you know anything about baseball.
Fantasy sports are completely seperate from the actual sport. It's a way to compete and track thing and keep yourself entertained. But just because you don't like fantasy sports doesn't negate whatever value there might be in it to other people. And a lot of people make their livings writing about it, so I guess you can get off your high horse.
Note: Posts with offensive remarks have been and will be deleted by the administrator.
I am glad to see that we have a nice debate on our hands though. (And yes, I feel for Mets fans and realize that Carlos Beltran helping me win a few hundred "units" by stealing bases doesn't do much to ease the pain of spending $100 million plus on him so that he can hit .260 and crush Mike Cameron's face.)
Need some espn baseball then take a look.
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