Beltran Stays (New York): Steve, while I respect your work, I disagree with your statements about Carlos Beltran on Sunday Night Baseball. The guy has done nothing but produce, and name me a CF who’s better in the game right now.
SportsNation Steve Phillips: (1:28 PM ET ) If the Mets don’t make the playoffs, I firmly believe they need to reconfigure the core of this team. While Beltran does have talent, I just don’t see him as a winning player. Even after my comments on Sunday night, Beltran let a fly ball drop in between himself and Angel Pagan in the Dodger game. I see him putting up numbers but not making plays to win games. I would take Torii Hunter, Grady Sizemore, Curtis Granderson, and Nate McLouth over Beltran, and use the financial difference to improve the team in other ways. Beltran isn’t a $17 million dollar a year player. He just doesn’t have the kind of impact for that kind of money.
SportsNation Steve Phillips: (1:30 PM ET ) Many people think that Alex Rodriguez is the best player in the game, but he’s never won anything. I look at Beltran in a similar fashion as Rodriguez—a great talent that just doesn’t seem to have what it takes to win championships. Maybe the Mets can keep him and add pieces to the core around him and still win. But when you’re dealing with a budget and the screams of immediacy in New York, I’m not sure the Mets can wait to piece it together around him. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with me, but it’s just the way I see it. Beltran is a very good person and a solid citizen, in addition to being a guy who puts up numbers. I like him, I just don’t think they can win with him.
SportsNation Steve Phillips: (1:31 PM ET ) It’ll be interesting to see by this time next week if the NL has narrowed the gap on the AL, and whether the hot teams like the Brewers and Yankees will continue to roll or whether they will come back to Earth. Talk to you next week!
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1. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: May 20, 2009 at 06:50 PM (#3186314)I might give you Grady Sizemore based on age/salary, but other than him there isnt' a CF in the same ballpark as Beltran. And Steve chooses Nate McLouth or Torii Hunter over Beltran? this is why Phillips was a horrible GM.
The Mets' problems lie in the corner OF, not CF, NTS
He is right. If only he were able to pitch, like Nate McLouth and Torii Hunter.
None of these guys have ever won a World Series. McLouth has been on last place teams his whole career.
He's not as good of a player as Beltran, and the end of that contract is going to suck. But he's still a good player today. And Hunter's 33 compared to Beltran who is 32.
I'm not sure the criticism is valid for Hunter here in this discussion.
fixed
Yeah, how are things going with Sizemore and Cleveland so far this year?
I guess Hunter is paid in unicorns and rainbows.
"So you're asking, what does it take to win championships? Well, hire me to be GM of your team, and I just might show you!"
How many people who have been a MAJOR FREAKING LEAGUE GM would equate stats /= plays to win. I can *see* morgan saying something like this, but a man who was paid to build a baseball team?
A pennant-winning GM, no less.
I suspect Hawk Harrelson did.
Steve Phillips is a GM you wish onto teams you hate.
Bobby Valentine had much more to do with winning the pennant than Steve Phillips.
And how, exactly, are you going to take him from the Pirates? Eminent domain?
Offer them Beltran?
Steve Phillips, the gift that keeps on giving.
Jacoby Ellsbury started all four games of the 2007 World Series for the Red Sox.
Every major and minor league league player is ultimately either a Yankee, Met, unwanted by either, or on loan from them. Don't you watch ESPN?
That is amazing.
You forgot about the Red Sox. C'mon, can't you even get an East Coast Media Bias whine right?
Sure, twist my arm.
Mea culpa. I'd edit my comment to make myself look good retroactively, but I'd rather my shame remain.
Beltran and Wright for Andy Laroche, Delwyn Young, and Nate McLouth. The Pirates will also trow in Adam LaRoche so the Mets can get a first baseman.
*checks*
Yep. That's really sad.
The Supreme Court's Kelo decision would allow it. Hell, it'd allow anything to be taken by eminent domain for just about any reason.
edit: Mets, not Giants.
A. Is trying to get attention by being contrarian/controversial
B. Is just trying to stick it to the Mets
Back in 2002, Phillips needed to make a decision about Mo Vaughn.
So he watched Mo Vaughn take one day of *batting practice.*
Here was an aging player whose reputation on self-maintenance was always questionable, who had been out for an entire year with a serious injury, who was signed to an albatross of a contract ...
and Steve Phillips watched Vaughn take batting practice one day and decided the old Mo Vaughn was back.
Beltran has been a fantastic player for the Mets. Beltran has hit .366/.485/.817 in four postseason series. Beltran hit .344/.440/.645 in September last year. He hit well (.882 OPS) in September in 2007. He did tank in September in 2006, but he hit for a .982 OPS that year.
Not a winning player? On what planet?
And I call BS on the fly ball that Beltran "let drop." He called Pagan off three times and Pagan kept coming. So Beltran had to pull up or risk a collision. That was Pagan's fault all the way.
Please. He was obviously taking it easy in a season when he had been bothered by his hammy (I think) and the Mets were up by 16 on 9/1 and won the division by 12 games. His September was meaningless.
"Tank" was a poor word choice on my part; I didn't mean that he intentionally played badly, just that he had played badly.
Though you _do_ seem to suggest that he took the month off :-)
I forgot that the Mets had the division wrapped up in September that year. And that makes my point even stronger: his bad September was indeed meaningless, and it didn't mean he couldn't produce under pressure, since there was no pressure to speak of. It didn't mean he wasn't a winning player, since there were no games to win.
And I didn't infer that you meant he intentionally played badly. I was taking it more that you meant he wilted under the pressure (that one time), since that seems to be Phillips's general theme.
Though you _do_ seem to suggest that he took the month off :-)
I really only meant that his performance that month did not matter much, which is part of why he still might have deserved the MVP despite that month dragging his overall numbers down.
I do not remember the episode described by Raskolnikov (but I'm not a Mets fan).
Yes, yes, but does anybody FEAR Beltran? I rest my case.
Nah. I don't believe that major league baseball players wilt under pressure. Certainly not players of the caliber of Beltran.
Players who can't handle the pressure wash out long before they become successful major leaguers.
Well there is that chain link fence in Houston.
I look at Beltran in a similar fashion as Rodriguez--a great talent that just doesn’t seem to have what it takes to win championships.
"Of course, I could've signed ARod in 2000, since he was the best player in baseball and my team's shortstop was Rey Ordonez. But why do that when, for a fraction of the price, I could sign up Kevin Appier, Steve Trachsel, and Tsuyoshi Shinjo! Then I could retain Rick Reed, John Franco, and Turk Wendell!"
BASEBALL; Beltrán Slams Into Fence And Injures His Left Knee
By BEN SHPIGEL
Published: September 3, 2006
In one heart-stopping moment Saturday night, Carlos Beltrán turned the difficult trick of quieting the Mets' dugout and the raucous crowd at Minute Maid Park. His teammates fell silent with concern. The Astros fans, who have booed his every step this series, said nothing out of respect for what they had just seen ...
"Of course, I could've signed ARod in 2000, since he was the best player in baseball and my team's shortstop was Rey Ordonez. But why do that when, for a fraction of the price, I could sign up Kevin Appier, Steve Trachsel, and Tsuyoshi Shinjo! Then I could retain Rick Reed, John Franco, and Turk Wendell!"
You missed the most brilliant part. Taking a decent 3Bman in Todd Zeile and converting him to a below average 1Bman. Steve Phillips, what a mind.
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